REVIEWED ON PS4 by JumpButtonCM. Supplied by Activision Publishing.

After a long hiatus, ranging from six to eight years depending on who you ask – maybe even longer if you’re asking one of “those” kinds of fans – it finally happened this year at E3. Sony trotted Shawn Layden out on stage to an orchestral arrangement of the Crash Bandicoot theme song, the shadow of Crash Bandicoot himself following beneath his feet, screens in the ground and on the wall displaying fabulous new high quality renderings of the Wumpa Islands. The music ceased as the crowd became slightly more raucous, and Layden laughed, transitioning into “Yeah… that’s right. No T-Shirt tonight…” Then, as a giant screen featuring the Crash Bandicoot logo lowered from high above him, the crowd broke into a downright cheer, a vocal celebration and above all, a loud expression of nothing but sheer joy.



The announcement that most people would have loved to hear, that Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, and Crash Bandicoot: WARPED were being “remastered from the ground up” – Layden’s words – came and went within the span of a half minute.



E3, while featuring the big Crash return announcement, treated by Sony as a big deal, fell a bit flat in the minds of some, due to the secondary announcement right after. The announcement of Crash’s guest star role in Skylanders® Imaginators for his 20th Anniversary was one that was quite polarizing. Initially people saw Crash running around in the Skylands either as just a neat little side gimmick, or in some cases, a horrible abomination that deserved nothing but backlash and hatred.



Hateful words were spat in the direction of Activision and Sony, people writing it off as “another” failure, and after around two months of people either:



(A) Having at least an interest in Skylanders because of Crash

or

(B) Downright thinking that it was the work of some kind of devil on Earth



…we were granted a look that fully illuminated the far more extensive guest role that Crash and his universe actually have in Imaginators.



We were introduced to the Thumpin’ Wumpa Islands, a Skylanders-infused version of Crash’s home archipelago, and the fact that Dr. Neo Cortex was to be included as a playable figure as well. The news, and the gameplay videos, turned a lot of the “eff Skylanders forever” edge masters on their heels and showed them that a family-friendly Action RPG Platformer might just be a pretty cool place to have Crash guest star - especially if he’s bringing Cortex and his entire island home along for the ride.



Some of those people were turned, anyways…others haven’t been. A second couple of months later, here we are at the release of Skylanders Imaginators: Crash Edition for the PS3 and PS4, and Activision has been ever so generous as to supply yours truly with a review copy and the entire line of Sensei figures.



This allowed me to play it not only on time, but to play it with an open mind – I have no investment in this game other than “do I think it does Crash justice?” – and as such, I think I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you exactly what I think, good OR bad.



Thumpin’ Wumpa Islands is good. It’s really good. I would actually go so far as to say it’s great, and in many places fantastic. So now I’m going to be looking into Thumpin Wumpa Islands itself, and the things that make it both fresh, and remeniscent of Crash both classic and ‘modern’. Everything from the music, the scenery, the references, and the Crash figure itself, Crash’s moveset, upgrades, and gameplay.



THE FIGURE & CRASH’s MODEL

Crash’s appearance in Skylanders Imaginators is based almost entirely on the original concept art by Charles Zembillas. The same art that the original game’s model was based on, except finally realized in full detail. It’s well known that PS1 Crash had to make concessions on detail for Crash himself, but that’s not true now on PS4. Some alterations have been made for readability – Crash’s head is sized up a bit in some animations, which helps keep track of him as you move about – but for the most part, he’s spot on.



Many people complain that he doesn’t look like the PS1 models, but I thoroughly disagree, and side by side comparisons of similar animations show the familiar proportions and posture that Crash famously had back then. One thing to note is that Crash looks a lot better in motion than in still frames and that has a lot to do with the animation. Crash’s animation is top notch, and very fluid and cartoony; it utilizes a lot of squash and stretch and “off model” frames to achieve what it does. This can lead to still frames of Crash with a seemingly giant head, or odd proportions, but once you see him in motion in game, in HD at that, you realize it’s not a problem.



It leads to a few awkward screenshots, but the in-game experience is very detailed and the animation is cinematic quality.



Crash’s materials are more realistic than ever despite maintaining the cartoony aesthetic. His burnt orange fur has a slight hair detail, and his mohawk in particular is very textured and flowy. But you’ll notice, it’s not rendered to look like realistic fur and hair, it’s got a ‘carved’ or ‘sculpted’ look. Indeed, parts of Crash are clearly modeled and rendered to appear “plastic” – Skylanders is a universe of toys brought to life after all – but the design itself and the model shine through that and show a Crash that could be more than right at home in an actual Crash game if the plastic look was passed up for the aforementioned fur and hair.



