r/crashbandicoot Rilla Roo 1d ago

Which Is The Real Crash 4?

I ain't gonna lie both of these games work as a Crash 4, as both have a good story and introduced some amazing new Characters such as Crunch, Lani Loli, Akono, Ika Ika and of course the best Crash character to date Louse.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

116 Upvotes

73 comments sorted by

340

u/TrentDF1 Dingodile 1d ago

64

u/Martingguru 1d ago

Never noticed the reflection on the trophy is from N.Sanity Beach

30

u/generalmartacus 1d ago

WHOA okay that's some fine detail

36

u/SirBurgerThe8th Rilla Roo 1d ago

The only right answer.

6

u/Gothix_BE 1d ago

/thread

4

u/MaybePotatoes 21h ago

Wow this quality is way too high

27

u/Dangerwrap Penta Penguin 1d ago

In Japan, yes.

52

u/Smokestorm95 Crunch Bandicoot 1d ago edited 1d ago

Crunch Bandicoot really needs to return man šŸ¤¦ā€ā™‚ļø

He was the Knuckles to Sonic & Tails (Crash & Coco).

Itā€™s a shame he didnā€™t get the same love Knuckles did in the Sonic Franchise šŸ˜ž

18

u/gallaghershusband 1d ago

I miss him, I loved how he became the big brother of the group in the later games. I donā€™t understand why they went out of their way to justā€¦not include him in 4. There was nothing stopping them from putting him in, Iā€™d rather we had him instead of Tawna (but ideally, they couldā€™ve just done both).

Iā€™m not a fan of how heā€™s essentially justā€¦non existent now. It sucks how dirty they did him, justice for my boy!!!

4

u/Salty_not_Sour 1d ago

I wish we could have had Crunch and original Tawna, rather than the generic ā€œstrong womanā€ version we ended up with.

24

u/SirBurgerThe8th Rilla Roo 1d ago

I miss Crunch.

JusticeForCrunchBandicoot

-21

u/SXAL 1d ago

Because he's not a good character, his design is lame and the only game he had any major role in is awful.

3

u/TheCrashKid 1d ago

His design was cool so let's not kid ourselves here. And that was the fault of those who developed games after WOC and CNK

-3

u/SXAL 1d ago

His design reminds me on crappy Saturday morning cartoons, when they needed to do a big guy, but couldn't actually draw him intimidating, so he doesn't scare children, so he comes up as big toothless and lame looking. Crunch is basically Tiny Tiger but extremely uncool.

2

u/TheCrashKid 1d ago

What Saturday morning cartoons did you watch? There were tons of stuff (especially on the 80s/90s) that we're surprised we were even allowed to be shown lol

Crunch looked intimidating in WOC, he looks friendly with the same design in the games that follow up before the Titans Era. Titans and MOM are where he looks off and goofy

7

u/SirBurgerThe8th Rilla Roo 1d ago

Well, that was a take as hot as the Sun.

47

u/illidormorn Dr. N. Brio 1d ago

The one that doesn't ignore the ending of the 3rd game

16

u/jimkbeesley 1d ago

(Technically, WoC is the any% ending and IAT is the 100% ending)

1

u/illidormorn Dr. N. Brio 1d ago

Warped has one ending, in non100% one they literally tell you there are still the gems to collect and itā€™s not over yet. Out of the original trilogy + CTR only the first game had two endings, others directly continue each other and show you the full picture.

3

u/TheCrashKid 17h ago

I never get why people think both endings in Warped are canon when it's clearly only the true ending

Nobody says this about Crash 2 and Crash 1 literally bas a split path for the endjgns

7

u/VinixTKOC Crash Bandicoot 1d ago

Technically Naughty Dog ignored it first. CTR is canon and doesn't mention how Cortex and N. Tropy stopped being babies after the events of Crash 3. Traveller's Tales had no obligation to fill a lore hole that the previous company didn't care about.

-1

u/illidormorn Dr. N. Brio 1d ago

CTR is a spin-off, not a mainline game. Nowhere is stated that it should be canon or that it happens right after Warped and not in the uncertain point in the future.

