Awesome / Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time

• Just the very idea of having a new Crash game after 12 years since the last official one; Crash: Mind Over Mutant, way back in 2008. Sure, Crash showed up in Skylanders before this — as well as the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, proving that the concept is still alive and well to this day — but those were more of a one-off guest spot and remakes of already-established classics than anything. No, this is legit tried-and-true formula from the original trilogy, completely updated for the new generations of consoles, and does it complete justice.
• The sheer amount of content the game contains. First, you have the 30 normal levels where you play as Crash and Coco, all of which have relics and 5 gems to collect, in addition to specific colored gems. Then you reach the second world and are introduced to Flashback Tape levels, where you play as Crash and Coco through 21 unbearably difficult bonus round-modeled levels. Then you reach the third world and are introduced to Alternate Timeline levels, where you play as Tawna in select levels explaining how she secretly assisted the Bandicoot siblings (Dingodile and Cortex would be added later). Then you reach the fourth hub world and are introduced to N. Verted Mode, where you can replay all levels in the game with a unique graphical twist and collect more gems. Put these all together and there are over 100 levels in the game, more than the entirety of N Sane Trilogy combined. And that's not mentioning the competitive multiplayer mode...
• Tawna finally being given a starring role in a Crash game after missing out completely on the original trilogy; or any games past that point up till Nitro-Fueled. Sure, it's not the mainline one, but hey; a Tawna is better than none. And she's extremely fun to play as.
• For once, a plot that isn't a plan of Uka Uka. The entire scheme is completely orchestrated by N.Tropy — and later Cortex — from the onset, taking full advantage of the moment when Uka Uka is knocked unconscious to escape from their initial banishment and begin wreaking havoc. Ever since Warped reduced them more to the sidelines in comparison to the evil mask, it's both awesome and refreshing to see the scientists actually take the initiative for once and metaphorically tell Uka Uka to can it.
  • Even better? When Uka Uka first opens up the rift, he overexerts himself and passes out. Cortex and N.Tropy barely bat an eye at leaving him behind. After seeing them living in terror of him, this is a breath of fresh air.
• Uka Uka himself gets one at the very end of the game. Even after exerting his power and being left for dead in the past, he ultimately manages to bring himself together and teleport to the end of the universe, making a triumphant return to a terrified Cortex while laughing maniacally.
• Dingodile hurling both N. Tropys into an open void with a Tail Slap after the gang defeats them, getting right to the point of finishing them off — cutting off Cortex in the middle of his Evil Gloating — and capping it off with an appropriately Australian Bond One-Liner, complete with Precision F-Strike.
  Dingodile: Bloody dags. (dusts off his hands)
• A villainous example: the female N. Tropy from Tawna's universe casually states that she was the one who murdered the Crash and Coco of her universe. As in, she singlehandedly killed the Bandicoot siblings, who had faced and brought shame to untold number of evil scientists, aliens, and even literal divine masks with no more than a scratch. No wonder she's so smug about taking them down again; unlike the wimpy villains of this universe, she actually has the cred in it.
  • She even defeats Tawna off-screen and gets very close to killing her too, with the help of her male counterpart.
    • And these make Crash or Coco taking her down in one hit, albeit hard to land, even more awesome.
• Kupuna-Wa's ability allows the player to slow down time. While this is cool in and of itself, it also slows time to the point where touched Nitro Crates have a noticeable delay before exploding. This marks the very first time in the series that Crash/Coco can contact-trigger a Nitro Crate and remain unharmed without the use of invincibility^note The Sneak Shoes from The Wrath of Cortex prevents the Nitro from triggering if Crash walks on them, and the fake Nitro Crates from Bee-Having do not trigger at all.
• After getting demoted from his spot as Big Bad, Cortex regains it in one of his best and most well improvised plans yet: use Kupuna-Wa to open a rift back in time and prevent himself from creating Crash in the first place.