It seemingly flies over many people’s heads that the plastic sculpt look is intentional, but even so, I find that it looks charming and fun from start to finish, and the levels have a texture style that makes them look like a cross of realism and plastic painted toys. Consider the individual Skylands, and in this case, Wumpa Islands, as playsets for the action figures that are the Skylanders.



As far as the actual figure goes for Crash himself, it’s fairly close to the in game model, the only real variations being certain proportions, and some color variations. In terms of quality, the figure is solid, about four inches tall and much bigger than the Skylanders figures I had been used to seeing. It’s sturdy, it’s nice looking, and the base reflecting Crash’s type and class – Life Brawler, by the way – is shaped in an oblong manner that allows you to place him pretty much anywhere, either on the portal or in displays around the home.



The colors for Crash’s figure are a bit brighter than the in game model’s colors, especially the orange parts of his fur, which gives us a good opportunity to discuss the paint job. Quality wise, the paint is done fairly well, although there are some minor nitpicks here and there. The eyes on our figure bleed into the eyebrows in teeny tiny spots, unnoticeable from a distance but apparent up close. Crash’s belt and belt buckle are just painted in blue, like his pants themselves, although the cuffs of his pant legs are painted differently. The shoes are painted more specifically, but the gloves miss out on the silver knuckle studs the in game model has – they’re there physically, just not painted silver.



Really though, the paint job is the only thing you can really nitpick about and as it may be apparent, they really are just nitpicks. From afar, the figure looks amazing and upclose you can only find small specs of misplaced paint, something that’s difficult for any manufacturer to accomplish either with or without human painting. I would have liked the belt to not be lumped in with the pants, but if that’s my only problem with it, I think that speaks volumes to the quality of toys Activision have put out.



CRASH’s GAMEPLAY

The first thing that you need to know about Crash, and one that is communicated both via the symbols on the toy, and the screen that appears when you first place Crash on the portal, is that Crash is a Life Brawler. Every Skylander, and by extension, Crash, has both an element and a battle class. Crash’s element is Life, and his battle class is Brawler. Element helps characters unlock gates and areas, but also changes various things about how their moveset will work, and how their moves will be themed. Their battle class determines a bit of the moveset but mostly what variety of weaponry they use – Crash being a brawler uses his fists, his body, and occasionally crates and bazookas; we’ll get to that in a bit.



The first big difference between Crash and all the other Skylanders is that Crash has a life system. Whereas every other Skylander only has one health bar and then becomes unusable for the duration of the level. That’s yet another thing we’ll cover further into this section, but for now focus on the life system.



When Crash dies, he has a variety of colorful and funny animations that are based on the original games, one of which being his classic Angel animation. After the death animation, Crash pops back into existence, and becomes surrounded by Aku Aku, who protects him from any more damage for a short time. Aku Aku disappears and Crash becomes vulnerable again, and this is where the life system can start to show its cracks.



You see, Crash doesn’t recover much health at all when he revives, and that can make the life system feel almost pointless. When Crash is at low levels, most enemies do a ton of damage at once; In levels like Thumpin’ Wumpa Islands where the difficulty is tuned a bit higher than most and there are swarms of enemies at once, you may find that the amount of HP Crash revives with is simply inadequate. Crash can die, revive, have Aku protect him for a few seconds, and then immediately lose another life because of the fact his revive brings back such a paltry amount of health.



The point of this is obviously to balance the game so that you can’t just run through everything with Crash, and that’s fine, but the problem is this doesn’t actually seem to improve as you level Crash up, it actually gets worse. As you progress through both Wumpa Islands and the main Imaginators story mode, using Crash will level him up the same as any Skylander, increasing his stats and important to this point, his health. As Crash’s maximum health rises, the amount he respawns with is kept at the same proportion – so as the enemies get stronger as you progress and thus they do more damage, it manages to make it feel like the lives system doesn’t level up with Crash at all.



