Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time (NSP, XCI) ROM + v1.2 Update + 2 DLCs

Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time is a 2020 platform game developed by Toys for Bob and published by Activision. It was originally released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with releases for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows following in 2021. The eighth main installment in the Crash Bandicoot series, the game’s story follows Crash Bandicoot and his sister Coco as they recover the all-powerful Quantum Masks in a bid to prevent Doctor Neo Cortex and Doctor Nefarious Tropy from taking over the multiverse. They are indirectly aided by their former enemy Dingodile and an adventuring alternate-dimension counterpart of Crash’s old girlfriend Tawna.

GAMEPLAY

Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time is a platform game in which the player primarily controls either the titular character Crash or his sister Coco, who is tasked with saving the multiverse from domination by Doctors Neo Cortex and Nefarious Tropy. The game’s levels take place and progress along a linear map that is divided into ten “Dimensions”, each with its theme. From this map, the player can switch between controlling Crash or Coco at any time. The game can be played in two different styles, which can be selected before the start of a new game and can be switched at any time in the options menu. The default play style is “Modern”, in which the player will always return to the latest checkpoint when the player character dies. In the other play style, “Retro”, the player is given a limited number of lives (represented by a floating head of the character currently in play), of which more can be collected within the levels. If the player’s last life is lost, the level will be restarted from the beginning.

Neither the game’s difficulty nor reward progress is affected by the differing play styles. The gameplay takes place from a third-person perspective, with some sections involving the player character running toward the camera or moving in a side-scrolling fashion. Crash and Coco’s basic maneuvers include jumping and double jumping, a spinning attack, crawling, sliding, and slamming onto the ground. They can also grind on, hang off, and hop across rails, as well as run along designated walls. Scattered throughout the levels are a wide variety of crates serving different functions. Crates generally contain Wumpa Fruit, which grants an extra life if 100 are collected in the Retro play style. Other crates contain an Aku Aku mask, which shields the player character from contact with a single enemy or hazard. Collecting three consecutive Aku Aku masks will grant the player character temporary invincibility from all dangers except falling down bottomless pits. While invincible, the player character can automatically kill enemies and break crates within a certain radius.

Within each level is a “Bonus” area that is accessed via a platform bearing a yellow question mark. Each Bonus area consists of a short side-scrolling puzzle sequence in which the player must break all the crates within the area. Dying in a Bonus area will not deplete a life in the Retro play style, and results in the player character respawning next to the Bonus platform within the level. A feature new to the series is the Quantum Masks, four magical masks that are scattered throughout the game and grant Crash and Coco special powers to traverse obstacles during particular segments. Unlike Aku Aku, the Quantum Masks are not found in crates, but rather materialize in areas where their powers can be used, and transform into a suit worn by Crash and Coco. Lani-Loli can phase objects in and out of tangibility; Akano grants the player character a violent “dark matter spin” that enables them to glide across the air and deflect projectiles; Kupuna-Wa can slow the flow of time; and Ika-Ika can reverse gravity. Aside from Crash and Coco, three other characters are controlled during certain levels: Cortex, Dingodile, and a version of Crash’s former love interest Tawna from another dimension.

Each character features their own unique move sets: Cortex uses a raygun that can transform enemies into solid or bouncy platforms, along with being able to perform a forward dash. Dingodile uses a vacuum gun that can suck up and fire enemies and objects, as well as draw in faraway collectibles. Tawna, while maintaining some moves used by Crash and Coco, can jump off walls and use a grappling hook to hit objects from long distances. Each level includes a total of twelve Gems, which can be obtained by fulfilling objectives such as collecting a certain amount of Wumpa Fruit, breaking all the level’s crates, completing the level without dying more than three times, and finding the Gem in a hidden area. Earning a certain amount of Gems in a level unlocks a cosmetic skin for either Crash or Coco, for each, a total of 30 skins can be unlocked. Collecting all of a level’s Gems without losing a life earns the player an N. Sanely Perfect Relic, an achievement that is required for the game’s full completion. Hidden in the game are four colored Gems that unlock special Bonus areas.

Aside from the main levels, every other Dimension includes a dedicated boss level. Completing any given level will unlock a “Time Trial”, in which the player must complete the level as quickly as possible. Time Trials are activated by collecting a stopwatch icon at the beginning of the level. While a Time Trial is active, all checkpoints are removed, thus requiring the player to start the level over if the player character dies. The Time Trials feature “ghost” recordings by the developers that allow for real-time feedback on whether the player’s run qualifies for a Sapphire, Gold, or Platinum Relic. Clearing the “Trouble Brewing” boss level unlocks an “N.Verted” mode for each level, in which the level’s path is inverted, a different visual effect depending on the level’s Dimension is applied, and the Wumpa Fruit is rebranded as “Bumpa Berries”. Six of a level’s twelve Gems are only accessible in the N.Verted mode.

