It's not your imagination - the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is harder than the original games

The Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy lies somewhere between remaster and remake, which is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, you have all-new models and sound to make the game feel fresh and presentable to a contemporary audience. On the other, using old level data with new collision detection and physics systems can sometimes be like trying to force a square peg through a round hole.

Ever since the game's release, fans have been lamenting on social media that the game feels harder than they remember. Some of this can be chalked up to rose-tinted nostalgia, but some of it really is due to the way the game was made. Here's a tweet illustrating how a slight change to Crash's leap can cause players to mess up their jumps:

Another common complaint is that it can sometimes feel like Crash will land just at the edge of a platform, only to slide off into a pit and die. Reddit user TastyCarcass explained that this is likely due to a change in how modern games render collision boxes. Before, a box was likely flat - now, they're oval or "pill" shaped. You can see in the video below how Crash will slide off the edge of a platform if he's just barely landed on it, which supports Tasty's theory:

So yeah. Don't feel bad if you're struggling with the N. Sane Trilogy. While none of these changes make the game impossible, it certainly makes some of the more difficult platforming sections that much harder. Lookin' at you, Road to Nowhere.