Crash Bandicoot — Designing games to balance challenge and fun | A Game Design Critique
Crash Bandicoot is is a 3-D platforming game that involves jumping, spinning, and dodging to reach the end of each of its levels. It was developed by Naughty Dog in 1996 for the PS1, and in my opinion, it still holds up as one of the best platformers to date. For many, this was the first game they ever played. The game challenges players, and this challenge it offers, in my opinion, is one of the main reasons the game was enjoyed by so many people, including me. In this write up I will be critiquing the way the game was designed to balance challenge and fun, and keep the player invested all throughout the game.
The game does an excellent job of introducing its core mechanics to the player. The increase in difficulty is gradual, and keeps the player engaged at all times by making them face different challenges at regular intervals. There are enemies, explosives, large boulders that can crush the player, and bottomless pits that the player must avoid. Every enemy that the player encounters has distinct characteristics and require different ways to eliminate them. This lets the player be in charge and decide which enemies they would want to face/ stay away from. This challenge is accompanied by a reward. The player is rewarded with Wumpa fruit, an apple shaped collectable that the player can collect along the way. Collecting 100 of these fruits, also grants the player an extra life. There are also masks that are scattered around the map which when collected, act as shields, letting the player take an extra hit without dying. Collecting three of these masks gives the player temporary invincibility.
The map is filled with crates that the player must destroy. Not only does destroying the crate give the player Wumpa fruits, it also increases the count of the number of crates destroyed. Every level has a certain number of crates in it, and as an additional challenge, the player must destroy all the crates in the level to get a better reward. This adds so much replay value to the game. Even after playing through the entire game, I felt like re-visiting the levels just to find and destroy all the crates. This is something that not many games in those days managed to offer, and says a lot about how games, big or small, can be designed to keep the player interested and continuously challenged.
The game manages to keep the player in a state of flow. Just when the player thinks they’ve learnt everything the game has to offer, it introduces a new mechanic/ enemy/ puzzle that the player has to overcome. These are not simple by any means, and I speak from experience. The game is difficult, but at the same time, it is possible to complete every level by using the lessons it teaches the player along the way.
There is another interesting collectible type in the game. These are shaped like a character’s face. When a player collects three of these, a bonus area is unlocked. These collectibles are sometimes placed in secret locations, which give the player an excuse to explore every area the game has to offer. These bonus levels serve as a break in the middle of levels, to momentarily take the player away from the level, and let them use their platforming skills to collect fruits and lives that can be used in the main level, when they complete the bonus area. This time, between parts of the level, are crucial to let the player relax and take a break from all the dangerous enemies and obstacles in the game. These bonus regions help the player clear their mind, so they are open to face the rest of the level without feeling too threatened.
The game is fair, no matter how many difficult challenges it presents to the player along the way. When a game is fair, and well balanced, finishing it becomes even more rewarding. There is no physical reward, but the feeling of completing a level by surviving the challenging platforming sections and eliminating enemies, is something every player wants to experience, and this is what keeps the game fun throughout its campaign.
This game offers a lot of variety. Every level requires the player to change their playstyle. Some levels involve moving forward in the map, while others involve moving toward the camera, usually running away from some kind of threat. Some levels are also very similar to 2D platformers where the player must move in the left/ right direction to reach the finish. This manages to keep the game fresh and makes sure that the player is never bored playing the same kind of level over and over again.
There are boss fights at the end of certain levels, and all these are very different from each other. They are not too difficult and not too easy either. The player is tasked with learning their moves and attack patterns to use them to their advantage. There is an element of discovery in each of these levels that makes the player want to know more about the enemies that they’re facing.
The visuals are great considering it was made 21 years ago. The game is set on an island and the levels set in forests, caves, waterfalls and beaches really make the player feel immersed in these settings. This has a significant impact on the player’s experience, and makes him/ her feel like they are a part of that fictional world when they play it.
Perseverance is the key to completing this game. There are levels like ‘Slippery Climb’, ‘Fumbling in the dark’ and ‘Road to nowhere’ that are extremely unforgiving. They need skill, patience and loads of practice to master. The player will die repeatedly in these levels but keeps coming back for that ‘one last try’, till they complete the level. The feeling of accomplishment on completing them is very rewarding and the design choice of increasing the level of difficulty really pays off in my opinion.
There is only one path from start to finish in each level, with just a few exceptions. The player is not allowed to choose their path forward and is forced to stick to the path created by the developers. While this may seem like a negative, there is also a positive side to it. As stated by Naughty Dog, restricting gameplay to a tight path makes the game more exciting, and in some levels, this is definitely the case. For example, in the level ‘Boulders’, Crash is running towards the camera while being chased by a large boulder. There is only one way to the finish, and this increases the level of tension, making the game even more fun and challenging.
The only way to save your progress in the game is by either completing the bonus rounds, unlocking a gem, or completing the boss fights. This can seem inconvenient today, when compared to how modern games handle their save systems, but games of the past were more challenging and this wasn’t much of an issue to players who preferred a higher difficulty level. At the same time, this also meant that players with lesser experience must have found it hard to progress in the game, which I thought it was worth mentioning.
All things considered, Crash Bandicoot was designed to challenge its players and reward them for their accomplishments. It constantly taught new mechanics and made sure that the player implemented them. It didn’t hold the player’s hand, and every level was designed keeping in mind that the player would learn from his/ her mistakes in order to make progress in the game. It was difficult, but fair and achievable at all times, and this is what I think people loved so much about this game. The game was very well received and is still considered as of one the best platformers ever made.
Varun Sunil Bajaj ( varunbajaj220496@gmail.com / vsb6444@rit.edu )
