With Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time set to be released in October, both Gamescon’s audience and its host were expecting to see him take to the stage. However, there was a miscommunication, and Crash was instead shown taking in the sights of Cologne, all while being responsible by wearing a mask and practicing social distancing. As Crash high fived the Gamescon robot, we cut back to the studio and it was left to Lou Studdert, a Toys For Bob Producer, to explain a new feature in the upcoming title, flashback tapes.

Crash was sent to promote the flashback tapes feature, a brand new play style being introduced in the upcoming game. These unique levels are said to provide a flashback to the 1990s when Neo Cortex was running experiments on Crash and Coco, prior to the original Crash Bandicoot game.

The levels take the form of puzzle rooms which Studdert describes as “devious, really hard, super awesome, and super creative.” To access this new content you’ll need to collect flashback tapes from inside the levels themselves. In an added twist you have to reach each level’s tape without dying, a feature said to be a homage to the death routes in the original trilogy.

Death routes could only be accessed if you reached their location without dying and were accessed by an elevator painted with a skull motif. For those who were successful, they took you on a more dangerous but also more rewarding route through the level. If you’d died before you reached them the icon was greyed out.

The levels are said to take you back to the platforming roots of the franchise and also explore a side of Crash’s story most players don’t think about, the point in time when Cortex thought Crash was going to be on his side. Since Cortex created Crash he believed that the future would see them fighting side by side. These new levels explore this aspect of Crash’s history that has been previously overlooked by the franchise’s storylines.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, follows on directly from the original trilogy, and is due to be released in October.

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