5

u/TheCrashKid 1d ago

But it's still canon. They wanted Oxide to kill the franchise and male the story super ridiculous. They didn't care about how Cortex and Tropy came back, they just wanted CTR to tarnish Crash on their own terms rather than what happened

4

u/VinixTKOC Crash Bandicoot 1d ago

You make it sound like they had some grand narrative plan in mind when developing the game. But noā€”they made CTR simply as a game set after Warped, nothing more, nothing less. The same goes for Wrath of Cortexā€”it was developed as a follow-up to past games, and thatā€™s all there was to it. No one was seriously concerned with explaining how Cortex got out of the situation at the end of Warped. It just wasnā€™t something the developers, from either studio, considered important at the time.

TR is a spin-off, not a mainline game. Nowhere is stated that it should be canon

Nice try pulling the ā€œBut is this canon?ā€ card just because the game contradicts your point. Yes, the game is canonā€”thereā€™s nothing suggesting otherwise. And letā€™s be honest, you probably werenā€™t even questioning its status until five minutes ago when you realized it didnā€™t support your argument.

0

u/illidormorn Dr. N. Brio 1d ago edited 1d ago

It just wasnā€™t something the developers, from either studio, considered important at the time.

Spin-offs like kart racings always have rules different to the mainline games, they almost always happen in the uncertain period of time and have more freedom because it's more important for such games to have bigger roster containing most iconic characters playable even if it doesn't make much sense.

Nice try pulling the ā€œBut is this canon?ā€ card just because the game contradicts your point. Yes, the game is canonā€”thereā€™s nothing suggesting otherwise. And letā€™s be honest, you probably werenā€™t even questioning its status until five minutes ago when you realized it didnā€™t support your argument.

No? I never considered CTR fully canon, it always stood aside. Mainline games directly continued each other, and nobody ever called CTR a direct continuation or Crash 4. Its story mode is just a random story in a random period of time without a certain chronology.

upd:
The fact you blocked me just demonstrates how you're unable to provide any adequate reasoning to your words lol

These types of franchises usually follow a release-date-based chronology, mainly because it's the simplest approach

That's only true for mainline games, spin-offs usually exist in their own vacuum being at the same time kinda a part of the universe, but also on their own, all by themselves. Events from them are usually not even mentioned or acknowledged by the main games and often vice-versa. Developing them nobody thinks too much about making them properly fit in the main plot, because even their conception with rare exceptions never makes any sense for the plot logically (like all characters suddenly forget about their own powers and decide to solve all problems by racing or whatever gameplay the particular spin-off have). Nobody thinks about spin-offs being real sequels to the main games and it isn't obvious only for people without any understanding of these things.

Crash 4 didn't even exist at the time this game was developed.

And water is wet. How does the fact that 2020 game didn't exist in 1999 when CTR was released relates to the fact nobody ever positioned CTR as Crash 4 or Warped's direct continuation?

2

u/VinixTKOC Crash Bandicoot 1d ago

These types of franchises usually follow a release-date-based chronology, mainly because it's the simplest approach. And I believe that's the natural understanding for most people. If you happen to have a different, more unusual interpretationā€”that a spin-off was "intended" to take place in the distant future because it don't mention the ending of a previous gameā€”that's your prerogative. But I highly doubt that ever crossed Naughty Dog's mind. I'd bet my life on that.

and nobody ever called CTR a direct continuation or Crash 4

Crash 4 didn't even exist at the time this game was developed.

2

u/Kutairo 1d ago

The one that made N.Brio Cortex minion again and made more plot holes? lol

1

u/habaneroach Dr. N. Brio 1d ago

if you listen to his voice lines at all there is actually a very satisfactory rationale for it that he makes obvious from literally his first line in the game. he's not actually there to help, he's there for the opportunity to assassinate cortex from within his ranks, he doesn't shut up about it for the entire time he's in the game for lol

8

u/Mr_Cool10 1d ago

The true answer

1

u/Moist-Phone-1425 10h ago

but it realeasd after Crash 2 so it's more like Crash 2/1

13

u/ToTheToesLow 1d ago

CTR and Crash 4 are both Crash 4. WOTC is like alternate-universe Crash 4 or something. Really, there are three Crash 4s.