There is an upgrade in Crash’s upgrade tree (again, getting to that) that allows for more lives, but it’s a cheap upgrade, can be bought fairly early, and due to the way acquiring lives works, doesn’t really do much for you. To follow on that, lives can ONLY be gathered by breaking life crates, which can ONLY be summoned by Crash’s crate throwing move. And on top of that, they can ONLY show up if you’ve done enough fighting. It’s not random (or so the game says, at least) but rather dependent on how much combat you’ve endured. So you can’t farm them, even if you sit still and mash the crate button like there’s no tomorrow. Not to mention that when they do appear, they’re on a timer so if you don’t notice in time, they disappear like the TNT do. They are nice enough to have the life crates grant you a life no matter how they’re broken though, so that’s a good point.



All that in mind, the life system is a nice gimmick to make Crash feel more like a guest star and less like a Skylander, but the problem is it’s really just a glorified series of potions – or in Skylanders’ case, food items – it just heals you a bit when you come close to death. Crash doesn’t feel like he has an advantage over other Skylanders because of it, and in fact he has a fairly low maximum health, even with the five possible extra lives’ boosts included in that number.



Now that we have that covered, I can get to some of the things that have come up in the middle of that description, such as Crash’s actual move set. Crash’s moves are varied and all taken from the original few games. He can spin, slide, body slam, and jump, but these moves all have clever expansions to them that make them feel both like classic Crash moves and yet also like fully fleshed out action RPG combos.



One of the best moves Crash has is his TNT Throw move, which allows him to throw a TNT ahead of him and let it time down and explode. This is where Crash’s moveset shines though, because it’s not just that simple. There are a ton of nuances and extra maneuvers to the TNT Throw. Crash can throw a second TNT and have it bounce off the top of the first one he already laid down to get it to fly further. This allows Crash to get ranged attacks in if he’s in a situation where being close to the enemies is a bad idea. Crash can also spin into TNT to pick them up and spin them into enemies, with a great range, and he can also jump on top of them to set them off immediately. Crash can’t hurt himself with his own TNT, but the TNT laying throughout the level CAN. The game does a good job differentiating them by giving them both a separate and unique model. A fun element to this is that Crash can also harm enemies by blowing up the TNT laying in the level by hitting them with his own TNT or jumping on them to set off the timer. “Natural” TNT do far more damage so strategically using them is rewarded well. TNT also blow up other crates, as would be expected, so chain reactions can be managed in some spots, allowing for enemies to be quickly dispatched.



All of those moves are upgradable, as well, using Crash’s upgrade tree. Collecting various coins, gems, watches, and other valuables – which, by the way, are mostly replaced with Wumpa Fruit in Thumpin’ Wumpa Islands – allows you to gather money that can be spent on upgrades in the tree. The upgrade trees are simpler than something you would see in a more advanced dungeon crawler but there is some choice involved. Crash can unlock a couple extra moves to start – the crate throwing and the body slam come in the same upgrade, and there’s a cool slide-kick that is behind an upgrade – but the meat of his upgrades come in the choices you can make. To start, there are two paths on the upgrade tree, and you can only pick one path, unless you reset the figure to default settings. Crash’s two paths break down into a Spin Upgrade path and a Crates Upgrade path. The Spin upgrade path makes your spin stronger, faster, and increases its radius (thanks to Crash’s yo-yo). There is one spin upgrade you can get before that path though, which turns your spin from a short spin into what is equivilent to the Death Tornado Spin from Crash 3. Mashing the spin attack button will have you continuously spin for as long as you can press the button or until an enemy breaks your combo, but Crash slows to a crawl the longer you use it.



The other path, focusing on crates, allows Crash to throw out a circle of crates instead of one at a time (although you can still do one at a time if you’d like) and increases the power and radius of TNT explosions. It also has an upgrade to allow you to jump onto TNT to create a shockwave of damage.



Crash has two final abilities, one being his Soul Gem ability, unlocked only if you can find his soul gem in Thumpin’ Wumpa Islands, which is arguably his best ability – the use of his jetpack and bazooka to do quick, easy, and massive damage to anyone within range, something particularly useful against the bosses in the game. He also has his Sky-Chi ability, which is unlocked by finding a shrine in the very first level of Imaginators. Sky-Chi abilities are moves that only Sensei characters can do, and are unlocked by finding shrines of the same Battle Class. Crash is a sensei and as such can unlock the Brawler’s shrine.



Crash’s Sky-Chi is a special version of his yo-yo which allows him to pull enemies towards him and into a spin attack. Smaller enemies will be completely enveloped in the spin and pulled in quickly, while other, larger enemies will take some effort to pull in. It’s a good crowd control move and definitely feels powerful enough to be locked behind an energy bar, which of course, it is.



