If you want a quick guide to playing and beating Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, it’s simple: play them backwards. See, fans of the marsupial platformer will remember that the first three Crash games got easier as they went on, with Crash Bandicoot: Warped, the third entry in the series, trading a lot of the raw challenge for more fun, set-piece-oriented levels such as Orient Express, where you ride a tiger across what is clearly an imitation of the Great Wall of China avoiding dragons and workers along the way.
But, if you want the real challenge – the real meat of the Crash Bandicoot series not for the feint of heart of clumsy-fingered – you’ll have to go all the way back to the first one. The original Crash Bandicoot is the mac-daddy of difficult platforming, a true answer to any 3D platformer other studios had to offer around that time, and no levels exemplifies this best quite like the pair of “Road to Nowhere,” and “High Road.”
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The levels are really two parts of the same whole, with a much-needed intermission right in the middle. Setting the stage, both levels take place on a rickety suspension bridge. Crash is tasked with moving directly forward (not left-to-right on the screen), and the bridge is missing several planks of wood, while half the planks of wood that are there will break if he stands on them for more than a split second. To make matters worse, it’s a foggy, foggy day, so Crash can only see a few jumps ahead of him.
It’s an incredibly difficult level because you have to land on a series of small, fragile platforms without the benefit that side-scrolling typically provides (you can’t see, on a horizontal plane, where you’re going to land. High Road and The Road to Nowhere are truly two of the hallmarks of Crash Bandicoot, and their restoration in Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is gorgeous. The environmental effects are better, the animal enemies you encounter are more lifelike (turtles that you can bounce on now express shock and agony on their face – all in good fun, of course).
That being said, those same seasoned fans of Crash Bandicoot will also remember a clearly unintended glitch that makes both of these levels a total breeze. These bridges you attempt to cross also have ropes on either side. Back in the day, you could simply jump on one of those ropes and walk along side all the danger, only needed to stop at the various islands. The best part is, the only boxes in the level are contained on the islands, so you won’t miss anything required for 100% completion this way.
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While we all assumed this exploit would be excised in Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Triology, you know what they say about assuming:
So there you have it. Rather than make all those pesky, precise jumps, just hop on the rope and go on about your business. Of course, you’ll have to turn in your hardcore gamer card and be publicly shamed, but it’s up to you.
