The graphical update of Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot trilogy not only brings its colorful stuff back but also its scary aspects.
As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
In General
- Uka-Uka can appear in the game over screen even when playing the first and second games. But he's
◊ framed in a shadow as in the beginning of Warped, and his ominous deep voice saying "Game Over" and the ominous bell soundtrack can really send shivers down anyone's spine, and the absolutely terrifying Slasher Smile he flashes after saying "Game Over" and the truly demonic Evil Laugh that he makes on occasion don't even help at all. To make it even more unsettling, though, it that sometimes, in rare circumstances, a glitch will cause the shadow effect on this variant of the game over screen to not trigger. You'd think that the Special Effect Failure caused by this glitch would make it Nightmare Retardant... But instead, the lack of any lighting at all creates an Unintentional Uncanny Valley effect that looks even creepier... So all in all, it's basically the "Game Over" screen from the third game, but with the scare factor turned up to eleven.
Crash Bandicoot (1996)
- The prisoners from Slippery Climb and Stormy Ascent are, instead of strange unknown creatures with claws, creepy old men. Not only that, the old men get their heads out desperately trying to grab Crash.
- The original opening cutscene has Crash getting almost comically shocked due to the limitations of the PS1's graphics. The revised opening has Crash utter muffled sounds, making this more uncomfortable to some players who may interpret them as sounds of pain.
- The Venus Fly Traps are back, and instead of snapping at Crash to cause him to twirl around and faint, nope, they just outright eat him this time around, just like in Cortex Strikes Back. And it is much more graphic this time - they grab Crash, then toss him into the air and then swallow him whole. There's even a trophy for losing a life this way in 1. Of course, the ones in Cortex Strikes Back also eat Crash this way, too.
- When playing as Coco, all of her deaths are tamer than Crash's, the exception being getting eaten by a Venus Fly Trap. Crash's shoes get spit out when he gets eaten, but nothing is spat out with Coco.
- Fake Crash appears again. In addition to appearing in the three levels in 3, he also appears in N. Sanity Beach and Castle Machinery. He still looks silly in N. Sanity Beach, but in Castle Machinery...◊. May be Nightmare Retardant for some people, though, since he's still doing the silly dance.
- Generator Room returns, along with its theme that has been given a suitable arrangement. While it's not as disturbing as the original, it still has a mechanical feeling along with, oddly enough, a music box replacing the bells from the original song. While it may seem like borderline Nightmare Retardant at first, this theme is played in a location that's pretty much a dark void with nothing but tall machinery as far as the eye can see and metallic grated plates to stand on◊, which can create some serious Soundtrack Dissonance to hear an instrument so out of place in its theme.
Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
- Any time a cutscene is about to play, a loud noise is made, catching any unexpected player.
- The giant polar bear is back... in high definition, with detailed sharp teeth and retaining its evil black eyes.
- Some of the basic enemy redesigns make them look a lot creepier than the original. The turtles in the jungle stages especially. They looked cartoonish in the original, but the remake has them with green Tron Lines across their shells, and the buzz-saw turtles look especially off. The rats in the sewer levels now have robotic plating and glowing red eyes. The new designs really emphasize that these are unnatural mash-ups of organic creatures and machines, designed to be weapons for Cortex's army.
- If Crash's Super Drowning Skills from Cortex Strikes Back onward weren't Nightmare Fuel before, they certainly are now. You can actually hear Crash struggling underwater during his drowning animation. At least Vicarious Visions was gracious enough to spare Coco the expense. Well... except in Tomb Wader in Warped, that is, and even then, Coco drowns much less graphically compared to Crash and compared to her own drowning animation in The Wrath of Cortex.
- Another exception to Coco's death animations being tamer: the electrocution deaths in the sewer levels. While Crash simply tenses up with the obligatory X-Ray Sparks, Coco twitches and jerks like she's convulsing the whole time, in a way that's less funny than evidently intended.
- The shrink ray death is a more tongue-in-cheek case, but made somewhat unnerving in the remake by the bandicoots noticing their situation. Coco in particular looks frantic and terrified as she helplessly shrinks into nothing.
- While it wasn't entirely clear in the original, this game confirms that Cortex frantically took the crystals when Coco told Crash the truth behind Cortex's words and is trying to enslave the world. That portal he escaped through? It's him going right to the Cortex Vortex. The laugh? His plan succeeding.
Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
- The game over sequence has changed to a black background with Uka Uka's words echoing, then giving a devilish grin. Not to mention the ominous bell ring you can hear as Uka Uka appears on the screen. As mentioned above, not even Crash 1 and 2 can escape this terrifying Game Over sequence. For a bit of extra Fridge Horror, despite Uka Uka canonically not being released from his prison until the third, the Game Over screen is the same across all three games. This means that, even when he's imprisoned, he can see you, no matter where you go. And if you linger a bit in the game over screen, Uka chuckles at you...
- The chasing Triceratops, this time without its Black Eyes of Evil, and the camouflaged Lab Assistants waiting to catch Crash in the water are back in the prehistoric levels.
- One of Coco's drowning animations consists of her floating face down in the water, motionless. No visual jokes, no slapstick, just a disturbingly realistic, for Crash Bandicoot, depiction of a dead, drowned character.
- Uka Uka is somehow scarier in the remake than in the original. Despite being voiced by John DiMaggio instead of Clancy Brown, his voice somehow sounds deeper, and has a disturbing echo effect. In addition, during the scene in which Aku Aku hears his voice echoing in the distance, all light vanishes, causing things to go dark."WHY?! WHY MUST YOU CONTINUE TO BE A THORN IN OUR SIDE?!!"
- The 100% ending in Warped, despite the humor. In the original, the volcanic area where Uka Uka and the baby Cortex and N. Tropy end up is clearly reminiscent of the prehistoric areas, and there's a time portal vortex in the background. In the remake, the lava and fire are MUCH more prominent and the background has been replaced with only a black sky and dark clouds, which makes the fate of the three villains look less like being trapped in time and more like being Dragged Off to Hell.
- The cutscenes in which villains talk to you in the time twister are possibly more intimidating than in the original, with many of them moving and getting closer to the camera — highlights include Cortex looking straight at the camera when he says "soon enough", Tiny basically shouting at the player, and N.Tropy's general design, from being more realistic and human-like than in the original and having glowing yellow eyes. Not to mention N. Gin's updated design allows you to see in grand detail the frayed skin around his metal face-plate, giving you an uncomfortable idea of just how mutilated N. Gin truly is.
- The bosses excluding Cortex also become unhinged much quicker. Tiny is up in your face in the first cutscene with him, Dingodile is half-growling half-shouting when he talks about roasting you, and N. Tropy alternates between Tranquil Fury and outright psychotic in his first scene. And that's not even counting Uka Uka...
- Speaking of N. Tropy, his closing dialogue in his boss fight feels a lot more like a sinister curse he's placed upon you with the delivery of it, coupled with the echo as he disappears into the timestream.N. Tropy: My time is up... But yours, soon will be too!
