Flaming Passion
The author at their first communion, Easter Sunday 1999.
On Easter Sunday 1999 I had my first communion, which is the final rite of passage for an individual to formally join the Catholic Church. It was an occasion I will remember forever as an ethereal awakening, a spiritual enlightenment and a transcendental coming of age. But the feelings of enlightenment were in no way related to religious induction.
No.
It was the day I received a copy of Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped as a gift for Easter. My brother and I had received a PlayStation as a Christmas present the year before so we were both new to the world of gaming. Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped was one of the first games I really fell in love with despite being terrible at it. I loved the cartoon, Looney Tunes inspired graphics and the game-play loop was fun and challenging. I played it a lot but as a kid I never got to the end of the game, let alone fully completing it. While I had played the original Crash Bandicoot at friend’s houses, Crash 3 was the one I owned a copy of and thus have spent the most time with. I have a lot of sentimental attachment to this game and fond memories playing it each weekend on a tiny hand-me-down CRT TV.
As the third game in the series it introduces non-platforming levels such as Jet-ski riding and Motorbike racing alongside the platforming levels that previous players were familiar with. The game also introduced the Time trials whereupon you received a Relic if you beat the level under the given time. These relics were graded Sapphire, Gold, and Platinum depending on how fast your time was. For an extra challenge the ending credits of the game show the developer times, which are even faster. The game also includes elements from the previous games such as crystals (obtained through a normal level play-through), clear gems (obtained by destroying all the boxes in a level or from secret areas) and coloured gems (obtained through secret areas).
Objectively speaking, the game isn’t perfect, some of the non-platforming levels are a pain in the arse, especially to get relics on, but the game has a lot of charm and is good fun to play. I like that it caters to casual and hardcore gamers with the relic grading. The game still looks amazing on a modern TV with the colour scheme and levels looking vibrant. The game (and its predecessors) is a technical marvel and I highly recommend the blog series1 from one of the developers behind the game.
Despite my love and nostalgia for this game it occurred to me that I had never fully completed the game. That is, the coveted 105%2 completion which involves getting every crystal, every gem and every relic with a minimum of gold. Upon revisiting the game as an adult I did manage to actually beat the game, and would just play through the levels casually and called it a day once I’d reached 100%. I can recall one time managing to get 104%, where the remaining 1% (getting gold relics) felt like a Sisyphean nightmare. Irrespective of the Herculean task, I owed it to my 8 year old self to finally finish this game once and for all.
Gee Wiz
Using an NTSC copy of the game I started playing through the game casually and managed to beat Dr Neo Cortex (the final boss) fairly quickly. Upon defeat the antagonist tells the player that they should collect all the other items (100%) and fight them again. Revisiting the levels to pick up the additional gems and relics was a really fun and rewarding experience and is where the game truly shines. There are so many fun little secrets and challenges to really test the player striving for 100% completion. I particularly enjoy the second gem in the level Bug lite which require the player to have previously attained all the other coloured variants. As a veteran of the franchise it didn’t take much longer to attain 100% and have a final show down with Dr Neo Cortex.
Entering the final showdown with Dr Neo Cortex
Makin’ Waves
The game features two additional secret levels, each with an obtainable gem and relic that pushes the completion to 104%. Pre-YouTube or similar I’m not sure how you were supposed to find how to access these levels as their entrances are VERY specific and there are no clues directing you to them. I was internet savvy as a kid and remember finding out about these levels from some cheat website back in the day.
Under Pressure
There was now one final gem to obtain to bring the final score to 105%. One final, painful percent that is obtained by achieving a gold standard time on every single level, including the secret ones. Throughout my play-though I’d already obtained some gold relics and the occasional platinum, but I was now faced with over 20 levels I needed to revisit and master to obtain the more prestigious relic. This was where the true challenge of the game lies and had felt Sisyphean in nature. Albert Camus once famously declared “One must imagine Sisyphus happy”3, in this context I would like to propose “One must imagine playing Crash Bandicoot is fun”. Nonetheless I struggled on pushing the boulder, with some levels taking many attempts. I’d like to particularly single out “High Time” for being the most infuriating to achieve the gold relic for, which took over a 100 attempts to finally nail.
I feel I can emphathise with Crash’s exasperation here
After a lot of huffing and puffing I finally reached the apex of the hill and the boulder stayed. I had obtained all the relics necessary for the final gem. Crash’s exasperation in the image above sums up how I had felt. It was finally over. I had finally finished Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped. It took me over 26 years to do it, but I finally got there.
It’s finally over…
All screenshots taken from the author during the aforementioned play-through.