THUMPIN’ WUMPA ISLANDS ITSELF

The real meat of the homage is the level itself. Thumpin’ Wumpa Islands is so far the highlight of Imaginators, being the best paced level I’ve played, and the most balanced between combat, puzzle and platforming gameplay. This is not a slight to Imaginators itself, however, as I’m quite fond of Imaginators’ core gameplay – it’s just going to show how phenomenally done the Crash content in Imaginators actually is.



One of the first things you notice is that the voice cast is the same voice cast we were hearing when the series went into its long hiatus; That’s something that helps smooth the large gap over, as it almost feels like they never left thanks to the familiar voices. Lex Lang does a fantastic job as usual as Dr. Neo Cortex, Jess Harnell has seemingly found a balanced version of his Crash voice, and Greg Eagles does a serviceable job of toning down his sassier take of Aku Aku.



Crash’s voice is something that has become a far more divisive thing lately, but Vicarious Visions does a good job of having Jess emote for Crash without being too far into the gibberish territory. There are a few over-drawn lines but for the most part, it’s nothing out of the ordinary for say, CTR or CNK. Crash grunts and laughs, and hums, but he doesn’t go into any really long stretches or “dialogue” with anyone. He really shines in cutscenes but can at times get a bit grating in gameplay. That has more to do with the frequency of lines than the quality though.



Thumpin’ Wumpa Islands does far more to be a loving homage than just use the same voices, however; Thumpin’ starts the exact same way as Crash Bandicoot 1 does, with Crash (and company) standing on a beach, looking down the tunnel of trees and foliage leading deep into the Wumpa Islands. The resemblance is striking, down to the dilapidated boat and tiki statues. This is a compliment you can pay to any given shot or vista within this stage; it looks, feels, and sounds like Crash’s original island home. The colors, the atmosphere, and the environment itself are all heavily inspired by art from the original three games, and it shines in a way that the rest of Imaginators can’t quite touch. Imaginators is a very pretty game, but Thumpin’ Wumpa Islands is probably the best “put together” level in the game. And again, this isn’t a slight against the rest of the game, the rest of the game looks phenomenal as well. It’s just that the Crash content manages to nail down a certain “feel” that the rest of the game doesn’t necessarily contain.



One thing that helps Thumpin’ maintain its atmosphere for the duration is that during the entire stage you can see far off parts of the island in the distance. This is something that was used to great effect by Naughty Dog and Radical Entertainment in their respective Crash games, and it’s done extremely well here. There are several parts of the stage where you can just feel Vicarious Visions be proud to show off their vistas – and it’s pride well earned. Although never visited, Cortex Castle appears in the distance from different angles throughout and has a nostalgic flair that any fan of Crash will be pleased with, and the Synchronization Dance Hall could even be a Naughty Dog-ized version of Radical’s “Mojo Temple”, both being sitting in the center of the Wumpa Islands, between N. Sanity and Cortex.



I’ve mentioned it already, but a good example of the full integration of the level into Skylanders is the Wumpa Fruit. Coins and jewels are entirely replaced in the Wumpa Islands, by both Wumpa Fruit, which falls in droves from every crate, and Crash-styled Gems. There is already a gem item in Skylanders, but the ones in Thumpin’ are specifically made to look like Crash gems – an unnecessary but thorough detail.



The level is filled with crates, as is probably apparent by now, and they behave mostly as they do in the actual Crash games; sometimes they lack gravity, but whatever jankiness there may be is a result of trying to cram Crash gameplay into the hardcoded world of Skylanders. Regular crates make an appearance, as do TNT boxes – we’ve already covered that Crash can spawn and throw TNT, but they appear throughout the levels as usual too – along with Arrow Crates and Life Crates. Arrow Crates have been merged with Bouncy Crates, the ones that used to give you 10 fruit. They serve both purposes here, and despite being the one detail that sticks out as semi jarring in a level full of details, it’s a painless merger. Plus, they break after five hits, which is another example of attention to detail anyways. Life Crates only show up on occasion, after a certain amount of combat in Crash’s crate throwing move, but I’ve already covered that as well. There are also Slot Crates like in Crash 3, although they work differently here; The slot crates in Imaginators change on the beat with the music of the level, and play a little bongo tap when they change. That’s something really cool to note by the way. Everything in the level, both scenery and gameplay, is timed to the music. Pay close attention and you’ll notice that even the enemies’ attack patterns are timed to the beat, and there is even an enemy that can speed up and slow down the music, which then speeds up or slows down the enemies and scenery, and of course, the slot crates. It’s all very cool.



