Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy is a very difficult game, sure, but it being labeled Dark Souls levels of tough is debatable. However, after the game was released a review from GamesRadar suggesting that “Crash Bandicoot has become Dark Souls” inspired the creation of a whole bunch of memes poking fun at the comparison, alongside some more thoughtful ruminations on why people were finding the remastered collection so damn hard.
It was eventually settled that Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy‘s high difficulty level was as a result of developers Vicarious Visions speeding up Crash’s jump arc, causing him to land a little quicker this time around. This, combined with thinner collision boxes that make Crash more prone to slipping off edges, have retroactively made the bandicoot more difficult to control this time around. These changes are summed up in the below tweet from @DingDongVG:
https://twitter.com/DingDongVG/status/881967130110943239?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.polygon.com%2F2017%2F7%2F5%2F15922340%2Fcrash-bandicoot-n-sane-trilogy-hard-difficulty-jumping
However, while Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy may not be as tough as From Software’s notoriously challenging Souls series, PlayStation is still rolling ahead with this comparison and is now pushing the game’s difficulty at the forefront of its advertising. Activision has placed the game’s previously unreleased Stormy Ascent level on the PlayStation Store for free, and the ads for the new DLC hammer home how tough the new game is.
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Vicarious Visions acknowledged how difficult the level is in an interview for the PlayStation Blog. “The team here at Vicarious Visions knew the fans really wanted Stormy Ascent, and so did we,” said Game Director Dan Tanguay. “One of the best players on the design team had beat the first game and wanted a new challenge. So, we told him to try the original Stormy Ascent. It took him 60 lives to get through it – needless to say it was much more challenging than he had expected. However, he still fell in love with it and we decided to bring it life.”
The trailer, which is basically a montage of Crash dying, asks: “Are you brave enough? Are you fast enough? Are you Crash enough to handle Stormy Ascent?”
PlayStation has even pushing the whole “Crash will meet his demise multiple times during this DLC” angle on its official channels social media channels. At this rate it won’t be long before we get the Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy: Prepare to Die Edition.
Think you can beat a level cut from Crash Bandicoot because it was too hard? Download Stormy Ascent: https://t.co/jRJdI730yh pic.twitter.com/dxwHMsPWGo
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) July 21, 2017
Ever hear of Stormy Ascent, the Crash level cut 'cuz it was too hard? It's out now in N. Sane Trilogy. Surprise! https://t.co/jRJdI730yh pic.twitter.com/6AbV5BAWiw
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) July 20, 2017
You can download Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy‘s Stormy Ascent level for PS4 for free on the PlayStation Store.
