Yet another cold hard crash rant

[Dude Guyman]

This isn't a 'cold hard crash is too hard for me' thread. It is ridiculously hard, but I've played crash quite a bit, I've 100% the game many many times. I can get the all boxes gem on cold hard crash without too much difficulty, it's not stumping me. It gives me no satisfaction to have mastered this garbage level, though. It's easily the worst level in the game and it drops my opinion of the whole game just a tiny little bit for it being in there.

The main problem is that it doesn't really jive with the design of the rest of the game. It's a 'kaizo' troll level, slipped into the middle of a pile of otherwise reasonable levels. Where the average level might have one or two gotchas just to keep things spicy, this whole level is absolutely nothing but them. Everything has been carefully engineered to screw the player. The ice physics are wonky (both PS1 and this one, for different reasons)- why not make the player run my death route which is nothing but ice physics twice, forward and back, ha ha screw you. And I'll put in a crusher that needs some speed to get past immediately before the pit that you'll need to completely stop your momentum to avoid falling into if you want to go backwards through the death route, ha ha screw you. And I'll place this nitro box at the very beginning where it's easy to hop over, but, when they're coming back the momentum from that ledge will make them fall directly into it, forcing them to redo the whole thing, ha ha screw you. And I'm going to hide a single box in the bonus round of the most difficult level in the game, just so the player can get to the end and see that they've still one mystery box short, ha ha screw you. (At least in this version the camera is zoomed out enough to spot it and bonus rounds have a total box counter so you can see that you missed one, a small mercy).

Once you've learned all of this, the level is simple enough, as it always is for any challenge that boils down to 'memorize the level'. Slow down to avoid this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ trap, then jump here instead of here to avoid this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ trap. It's kaizo mentality, where you memorize a level one trap at a time, until you've mastered that specific level. And that's fine for a kaizo game, but this isn't a kaizo game, and nothing else is like that. People who want to eat a bowl of nails for breakfast are going to be disappointed that they're mostly eating rice krispies with a single rusty shard of metal, and people who want to eat rice krispies get a nice little surprise with their morning meal.

The fact that I've mastered the level doesn't stop me from getting pissed off whenever I beat it, it's a black mark on this otherwise quality game. I suppose my tl;dr main argument is that challenge is one thing, but difficulty spikes where a single level stands out as completely unlike the entire rest of the game are a mark of a poor grasp on design and a lack of philosophy on what you're actually trying to do. It feels like the work of a junior developer who's still in the 'more harder always equals more better' beginner stages of understanding game design, like a student that learns they like spicy food so they arbitrarily dump a cup of sriracha on everything. Context matters, you're boring people who want this sort of thing because it takes so long to get to it since the rest of the game doesn't support that mentality, while frustrating people who want to avoid extreme punishment.

[Devsman]

Originally posted by Dude Guyman:

People who want to eat a bowl of nails for breakfast are going to be disappointed that they're mostly eating rice krispies with a single rusty shard of metal, and people who want to eat rice krispies get a nice little surprise with their morning meal.

I don't remember this level from when I played these games through on PS1, but I am totally stealing this analogy.

[QWEEDDY2]

Agreed. Although for secret route i think worst level is one of jungle with side-canera secret/bonus stage (death route). With too many turtles and hunters (with firearm weapons). Too often. Any version of CB2.

At other point of view. This is idead of Death route stages. They are hardcore. All in CB2 and 3. (while CB1 hader in general).

What im agreed for is there is - maybe - stages in the game or games of CB (or any game) that even if whole game idea is hardcore ridicolously hard and nkt fun-worth for passing those stages. Not always hard equal to fun (and satisfaction).
Still CB2-3 been a bit harder than next generation platformers (Spyro-like) are easier than CB1 and easier after older platformers (well, first Super Broths for example) and much more fun.
In general CB games DO make fun and additional fun+satisfaction for beating it to 101+%.

I beat it as a kid to 100%. And again in remake. I get it easier after all this years. For me its not so FRUU level but only for me.

It was very hard stage for me only cause i try to KEEP ULTRA mask! As i remember you can get Ultra 3 times on this level if enter if with already ready to mask. Two masks on that secret Nitro-crates path.
Im not able to take all Wumpa's. Better keep it to the end to enter next level with two masks.

[QWEEDDY2]

This masks trick can be opposite easier for you. Original or remake. All 3 games in Trilogy bundle. Try keep Ultra/-ready mask. Or at least if you lost it at the finale level stage go back to about 2nd levels of first Warp room. Usually 3 masks there one help you pass level faster (since you just fome for them and speedrun it anyway).

Go to most harder levelf for you with 2-Mask and keep it to next one. On harder levels there is always masks there.
When you get first and get Ultra you can try get next ome mask on level almost after Ultra end (better wait, mb depend on game version). There is such levels in all 3 games when you pass them on constant Ultra.

Check Crash Bandicoot Fandom Wiki level articles for masks count. info. You gan optionally keep masks after last one on level and retake later if you still lose it. But keep them for first half of each level to get Ultra's.

It is also speedrun trick. Some levels are much faster with two Ultra mask stages and firsts level to collect it (so 2 levels) than try speedrun it without masks at just one level. But that depend on level.

[Cirno]

LMAO
I see this awful deathroute has claimed another one, me also hate it, a lot, as a kid and now still.
Tbh, I hate the entire 4th warp room, every level in there feels annoying to me ever since childhood, only 1 level was fine, which I forgot the name.

I had forgotten about that deathroute, when I replayed the game now, I knew I hated the ice level as a kid, but couldn't remember why, that deathroute jump started my memory and my hatred XD
It's pretty awful for playing first time or without a memory of it, because of the tricky moments indeed, specially at the end, thou you can just die and redo the deathroute, but u won't have any masks, since best way to do it is have 2 masks then use the 3rd one in there to just pass through everything, making your run back quite easy.