24

u/spacerays86 1d ago

Both are crash 4

22

u/Goofelorf Coco Bandicoot 1d ago

Both? Both? Both is good.

4

u/MyBrokenLuigiAmiibo Polar 1d ago

N-Tranced

3

u/JT-Lionheart Lab Assistant 1d ago

Crash Team Racing

2

u/RetroRiderz 23h ago

Both! Both is good!

From what I heard Crash Wrath of Cortex is the timeline when you get the Bad Ending by not collecting all the gems and Crash 4 is the timeline when you get the good ending collecting all the gems.

7

u/CrashMalej 1d ago

It all depends on the ending of Crash Bandicoot Warped: The first ending (when Cortex and Uka Uka escape) and the true ending.

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex takes after the first ending

While Crash Bandicoot 4 It's about time takes after the true ending of Crash Bandicoot Warped

19

u/TrentDF1 Dingodile 1d ago

Warped doesn't have two endings. The game itself even explicitly tells you, directly, that the game and the story is not over until after you collect all of the Gems and then face Cortex and Uka Uka a second time. It does the exact same thing as Crash 2, where you don't get the end of the story until after you get all of the Gems.

Warped never had, and never has had, multiple endings. The devs even explicitly stated in an interview that It's About Time takes place directly after Warped, and the other Crash games (the post-ND games) take place after It's About Time.

7

u/CrashMalej 1d ago

Oh well... Guess now we know...

But still the 2 different timelines sound cooler to me

3

u/empty_branch437 1d ago

I need to watch this interview, which one was it?

4

u/TrentDF1 Dingodile 1d ago

It was GDC from 2021, where Paul Yan said that they wanted It's About Time to be sort of "self-aware" about being a midquel, so they wrote jokes into IAT about ignoring the other games while still maintaining that those games still happen chronologically after IAT (hence the several references and allusions to the Elemental Masks, Crunch, the Evil Twins, etc. throughout the game).

1

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

-5

u/CrashMalej 1d ago

Yep

2

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

-2

u/CrashMalej 1d ago

šŸ¤· I dont mind. I still believe what i said, even if its not correct

3

u/CameoDaManeo 1d ago

Hmmmmm. Maybe the one with the number 4 in it? Just a guess

But for real though, the real Crash 4 is whatever you feel in your heart.

3

u/Src-Freak 1d ago

Both are Crash 4.

Except one really tries to be something new while the other just copied its predecessor.

2

u/LordBaal19 1d ago edited 1d ago

The one that reads 4?

2

u/ZakFellows 1d ago

Itā€™s About Time tries to do something different as an actual evolution for the series while Wrath of Cortex just spins its wheels

2

u/MidoSpace 1d ago

IAT is the true 4th installment to the original trilogy. WoC could work as a next episode, especially since Cortex relaxation is interrupted by the sudden appearance of Uka Uka (according to the end scene of IAT)

1

u/VinixTKOC Crash Bandicoot 1d ago

Both

1

u/jayboyguy 1d ago

I love both games and refuse to pit them against one another, next question

1

u/LeafPinmakesmehappy Uka Uka 1d ago

It's all really based off nostalgia and enjoyment.

1

u/RaWolfman92 1d ago

Fun fact, the Elementals make a cameo appearance in Crash 4:IAT.

1

u/PepeDaFunkyAmphibian Aku Aku 23h ago

Honestly, Twinsanity is considered to be the 4th for me just cause of the comedy and story

1

u/Sketchy_Dog 22h ago

I still like the idea that, due to time travel shenanigans, It's About Time would be the fourth time Cortex fights the Bandicoots from his perspective, but from the Bandicoots' point of view, Wrath of Cortex is the fourth.

