Crash Bandicoot Co-Creator Confirms the Biggest Problem with the N. Sane Trilogy

Crash Bandicoot's original lead programmer has opened up old wounds, recently criticizing Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy's gameplay more than eight years after the remastered game compilation's release. While Andrew Gavin had some positive things to say about the developers behind Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy at Vicarious Visions, he noted that they "completely botched" the game's jumping mechanics.

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy was originally released exclusively for PlayStation 4 in the summer of 2017 and was ported to Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC simultaneously a year later. Providing remasters of the first three games in the franchise, which were developed by Naughty Dog and released between 1996 and 1998, the trilogy enjoyed a generally favorable response from the public and professional critics, with its updated visuals being a central aspect of its success.

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Gavin, in a recent post on LinkedIn, said he was also happy with the graphics in Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, saying the visuals "[l]ooked great" and were "faithful to the original." However, he had much harsher words about the gameplay, particularly the way that jumping was handled. As opposed to the games he programmed for the original PlayStation, which offered variable jump heights based on player input, Vicarious Visions' remastered trilogy set every jump Crash made to maximum height whenever the button was pressed, which Gavin described as making them look inappropriately "huge and floaty."

Crash Bandicoot Original Programmer Takes Shots at the Remake Trilogy

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There are some technical aspects that Gavin says fell into play that likely affected the PlayStation 4 platformer. Controllers on the original PlayStation only had binary analog input capabilities, so he devised a system that would continuously measure the amount of time players held down the jump button over a tiny window of 30 to 60 milliseconds, weighing the length of button presses against other factors like gravity. While it may seem commonplace by today's standards, he seems proud of his innovation, which made the early Crash Bandicoot games stand out among other platforms of the time. Gavin assumes the team at Vicarious Visions either thought this system was unimportant or didn't realize it existed, which resulted in all jumps being set to maximum height.

Gavin's comments aren't particularly timely, given that the release of the trilogy was several years ago and Vicarious Visions hasn't touched the franchise since. Still, they come at a curious time, as the popularity of 90s-era platformers is experiencing a bit of a renaissance. Donkey Kong Country Returns HD was released in January to generally favorable critical reviews, and many fans are still holding out hope for the release of a new Banjo-Kazooie game amid rumors that one was in the works but has been canceled. Similarly, a planned Crash Bandicoot 5 under early development with Toys for Bob was reportedly canceled about a year ago, if it entered into production at all.