Whilst Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back will be the favourite for most fans, there's a special place in my heart for Crash Bandicoot Warped due to it being the first game I was excited about before the game's release. It was my first taste of waiting for a sequel/new game to come out; playing demos, reading about news in game magazines and actually feeling excitement at the thought of going to school the next day if only to share opinions in the playground on certain snippets from trailers (this still brings me pleasure 20 or so years later). The game is a worthy sequel to Crash 2 and the original soundtrack is equal (if not greater in quality) to the second game too.
However, even though the level design in the N. Sane Trilogy is great, the soundtrack is probably the weakest of all three but that's not to say it's a bad soundtrack so let's look at the positives first. Classic tunes that you hear more often than others have been recreated faithfully whilst sounding a lot clearer due to the use of modern instruments, e.g. the Time Twister hub music and Toad Village. These are some of the first tracks you hear and, similar to the previous two games, the earlier tracks are the closest to the originals, presumably because Vicarious Visions wanted to make it easier for fans to be thrown back into the series they grew up with.
There are also some great improvements to tracks that had plain or easily forgettable music, such as the music from Under Pressure and Bone Yard (as well as bonus/gem routes). Added percussion and better audio quality brings the tracks to life and even if they aren't your favourite tunes, they're enjoyable to listen to as you play the levels. Finally, there are a few tunes that have been improved, usually with subtle tweaks as opposed to big changes. The Oriental Express music sounds more fitting for the level whilst still retaining the sound effects used to make the original so catchy and the N. Tropy boss theme tightens up the use of synth, glockenspiel and other mechanical sound effects to create a more dynamic tune to fight to.
These are the strongest aspects and the negative ones will likely fall into the category of "personal opinion" so let's look at a couple of areas that could be argued for both sides. A handful of tunes have been tarted up a bit so they sound less cartoonish and more realistic (Hang 'Em High and Tiny's boss theme), which might be great if you're new to the series and want a more polished soundtrack but for fans of the original, the music might sound a little out of place when combined with the visuals and memories from childhood. Fortunately, the rerecordings for these tracks are still great, although sadly the Tiny theme borrows the synth from Crash 2's battle so it still sounds off.
Death/secret routes for certain levels (Tomb Time, Hang 'Em High) also sound less exciting due the use of synth in the wrong places, although new listeners will probably enjoy those tracks. However, there are some tracks that sound undeniably tacky and low quality compared to the originals. Dingodile's boss theme may have the classic organ riff but some of the clavinet sections sound like they were recreated on a MIDI mixer. I wish I could say Dingodile was the only boss to have a theme ruined by clavinet instead of heavy guitars but sadly N Gin's battle music contains an overdose of synth and poor choices with the dynamics in the mix.
BUT both of these tracks are incredible compared to the worst track across all three games: Rings Of Power. This fun little tune from the original is one of the most catchy and it sounds terrible in the N. Sane Trilogy due to the terrible choice of instruments. Way too much synth, not enough of the organ/guitar combo. A shame as the level's only as good as the music in this case. As I said earlier, the soundtrack isn't bad but when you take into account that Warped is the only game with bad recreations of classic tracks compared to previous games only having weaker versions, that makes it the least impressive in my books.
If I had to rate both soundtracks (and I don't but I like to anyway), I'd give the original Warped music a 7/10 and the N. Sane Trilogy a 6/10. It could've been a lot better if they didn't fuck about with synth again and got the dynamics right for each track but as it stands, it's still good. Anyway, that's all for Crash Bandicoot posts on this blog for a bit. I might try and focus on more conventional Rock/Metal for the next few weeks just to restore balance after this video game heavy month (aside from the occasional Guitar Hero/Rock Band post that deals with real songs) but if you have any recommendations of albums to listen to or things to write about, let me know.
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