Some levels contain “Flashback Tapes”, which must be collected without dying; if the player character dies before collecting a Flashback Tape, it will disappear unless the player restarts the level from the beginning. Collecting a Flashback Tape unlocks a “Flashback Level”, a side-scrolling level that takes place before and during the first game. The game features both local cooperative and competitive hotseat multiplayer modes. In Bandicoot Battle, players compete against other players in time trials. It has two distinct modes: Checkpoint Race, in which the player must reach a checkpoint and complete a level as fast as they can, and Crate Combo, which tasks players to smash as many crates as possible while being timed. The cooperative multiplayer mode is called “Pass N. Play”, in which players take turns to complete the game’s campaign. All multiplayer modes can accommodate up to four players.

PLOT

Following their defeat at the hands of Crash, Uka Uka attempts to liberate himself and Doctors Neo Cortex and Nefarious Tropy from their prison in the past. His latest effort rips open a hole in the fabric of space and time and causes him to pass out. Cortex and N. Tropy swiftly escape, abandoning Uka Uka. They discover that the rift links their universe to the rest of the multiverse, and decide to make use of it to conquer all dimensions. To ensure success, the pair create the Rift Generator, a generator capable of opening other space-time rifts, and recruit aid from Doctors N. Gin and Nitrus Brio to provide an army in anticipation of their enemies’ interference.

Aku Aku, Uka Uka’s twin brother, senses a great power emanating from N. Sanity Island’s central peak and urges Crash to investigate. nCrash’s exploration leads him to Lani-Loli, whom Aku Aku recognizes as one of the Quantum Masks – four ancient witch doctor masks that have great power over space and time, and who would only appear if something has opened up the multiverse. At Lani-Loli’s urging, Crash and his sister Coco follow him through a rift as he explains that they need to find the other three Quantum Masks across the multiverse to seal the rifts. During their adventure, Crash and Coco meet an alternate version of Tawna, Crash’s old girlfriend. Although they are thrilled to see each other, Tawna declines to explain what happened to Crash and Coco in her dimension and insists on working alone.

At the same time, Crash and Coco’s old enemy Dingodile, who recently retired from villainy to run a diner, is sucked into a rift after exacting revenge on a group of rivaling moonshiner bats after they detonate his business, and he traverses through dimensions in his search for home. Crash and Coco find the Quantum Masks Akano and Kupuna-Wa and defeat N. Gin and N. Brio. When they defeat Cortex, N. Tropy betrays him and reveals that he and his new partner (later revealed to be a female version of himself from Tawna’s dimension) plan to use the Rift Generator’s power to reset the timeline in all dimensions so that they may rule over all existence as gods. An incensed Cortex agrees to team up with the Bandicoots, and the three rescue the last Quantum Mask Ika-Ika.

The trio meets up with Dingodile and Tawna on a space station, but Tawna captures Crash and Coco and leaves them bound as she goes to face the Trophies at the Rift Generator herself. After Dingodile and Cortex free Crash and Coco, they happen upon Tawna struggling against the female Tropy, who tauntingly reveals that she killed Crash and Coco herself in Tawna’s dimension. After the Tropies are defeated, the Quantum Masks destroy the Rift Generator, sealing all the space-time disruptions. However, following a celebratory trip to a futuristic city, Cortex betrays the group and kidnaps Kupuna-Wa. He uses her powers to travel back in time to 1996 – the year of his original bid for world domination – in an attempt to avert Crash’s creation. Ultimately, he is unsuccessful in convincing his past self to abandon the experiment and kill the present Crash, Coco, and Aku Aku, who followed him from the future.

As the Quantum Masks banish him to a remote corner of the universe, the past Cortex proceeds with the experiment, preparing to brainwash the past Crash with the Cortex Vortex; the present Crash accidentally destroys the Vortex’s power source, causing it to malfunction and reject his past self, thereby ensuring his creation. Dingodile rebuilds and reopens his diner, Cortex relaxes on a beach and enjoys the peace, and Crash, Coco, Tawna, Aku Aku, and the Quantum Masks play video games at their home on N. Sanity Island. Following an epilogue narrated by Crash detailing the fates and whereabouts of the game’s characters, Cortex’s relaxation is interrupted by the sudden appearance of Uka Uka.