Crash Bandicoot 4 footage reveals new challenging test chambers and retro and modern game modes

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Plus new info on parallel narratives, new levels, and quality of life changes

(Image credit: Activision)

A new look at Crash Bandicoot’s long-awaited fourth entry shows the delightfully devious challenges that players can expect to face in It’s About Time. During the Future Games Show, producer Lou Studdert revealed that Crash Bandicoot 4 will feature a new collectible called Flashback Tapes. Designed as a throwback to the death routes in the original trilogy, collecting said tapes causes the player to instantly travel back in time to Crash’s training days, tasking him with solving a deviously difficult test chamber.

Described by Studdert as ‘pure precision puzzly mayhem’, these flashbacks have a cool narrative twist - they see Crash training under Cortex. In It’s About Time, players learn that Crash was once the favourite to become a general in Cortex’s army, and so in a bizarre turn of fate, these test chambers see Cortex cheering you on. Just when we thought 2020 couldn’t get any weirder.

As well as these optional challenges, Studdert reveals that developer Toys For Bob has made a few quality of life changes to the classic platforming we all know and love. This time around, players will have the option between playing in either ‘modern’ or ‘retro’ modes. The former let’s you respawn at checkpoints every time you die, doing away with the life system entirely, where the latter sticks to the classic system of 100 wumpa fruits giving you a life, and well, keeps players facing the game over screen. 

Studdert also confirms that Crash now automatically collects those tasty-looking fruit regardless of which mode you choose - saving the aggravating experience of having to jump into every individual wumpa fruit.

For those who missed the initial reveal, Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, boasts four playable characters. These are Crash, Coco, the brilliantly named Dingodile and finally, Neo Cortex. Today’s video revealed how these four characters’ stories will converge, with Studdert announcing that in what’s known as Timeline levels, you’ll get to see how the villains’ levels affect the capers of Crash and Coco.

Crash Bandicoot 4: it's about time launches on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on October 2. For our impressions of the game so far, check out Gamesradar’s Crash Bandicoot 4 preview.

Tom Regan
Tom Regan
Freelance Writer

Tom is a freelance journalist and former PR with over five years worth of experience across copy-writing, on-camera presenting, and journalism.

Named one of the UK games industry’s rising stars by Gamesindustry.biz, Tom has been published by world-leading outlets such as: Fandom, The Guardian, NME, Ars Technica, GamesRadar, Engadget, IGN, Techradar, Red Bull, and EDGE.