History VideoGame / CrashBandicoot4ItsAboutTime

* AdaptationalSeriousness: While Crash and Cortex were the key comic characters in previous games, many titles (especially the later ones) made a point that the entire cast was a CloudCuckooLand. By contrast, in addition to the above AdaptationalBadass entries, most of the other characters tend to be playing the StraightMan role against the two leads, with very few jokes at their expense (gameplay deaths aside). It is a recurrent plot point that the others on both sides are getting sick of Crash and Cortex bumbling around while they try to handle things more competently, something that was largely HypocriticalHumor originally.

* LaterInstallmentWeirdness: The levels still have the traditional ''Crash'' corridor design, but they are much wider and have the camera further back compared to previous games to show more of what's around your playable character.

* SuddenlySpeaking: [[spoiler:''Crash himself'' in the secret ending. [[https://youtu.be/nV-CjZjGgSw?t=280 He's doing juuust fine]]!]]

** Cortex has been redesigned to look like a yellow ''WesternAnimation/Megamind''.

* ForYourOwnGood: [[spoiler:In "Stowed Away", Tawna ties up Crash and Coco to prevent them from going after the N. Tropys, citing not wanting to lose the siblings yet again before taking N. Oxide's cart to go to the rift generator. Ironically, she actually puts them in ''more'' danger by not allowing them to come along, as Nitrous' ship gets hit traveling through a meteor shower and crash lands on a planet.]]

** Nitrous Oxide, addicted to caffeine, became the spokesperson of a brand of energy drinks, but is currently in rehab "and the throes of a messy divorce."

** In another flashback tape, when N. Gin is asked about the rocket lodged in his head, he responds, [[Film/YoungFrankenstein "What rocket?"]]

** This is also the first Crash game since the very first to not involve collecting power crystals in some form.[note]besides ''Crash of the Titans'' and ''Mind Over Mutant'' which featured none of the standard collectables[/note]

* BreakingOldTrends: No longer are the Gold Relics the minimum requirement to fully complete the game. Now, you're gonna need to earn the Platinum Relics, which was previously a BraggingRightsReward. That position is in turn replaced with Purple Relics, which are times by the developers.

* InternalDeconstruction: A downplayed one, but the game's story is a closer rendition of what Crash and Cortex, the main hero and villain, would be like if they were treated for the genuine goofballs they are. While they were ''always'' comedic throughout the series, the world around them was always ''just'' NotSoAboveItAll enough that they could manipulate the cartooniness to stay on top, while in this game everyone else is playing things ''much'' [[CerebusSyndrome more seriously and successfully]]. Crash becomes essentially the PluckyComicRelief with his allies surpassing him and [[TheFriendNoOneLikes often irritated by him screwing up]], while Cortex's ineffectual rivalry with Crash leads to N Tropy quickly and easily betraying him when he decides he is no longer useful enough, leading to an unironic DarkerAndEdgier ClimaxBoss.

* SpiritualSuccessor: In a way, this game is one to ''Wrath Of Cortex''. Like that game, this one's story features four new [[MaskOfPower Masks of Power]] and Coco as a major playable character. The game is also canonically set up as a follow-up to the original "Naughty Dog" trilogy and features, to some capacity, Crunch Bandicoot.
** [[spoiler:The final boss is effectively a more well-done version of the final boss of ''Wrath Of Cortex'', with Cortex using [[AllYourPowersCombined each of the four masks in succession while trying to kill you]].]]
** [[spoiler:Both games have a maximum completion score of 106%.]]
** [[spoiler:Oxide makes a brief appearance like in that game, albeit to a greater degree here.]]
* SpoiledByTheFormat: In past games, Cortex is usually the final boss. He's fought after three of the four Quantum Masks are found. [[spoiler:Sure enough, N. Tropy announces his true plans and the urgency of the plot speeds up from that point onwards.]]
** Likewise, past games have had 5 boss battles. [[spoiler:Beating N. Tropy after he had hijacked the plot as the fourth boss in the game is a telling sign that Cortex's HeelFaceTurn isn't gonna last for much longer.]][[labelnote:Amusingly...]]The Tropy duo actually ''is'' the game's 5th boss if you consider the BigLippedAlligatorMoment that is Louise in the pirate dimension. But, considering there's no introduction and little foreshadowing outside a hint about two minutes before in the same level, no one counts it as a major boss, and as a result, no one was fooled.[[/labelnote]]

The game was released on October 2, 2020 for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne (with cross-gen support for the [[UsefulNotes/XboxSeriesXAndS fourth generation Xbox consoles]]), and on March 12, 2021 for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation5, UsefulNotes/XboxSeriesXAndS (a true native version). Following that, a PC version released on March 26, 2021 via Blizzard's Battle.net service, with a UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} release arriving on October 18, 2022.

* FakeDifficulty: Finding all the crates. While the majority of crates still come down to skill, this game also has a huge increase in the number of crates diabolically hidden completely off camera or behind or inside objects where many players would never think to look. While these kind of boxes were hidden in previous games in the series, ''Crash 4'' takes them up to eleven.