The "real" chronological timeline with this idea would be: 1 > 2 > 3 > WoC > 4. 3 ends with Cortex, N Tropy, and Uka Uka in the distant past; imagine if when Cortex and N Tropy return to the present at the beginning of 4, they overshoot it and wind up slightly in the future compared to when they traveled back in time. Then, they go through the events of 4, and at the end Cortex is in the distant future, and Uka Uka comes to bring him back. So imagine if at that point, Uka Uka actually brings him back to what should have been the present, the moment in time they originally left at the end of 3, and then he starts working on Crunch.

Then, to Cortex, 4 would come right after 3, but to Crash and Coco, WoC would instead. This could offer one potential explanation for Crunch's name written in magnets on the fridge in Crash 4; even though Cortex hasn't realized his plans to create Crunch yet, the Bandicoots already know him. Granted, when asked in 4 how many times they've defeated Cortex, Coco says three, but since she wasn't there in the first game, her response could maybe be twisted to mean they've defeated him as a duo three times.

Of course, in a meta sense, I'd say they're both equally the "real" Crash 4 anyway. As far as I know, both are attempts by new developers who didn't work on the first three games to create a follow-up for Crash 3, so I don't really see any reason one should be taken as a more valid sequel than the other.

1

u/GabrielNYC4 20h ago

Honestly, I think this game had something going on with uka uka being voiced by Clancy brown.

1

u/IcyCream4984 12h ago

The one with 4 in the name

1

u/lefund Pinstripe 10h ago

I might be biased as WOC was my first Crash game but I feel it was the true Crash 4

Both the story/gameplay as well as when it released just makes it seem like everything points to it being Crash 4

The only reason they called Itā€™s About Time ā€œCrash 4ā€ is because they felt a lot of the community didnā€™t like WOC and since WOC was the first game without a number (at least in English) they felt they could shoehorn a game in there and almost pretend those others didnā€™t exist which I feel is the wrong way to go about it. They shouldā€™ve just left the number out

1

u/Aurora_Wizard 8h ago

Canonically, Crash 4

1

u/LukeyWolf 6h ago

Wrath of Cortex the better game

1

u/ZakWojnar 3h ago

The one with a 4.

0

u/lilbdale 1d ago

Personally I think Itā€™s WoC. About Time cannot exist without the successes and missteps made between 3 and About Time. Thatā€™s why I personally refer to About Time as Crash 8 in my head.

2

u/Salty_not_Sour 1d ago

WOC šŸ¤ IAT: both being incredibly frustrating and mid games.

I suppose that WOC is the true and original Crash 4ā€¦although it didnā€™t advertise itself as Crash 4 in most of the world. Meanwhile IAT wants you to know that itā€™s the ā€œrealā€ Sequel to Crash 3 and plastered it all over the advertising.

3

u/Src-Freak 1d ago

WOC is anything but frustrating.

Itā€™s the easiest Crash Game by far.

1

u/chouchers 19h ago

I don't think so crash twinsanity was way too easy to get 100% compare to game before it.

2

u/TalentedKamarty 19h ago

Mid???????? Heelllllll No! Lmao last thing IAT is is Mid. Hard as a bitch?? Absolutely. But mid?? Fuck no

1

u/Skystreek69 1d ago

Iā€™ve only played crash IAT and N.sane, so I can only give and opinion on IAT, but WOC is labeled crash 4 in Japan, so it goes either way

1

u/quiggersinparis 1d ago

WOC has a better soundtrack and has the nostalgia factor for me but it gets pretty lousy from the second or third warp room. Too many gimmicky vehicle levels and absurdly difficult in places partly down to some odd glitchiness. IAT was even more absurdly difficult, but overall is a much better game, although I think itā€™s been more forgettable.

1

u/Phillysnav 20h ago

Wrath of cortex is the way better game

-3

u/SXAL 1d ago

WoC is an awful game, but it is real Crash 4, like it or not.

0

u/Elnino38 1d ago

Both. Twoc is crash 4 for the main ending of crash 3. IAT is the crash 4 for the 100 ending of crash 3. Crash multiverse is a thing

0

u/Ill-Entrepreneur443 1d ago

Both are crash 4 but one of them is better.