Smart bouncing on the crates is rewarded just like in classic Crash, and breaking crates too quickly with no regard for what might be floating above them will get you no bonuses. Also of note is that every bounce on a crate will increase the pitch of the bounce sound effect, as they would in the original games, up to a ridiculous level where it eventually plateaus. The sound that plays when a crate breaks is also sometimes the exact sound used in the original trilogy as well. It should be noted that the original Wumpa fruit sound can be heard subtly as well, becoming more apparent when multiple Wumpa are collected at once.



The islands are populated entirely by the Villagers from Crash 1 (and Twinsanity) and they help push the level and the narrative within it along. A few people have been vocally critical of them speaking English cleanly, but it’s clearly (and this is developer-confirmed, thanks) meant to be for simplicity’s sake – having them speak gibberish language and subtitling it adds an unnecessary layer of frustration, especially in younger kids. Oh, and Papu Papu speaks English any-damn-way. Accompanying the natives are their various totems and tikis, strewn throughout the island – and they look just like the ones you’d see in Crash 1 and 2. Gorilla head totems are seen everywhere, along with the beached native boat at the beginning.



Speaking of that boat, Thumpin’ is full of very close recreations of certain “scenes” and obvious homages to those scenes as well. The first shot of the level is pretty much exactly the first shot of N. Sanity Beach from Crash 1 – a perfect allusion, since Crash pretty much spent the last 8 years face-down in the sand anyways, as if this moment, placing him on the Skylanders portal, is him waking back up after washing up on the shore. The Great Gate, Native Fortress, Hog Wild/Whole Hog, Road to Nowhere, Sunset Vista/Lost City, many of the favorites (and not so favorites) of Crash 1 especially are represented, though there are tinges of Crash 2 and 3 – Crash 2’s spitting plant enemies make a return (also developer confirmed, for those skeptics among you) and Crash 3’s warp orbs are used to warp between the main level and character-specific minigames meant for both Crash and Cortex.



The two minigames that are for Crash are very much Classic Crash, the first one being a boulder chase (with Crash hopped up on a giant chili pepper) through the jungle ruins where Crash must, gulp, collect all the crates before reaching the end. Upon reaching the end, Crash is greeted with three, GULP, box counters… and you’d better hope you got every last one, or you’ll never unlock the Soul Gem for Cortex. A cool thing to note is that on repeated runs of these minigames, the prizes in the box counters are replaced with Crash gems. A nice touch that many may not notice. The second Crash minigame is the same concept, but instead of running from the boulder, the chili pepper makes Crash run forward as he would in the levels where he used to ride Polar or the Wild Boar in Crash 1 and 2. These levels are both filled with obstacles straight from the boulder and hog levels in Crash 1, including those stupid annoying pain in the ass spiked-stick totems.



Cortex’s minigame isn’t classic Crash inspired, but classic gaming inspired, becoming a cool little Galaga-clone where Cortex must stop his own minions (lead by the Mighty Uka Uka, who derides you throughout the minigame, eventually being impressed by how great of a warrior you are) from getting too close to the islands. Beating all of the minions before the levels finish grants you a Soul Gem for Crash, and in the second level just Skylanders bonuses. Repeated visits also replace the prizes with Crash style gems just like the Crash ones do, and to squeeze another drop of classic Crash onto this section, all of the scenery is made up of pieces of Cortex’s destroyed space stations from over the years. You could realize that for yourself, but for the people that may doubt Vicarious Visions, that again comes straight from the horse-dev’s mouth.



While only a handful of Crash characters appear in the level, they’re all utilized very well – the Natives do a good job of being catalysts for gameplay and being assistants to Crash that are funny and natural, not feeling forced in. Aku Aku (who looks very similar to his original designs, but if you bedazzled his eyebrows) is great in his usual role of “father figure and buddy” for Crash, leading him along through the story and protecting him during gameplay. Uka Uka makes a cool addition to Cortex’s moveset, and his appearances in the Galaga-esque minigames are, well, very Uka Uka.



