Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time just launched last week for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One to critical and commercial success. The game currently sits at an impressive 85 on Metacritic, which is the third-highest in the series (just shy of Crash 2 and Warped) and even outclassing 2017's N. Sane Trilogy.
It's fair to state that Toys for Bob has outdone itself with this release, delivering the best sequel that the series has seen since its PlayStation 1 days. With that said, fans are patiently waiting to see where Activision will take the purple dragon next, in his inevitable sequel. There is certainly a lot that the next Spyro title could take note of and learn from It's About Time.
Avoiding Past Series Mistakes
Both Crash and Spyro have had their fair share of past mistakes. After their PS1 games, both franchises went third-party and received some not-so-great follow-ups. Both Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex and Spryo: Enter the Dragonfly ultimately failed in delivering experiences that met the series' high standards, with one of the key reasons behind their lower quality being the fact that they were developed by new studios that didn't understand what made their past games so great in the first place. The follow-up titles to both franchises shared the problem of not evolving past the original games, by retreading the same gameplay, unoriginal story, and overall feeling like unpolished experiences.
As both franchises continued onward, it slowly became more and more apparent that the new developers didn't have the clearest directions for where the series should go. The Legend of Spyro reboots took the purple dragon in a very different direction (in terms of both story and gameplay) and Skylanders tried something even more drastically different, by turning the entire focus away from Spyro himself and going the toys-to-life direction. Crash had a similarly strange timeline of sequels, with games like Crash, Boom, Bang! getting critically panned.
Sticking to Its Roots
Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time learns from the series' past mistakes by sticking true to what made the original games so appealing and fun in the first place: the gameplay. It is an incredibly challenging, yet fair game that tests the player's platforming skills while still being fair. The original Crash Bandicoot was tough-as-nails and incorporated level design that constantly threw curve balls at the player. Crash 4 is a great follow-up to the originals because it feels like an evolution of the original.
If the next Spyro wants to be successful, it will need to stick closely to what Spyro is supposed to be: a 3D platformer with a decent amount of freedom, level design that tests the player's skills, and lots of collectibles that help to balance the game. The series needs to stick to the original world of dragons and away from the Skylanders and The Legend of Spyro reboot worlds if it wants to appease fans, and most importantly, needs to give players more of the same quality of platforming that the Reignited Trilogy brought to the table.
Taking Risks
At the same time, the next Spyro game needs to take a few risks in order to set itself apart. Perhaps the most important thing that Crash Bandicoot 4 does well is its ability to take its own risks, and trying new things. Everything in Crash 4 feels familiar, to old characters returning, to a very familiar story about time-travel, to the gameplay itself.
For everything that feels similar to the originals, Crash 4 offers something new and different as well. The game introduces brand-new gameplay mechanics with the introduction of the new quantum masks, as well as new playable characters that help change things up along the way. The game even goes for a slightly different art style that gives it a unique vibe, without going too far.
One of the many faults of Spyro's later titles was the game's lack of original ideas. Many longtime fans will knock the Spyro reboot titles for straying too far from the series' roots, but at least The Legend of Spyro titles tried some new things. The Spyro series was arguably at its worst with Enter the Dragonfly (which currently holds an abysmal score of 48 on Metacritic) as it tried very little to set itself apart from the PlayStation 1 games.
The title follows the same formula of the previous titles, features a returning villain, delivers a smaller experience, and introduces very little new ideas. If Activision wants the franchise to succeed, the next Spyro game needs to take a page out of Crash 4's book and give the series a fresh new coat of paint by introducing new platforming abilities, new playable characters, and a unique experience.
A Larger Scale
Crash 4 is noticeably larger than any of the series' other entries, with the game roughly taking around 10 hours or more to fully complete. This is near twice the length of the first three titles, which are about 5-6 hour long experiences each. If the next Spyro game wants to truly impress, it too should offer a meatier experience to its fans.
Gaming has evolved over the past two decades, and because of that, games are held to a higher standard than they once were when these two franchises first began. Crash 4 released at a $60 price tag, and because of that, it's expected to have $60 worth of content. If players can assume that Spyro 4 will also release at a $60 price tag, it too should offer more content than any other Spyro game before it.
All-in-all, if the next Spyro game wants to succeed, it will need to learn from Crash 4's willingness to try new things, while still hanging on to the excellent gameplay and charm that the original games were known for. But if It's About Time, the N. Sane Trilogy, and the Reignited Trilogy are anything to judge by, Spyro's future is looking brighter than it has been in a very long time.
Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time is available now for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.