Dev confirms the Crash Bandicoot remaster is harder than the original

Crash Bandicoot developer Vicarious Visions has confirmed the remaster is harder than the original after fans spent the past three weeks trying to work out why it feels different to play.

A few days after the game came out, Twitch streamer DingDongVG created a video providing a visual demonstration of an apparent problem with the jumping in Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy. The footage suggested Crash's jumping arc was sped up, which means he lands slightly quicker than in the original.

Writing in a blog post Kevin Kelly, editorial manager of Activision, said jumping in the Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy is not the same as in the original, particularly in the first game of the series. It turns out even though the developer used Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped as a starting point, it ended up individually tuning each game's jumping mechanisms.

"There are a few subtle differences in Crash Bandicoot," Kelly said. "Chief among these being the fact that you fall more quickly upon release of the X button than you did in the original first game."

The jumping wasn't the only thing that felt off in the Crash Bandicoot remaster. Eurogamer previously reported how fans theorised Crash and Coco's collision box in the new trilogy is different than the original's, which makes players slip off surfaces. You can see this effect in DingDongVG's video.

Kelly confirmed Vicarious Visions used a different playable character collision system in the remaster, but the developer did not go into detail as to how it differs from the original. The upshot however is Vicarious Visions has acknowledged "certain jumps require more precision than the originals".

The developer has now recommended new players start with the second or third game in the trilogy and then come back to the first, as the first Crash Bandicoot is the most difficult. And for those who played the originals, Kelly admitted adapting to the new handling may be more of a challenge.

"An increased precision is now required in the first game, which makes the gameplay experience different," he said. "Particularly if you are a new player, you may want to start with the second and third games first, and then come back to try Crash Bandicoot after you've had more practice. For those of you who played the originals and acquired a fair amount of muscle memory, re-learning the handling in our game may present an additional challenge you weren't expecting. But we're sure you up to the task."

Some fans had hoped Vicarious Visions would patch the Crash Bandicoot remaster to more accurately reflect the handling of the originals. But Activision's post fails to mention any update is on the way.

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