All in all, Thumpin’ Wumpa Islands is the perfect homage, especially considering they were tied to the Skylanders gameplay. Crash and Cortex, the islands, the natives, the Mask Brothers, everything feels natural and manages to blend into Skylanders brilliantly. Thumpin’ Wumpa Islands itself would be a great 20th anniversary surprise, but knowing that it’s just a teaser, a small piece of what’s to come from the same team next year when they release their Crash Bandicoot remasters for the PS4 makes it even sweeter. Thumpin Wumpa Islands is decently sized as is, giving you somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour of Crash Bandicoot gameplay, and is extremely replayable. The dialogue changes depending on whether you’re playing as Crash or Cortex, and there’s an entire third set of dialogue used for when you play as your own Imaginator or a Skylander. There’s extra challenges, a speed run mode, and more, on top of all that, so conceivably that half an hour to an hour could turn into HOURS for a Crash fan, and I’d wager Skylanders fans, even those who have never touched Crash, will fall in love with the level as well. It’s just that good. It’s good as a Crash Bandicoot tribute level, it’s good as a Skylanders level, and it’s just good period.



I hate to score this level, because I don’t want to give the illusion that I have a problem with it. I can’t give it a perfect 5/5, but the problems it does have are more Imaginators’ problems than TWI’s problems as a piece of Crash content. The only real problem is that with the PS4 Starter Pack Crash Edition, you can play Crash from the start, and Wumpa Islands is pretty clearly meant to be something you tackle later on, perhaps even after the story is beaten – it’s not even out yet for the other consoles – and it shows. The level is no joke difficulty wise, and having Crash and Cortex both become unusable in your first playthrough of the level isn’t an uncommon occurance for people who rush right to the Islands during their first experience with Imaginators. As prudish as it sounds, not being able to finish it with Crash and Cortex alone the first time made it feel a bit weird, but through and through the level *IS* Crash. It’s just top shelf stuff and it deserves your attention.



If you can’t drop the cash on the PS4 Crash Edition, I really do recommend finding some way to track down a copy of Imaginators on its own with the portal if you can, and then grab the Thumpin’ Wumpa Islands Adventure Pack, which is a cheaper set that just includes Crash and Cortex. It’s worth it.



Thumpin’ Wumpa Islands gets a 4/5 from me, being a great gameplay experience, and a perfect teaser and appetizer for Crash’s return.



EXTRA: CORTEX’S FIGURE, MODEL and GAMEPLAY

Cortex’s figure has a few problems, similar to Crash, but it’s really still a top shelf production. Bizarrely, Cortex’s color scheme is entirely different on the figure than it is on his in-game model. It’s a strange difference and it hasn’t been explained. But his model itself is coincidentally probably his best model in many, many years. Cortex is matched pretty precisely to Charles Zembillas’ original designs, much like Crash, and manages to look devious and hilarious at the same time. He’s reverted back to his original uniform, and simplistic shape, and is closer to his original height. Cortex kind of fluctuated wildly in height over the years, but he’s respectfully diminutive in Skylanders.



Cortex’s gameplay is a bit more simple than Crash’s, relying mostly on shooting from a distance – the blasts his ray gun shoots cycle through the same colors they do in Crash 1, by the way – and using Uka Uka as a weapon. Cortex can also unlock N. Tropy’s staff to use in his upgrade tree, and it can be upgraded even further to give him more time-bending and defensive powers. Uka can be upgraded to be fully controllable, moving around via the stick and wiping enemies out. Cortex also unlocks his hoverboard from the original series and his mines from the Crash 3 boss fight. Cortex’s moveset (and Crash’s, obviously) is diverse, well thought out, and just as much of an homage as the level itself.



Cortex doesn’t feature the life system like Crash, and he starts relatively weak, so perhaps level him up elsewhere and come back to Thumpin’ for your Cortex playthrough. Otherwise he won’t last long against its various powerful enemies. Just a tip.

That about sums up the Crash content in Skylanders Imaginators, and the sheer volume of text it takes to convey them, much less praise them, should show exactly how much thought went into it. The team at Vicarious Visions did a phenomenal job with Thumpin’ and I have no doubts that they’ll do a phenomenal job with the Remakes next year. No one knows for sure how long we’ll be waiting to see the reveal, but Thumpin’ Wumpa Islands is cool enough and beefy enough to hold us over. And besides, I don’t think we’ll be waiting all that long to see Crash’s big coming out party… I can just feel it in the mojo, I guess.



///Skylanders Imaginators: Crash Edition for the PS4 was supplied to JumpButton by Activision Publishing, Inc. for review in early October. He’s a procrastinator. He played it almost every day since then, though, so that should speak to its quality.///