Ok so I didn't play this one for the first time this year (I've been playing it since 2023, even earlier maybe) but I've put a lot of time in recently, and... I think it might be one of my favorite games of all time?
Everything about it is almost perfect, there's barely anything I would change. The movement and gunplay feels snappy, quick to respond and crunchily sound-designed. The enemies are similarly well designed, both in their sounds and in their distinct visual and functional identities. The character customization allows for a lot of self-expression both cosmecitally and mechanically, with all of the different weapon and upgrade options. It's also seamlessly designed to make cooperation fun and rewarding without feeling like you're bogged down if you get a bad teammate. It even manages to do a seasonal model well, all of it's season content is re-playable by choice and cosmetic only.
I can't wait for Rouge Core, Deep Rock's sister game, to come out (early access this year ghost ship?)
It was bandcamp friday recently, which means it's time to buy some new music!
Cardiac counterpoint was an obvious pickup, being that Constant Companions was my favorite album of last year. And while this CC doesn't hit as completely hard, It still contains bangers within. I was already familiar with BUTCHER VANITY through a fantastic Rhythm Doctor custom level, but the rest were new to me. Or so I thought, hearing "When Spring Comes" is basically a prototype BIRDBRAIN? Interesting. My other favorite tracks are "rawdog" and "Paparazzi Murder Party (ROUNDTABLE REPRISE)"
Taiga, on the other hand, I picked up because Kubbi's Ember is a particular favorite of mine. I like to put it on when I'm feeling.. individualistic. Particularly linked to minecraft (I think since I heard it on a Philza video? back before he went mega big), but since that's not happening right now I listened to Taiga while playing some Vintage Story. It's very similar to Ember vibe-wise, a little more chill which is pretty much exactly what I was looking for. Kind of sad that there are only two full Kubbi albums.
I wrote earlier in the crash 2 entry that I could probably 100% complete this game in one sitting if I wanted to. Having now done that, I realise that that was not true. This took way longer than expected, mainly due to the amount of time it takes to get all of the gold relics.
I was originally playing this on my psp. It was kind of nice having it portable, the quality was pretty good. The PSP then decided to break on me halfway through the time trial relics in the third warp room, so I spent a while unsucessfully trying to import my save before replaying the whole game up to that point. (playing in wide screen on a larger screen with a proper controller was worth it. also I used save states and speedup to quickly restart time trials, don't tell anyone)
Overall, I still think this game is my favorite of the original three games, and I'm looking forward to playing CTR next.
This game & it's sequel are kind of like comfort games to me. I usually end up completing one or two of them a year, just for fun (in fact, I could probably 100% Crash 3 in one sitting, and enjoy my time too). I wanted to 100% this game on it's original non-remake version because I wasn't sure I'd done it before, and it turns out I was right. I knew about most of the secrets in this game (the stack of nitros in Bee-Having, jumping into the pit in Un-Bearable), but I had no idea about the other secret exit in Un-Bearable that takes you into Totally Bear. So this might be the first time I've truly 100% completed this game.
Turns out some of those leves were annoyingly hard (looks at Cold Hard Crash and it shuns my gaze).
This game is... really fun. And shockingly well built, for what seems like a team of six people! The guns feel nice, the spells feel very flashy and satisfying, the upgrades are fun to use to make builds with.. Like deep rock galactic, sea of theives, and a wizard cowboy had a baby. This game rules. Can't wait for it to properly come out.
An awesome album I stumbled upon (looking at Een Glish's discography). The sounds are slick, and I also really love the visual design and individual album covers for each song (!!! more albums do this pls).
Favorite songs: Poptimisim, 4U2C, Groove or Get Out
