#playing crash bandicoot 4

[nbstevonnie]

final bingo card of the year... much less filled in than last years, but I rather expected that given the two sets of exams I had to take this year. frankly, I'm surprised it's as filled as it is.

for zany: yakuza kiwami

my first tiny cheat in filling this card out is previously i've only marked something off when i consider it "done". in yakuza's case, i am literally *this* close to 100% that i would really quite like to do it, but it also requires a LOT of grinding (and i hate grinding). but. i'm not sure i consider it "done", as i normally might. i have finished the story though, so this cheat isn't too dire.

i really enjoyed this game - it was good to see where the characters ended up after i saw them in yakuza 0, although my understanding is that a lot of stuff is only in kiwami (i.e., was not in the original game and was only put in after yakuza 0, so they would "marry up"). my one comment would be that, in many ways, it felt like a slightly less full yakuza 0 - there was more to do in yakuza 0, and i liked being able to play both kiryu and majima. i also liked that money was easier to come by in 0, even if only for getting to 100% completion 😔 this is all not exactly yakuza kiwami's fault, and i think i "got" the combat system more in kiwami than 0 (in 0, i understood that i was supposed to feel superpowered by the end -- and i saw people showing off how well you could game the system -- but it never seemed that way to me; in kiwami, i 1000% could knock back small enemies like the flies they were in seconds by the end). nevertheless, kiwami does by its nature beg for comparison to 0. i'm curious to see how kiwami 2 stacks up next.

overall, 8/10. good game, looking forward to kiwami 2.

for 2020s: crash bandicoot 4

i generally avoid letting my opinions on a video game be coloured by other people's opinions, so i went into this game with an open mind and i think i came out with some affection for it, albeit by re-assessing how i would normally play the game. to wit, i am generally a completionist, but that stops the minute completing something becomes more chore than challenge, and this game would undoubtedly have it as a chore.

as a casual to slightly challenge-seeking game, the game is enjoyable. it has its flaws (i complained about the long levels in 2 and 3 -- this game spits on the 2 and 3 level lengths) but i did enjoy some of its challenges. i think i would -- in contrast to how i normally play games -- dip in and out to tidy up and get closer to 100% completion, but i won't go nuts with it.

my one slight disappointment is i LOVE the video tape levels, but you can only get them all by not dying to increasingly further points on increasingly harder levels. i think i've scooped up all the tapes reasonably doable, and will have to think about the rest as and when i return to the game. incidentally, i think one of the things i like about the tape levels is because they remind me more of the things that i liked about the original crash games than the rest of the game: tight platforming, challenging but ultimately not requiring perfection from you for long, and instantly replayable.

overall, 7/10 i think -- under the proviso of playing essentially casually. if it were a completionist thing (as i had done for the other games), it would dip much lower.

for uplifting: stardew valley

my other slight cheat game - i haven't "completed" it, but i've put 150 hours in over the last year (hey, maybe that's why i haven't completed bingo this year, not the exams -- two huge time sink games!), so i think maybe i can be forgiven.

i really love this game - it's very calming for me to play when i have nothing else to do, and i've also got a farm with my friend, so we can play together. i don't have much more to say bc i think everyone knows why this game is great and i really look forward to getting those last few things i need to complete everything :)

for black: the cat lady

yet ANOTHER slightly cheat game -- albeit in a different way. i have generally made a point of not including games i've played before, and i haven't played this game before -- but i had watched a let's play. it was many years ago now and i no longer watch the let's player for reasons, and i wanted to show this game some love, since i used to really enjoy the let's player's playthrough. so again, i hope my slight cheat can be forgiven! especially since i had been hoping that this might fill in my bittersweet box to get me bingo, but i ended up with the "golden" ending, so while the game itself may have been overall, i didn't quite feel i could tick off bittersweet, since the ending was so positive.

the game really makes a great atmosphere with its visuals and it really nails the horror -- chapter 2 (i think it is) is particularly good for this -- i genuinely felt creeped out. it's also interesting how the horror parts are often the parts that are the most colourful in the game. the game really does make you think a lot with very little.

8/10

[edgepunk]

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time (dev. Toys For Bob)

[random-meme-bot]

My hand slipped...

Originals under the cut

[cuminpumpkin]

The silly

[king-magppi]

N.Tropy... is actually fun to draw???

I haven't drawn him in so long I needed to have fun playing with shapes again! I settled on the theme of "Grandfather Clock"... Will post him once I draw some more bits to post!

