Heartwarming / Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time

• Some of Cortex's lines during the "Flashback Tapes" bonus levels, which take place shortly before the events of the first game, are oddly sweet; for example, he records in his diary that he's starting to think of Crash in a fatherly way, he mentions that he worries about N. Brio's wellbeing (and later on treats him to a "surprise" dinner), treats Crash to wumpa cake after noticing his fondness for wumpa fruits and states that the pants Crash is wearing are actually one of his old pair of shorts (which he seemed rather fond of).
  • The kicker? Crash's full name is revealed to be "Crashworth Cortex the First", meaning that Cortex had such high hopes for Crash back then, he basically adopted him as his son.
  • When Cortex decides to join forces with Crash and Coco to stop N. Tropy and his female AU counterpart, Crash is overjoyed and even goes up to Cortex and wraps him up in a big hug, implying that Crash himself cares about the doctor and may have viewed him as a father figure.
  • Also revealed during the "Flashback Tapes," it turns out that N. Gin was a mentor to Coco, and perhaps the reason why she loves technology so much.
  • It should also be noted that while most of it can be chalked up to his enormous ego, the thing that gets Past Cortex to reject his Future self as an impostor is him saying that Crash, who the Flashback Tapes levels all but state he sees as his son, will be rejected by the Cortex Vortex.
• Coco and Crash's overjoyed reactions when they see the Alternate Tawna. While, yes, she's not their Tawna, they are still overjoyed to see their old friend again. She even becomes something of a Cool Big Sis to them.
  • Tawna actually playing video games with them at the end, after spending the game working alone and not wanting to hang out with them in fear of putting the two in harm's way.
• When Tawna turns down joining the bandicoot siblings on their adventure, Crash puts his hand on Coco's shoulder to comfort her, showcasing how close the two are.
• Minor, but the reveal that Crash is the narrator of the epilogue, him telling people to subscribe to Coco becomes pretty cute.
• The four Quantum Masks are siblings, and obviously love each other very much. Between Ika-Ika being overjoyed to see Lani-Loli, Kupuna-Wa's cheery grandmotherly demeanor, Akano standing up to protect his siblings the moment he's free from Cortex's trap, it's really sweet to watch. Especially in contrast to the Elementals.
• The whole gang getting together for a celebratory meal in the Sn@xx dimension after defeating the N. Tropies. Sure, Cortex ruins it when he betrays the team, but it's just sweet to see Crash, Coco and Alt!Tawna enjoying some time together and having Dingodile and Cortex tag along. Heck, even after Cortex betrays them, Dingodile remains an ally and helps Coco while Tawna helps Crash. It really shows that, even though they may be rightfully wary at first (well, except for Crash, that is), the Bandicoots are willing to let bygones be bygones and befriend a former foe who had a legitimate change of heart.
• The ending of the game. Crash, Coco, Tawna and the masks are all playing video games together, Dingodile reopens his diner, and even Cortex finally gets some peace and quiet at the end of the universe until Uka Uka finds him anyways.
• Dingodile's Heel–Face Turn brings quite a few understated moments:
  • It's genuine. He gets himself messed up with all this and his first reaction once he's brought up to speed is "alright, these guys breaking the time stream are a problem, I'll help you out", no strings attached.
  • Most of all, it's not even begrudgingly: he's willingly let bygones be bygones. He shows no animosity to the bandicoots for their previous victory, and is on the whole pretty chill about working with the guys on the opposite side soon afterwards.
  • When Cortex turns on the bandicoots as part of his Face–Heel Revolving Door, Dingodile (combined with Tawna) pulls a Big Damn Heroes moment protecting Crash and Coco from Cortex's trap and helps Crash and Coco chase after him without second thought.
  • The result? A fan-favorite character comes back from Warped with a greatly-expanded role, completely unexpected, and warmly received.
• A Running Gag throughout the game feature misfortune happening to Crash whenever he enters a new dimension. When he and Coco enter Cortex Island, he finally lands on his feet with Coco, despite looking unimpressed, applauding him, glad to see him overcome this issue.
• It's subtle, but in the ending, when Crash inadvertently destroyed the power source of the Cortex Vortex, resulting in his past self being rejected, Coco goes from being irritated at Crash for doing so to giving him a smile after watching the video, realizing had they just watched and did nothing else, Crash could've become the general of Cortex Commandos (as Cortex wanted him to be), instead of the silly, lovable bandicoot he has been.
  Coco: (smiling) Explains a lot.