[spoopy-arcade]

Sorry I'm not posting alot anyway I've been busy playing crash bandicoot 4 non stop these days and I've lost my sanity

[hazelplaysgames]

state of the Hazel: not doing too great. general summertime sadness combined with a recently passed cat of mine is not great for the mind. i'm gonna miss that big dope.

i'm getting a good sense for how i'm also feeling gameways, though it ain't much good news. getting back into Persona is feeling rough because i feel like i "have to" play it more than i "want to" play it, generally never great. i still really want to have played it and post the clips here, but given the whole moderation issues of this site, it feels like there's added pressure to do it before it's too late, whether or not "too late" is something i actually need to worry about.

as for more immediate issues, sticking to just Splatoon for so long is getting me into burnout phases. i can understand why, in the past few years, i've usually finished at least one or two pokemon monotype runs by August, maybe visit another game for a good while, but i've done neither this year.

i think playing a new game is probably the best way to get out of this funk right now, though. precisely, i think something i never posted here could work best, to help enjoy the posting process a little bit more too.

i did a whole shopping list in the tags sitting on this, but that'll do for this one. give myself a little time with something new, should be be fine.

[skeletalheartattack]

Who was your favourite mario character as a kid, and who is it now?

honestly? that's a pretty tough question for me to answer, because i played a lot of mario games growing up, and i don't know if younger me would've been able to choose a favourite. in terms of established characters, i think a safe option would likely be bowser; he was always my pick in Mario Kart 64, Melee, and Brawl. though in terms of the entire series as a whole, i liked the luigis mansion ghost designs a lot.

a favourite nowadays? i'm not quite sure. if i had to pick an established character, it'd probably be wario or waluigi. in terms of the entire series, i like the Mario Sunshine boos design a lot... but that's narrowing it down too small because i like a whole lot of designs from the franchise, so it's really hard to pinpoint.

[classicsonic]

ouugh. csp has such crunchy brushes i love it

[cowcat-with-a-hat]

Ok so my aqua teen hyperfixation iz over (sorry if u followed me 4 that reason) but now im hyper fixating on crash bandicoot (idk i have been a fan of the gamez 4 a couple of yearz now) so herez a art dump i would like 2 make sum friendz/mutualz in the fanbase tbh <3 btw my favorite character iz dingodile

[nbstevonnie]

if my reward for finishing the game / getting enough platinum relics isn't full control of the masks, then what is the fucking point

[c0smiccom3t]

A discovery: (a forgotten character is possibly coming back in It's About Time??)

posted by: CrateTalker280 on October 2nd, 2020 Okay, So... Does anybody remember Ryonna Lemurs? You know, the Bounty Huntress who worked for Cortex and who appeared in Crash Tag Team Racing, Crash of The Titans and Mind Over Mutant?

Like i mentioned, she worked for Cortex as his race partner in Tag Team Racing, but she also worked for him as his assistant in Crash of the titans and mind over mutant respectively, (even though their personality in TTR and both COTT and MOM was completely different.)

Well, what i've discovered in playing the game on my ps4 is that... I recently found out something in it's cutscenes. You know, when you finish N. Sanity Peak, there's a cutscene playing right? well, the Cortex part of the cutscene was playing, but i noticed something different. Which shows it right in these screenshots i took.

It wasn't like the sneak peak we saw once (which of course, wasn't final game footage), Now instead of just having Cortex, N. Gin, N. Brio and N. Tropy in the same cutscene, we got another character's silhouette in it. I suppose it had, yellow eyes or Something like that?? and their size looked familiar, especially the tail part... So this raises the question: Is Ryonna actually coming back after her long absence from the franchise? Or is it a new character? Because the last time i saw her in mind over mutant... Her design was different, especially the eye color. What i showed before was her tag team racing design. Now look at their COTT/MOM design

Keep in mind, she hasn't showed up in a game since Mind Over Mutant and was completely absent in Nitro-fueled despite the Tag Team racing characters (Von Clutch and Pasadena O'Possum) appearing as playable characters... So, maybe these screenshots mean she's coming back? I don't wanna say i hope so, but i do remember liking her when i was playing COTT on my Wii back when it first came out, so i think there's a possbility she's returning... But in the meantime, I'll just continue to play the game and see how this goes. No, i'm not posting spoilers. Please be respectful.

[meat-kat-ultra]

I have a theory that 2/3 of Crash 4 problems could be fixed if you just shrunk every level down by roughly 20%.

[shinigami-striker]

Crash Team Beta Alert | Monday, 04.17.2023

The closed beta for the upcoming Crash Team Rumble game starts around 10:00 A.M. PDT this upcoming Thursday (available between Thursday, 4/20/2023 ~ Monday, 4/24/2023). Did you pre-order the game in the meantime by any chance?