Do you love the Crash Bandicoot series? Who doesn’t? We’ve compiled a selection of the best Crash Bandicoot games that will keep you entertained for ages!
If you started only with Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time and you want to know what other similar games there are, you will definitely find the answers here. Crash Bandicoot series covers platformer and racing genres and is famous for its incredible characters and nostalgic gameplay. So if you’re a racing fan and you have a PS4, you definitely need a PS4 racing wheel.
This selection compiles the best Crash Bandicoot-like games available in 2021 on various platforms, including PlayStation and Xbox. We’ll try to update it with new games in the future, so don’t forget to check it from time to time – and let us know in the comments if we suddenly missed something important.
Ty The Tasmanian Tiger HD
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
The protagonist of our first recommendation is another Australian video game character, a Tasmanian tiger named Ty, whose 2002 debut was in his own platformer on PS2.
In the remaster from Krome Studios, the titular feline representative hunts for Thunderballs in vivid three-dimensional worlds inspired by the Australian wilderness. Like games like Cortex Strikes Back and Warped, the levels are divided into separate zones and connected by portals to a central hub world (hub).
Ty the Tasmanian Tiger has quite a few cool animalistic characters, and the story has plenty of references to similar moments in Crash Bandicoot, like teleportation devices and other inventions by mad scientists.
A Hat in Time
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Mac
While A Hat in Time is clearly closer to Super Mario 64-inspired 3D platforming, the cartoonish visual style and level design focused on collecting different items is not so far removed from the Crash Bandicoot series. You’ll play as Hat Kid, a pilot whose ship crashed on the way home, and the magic hourglasses that power it are scattered on different planets.
As in Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, Hatter can put on different hats, gaining new abilities that allow her to manipulate the environment and get to new places. On top of that, the game has a beautifully scripted story full of funny moments, constantly torn between sincerity and sarcasm.
New Super Lucky’s Tale
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Xbox’s take on old-school 3-D platformers. Starring a perky, cheerful and simply adorable little fox named Lucky.
Like Crash Bandicoot, the levels in New Super Lucky Tale are built around jumping over obstacles, destroying bad guys and finding various collectibles to unlock new worlds. Lucky has his own repertoire of unique abilities that help with movement and combat, such as gliding and the ability to burrow underground. It’s a relatively new game, but it has a very nostalgic feel, reflecting Crash Bandicoot’s current place in popular culture.
Spyro Reignited Trilogy
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch
The Spyro and Crash Bandicoot series share a common history, and their title characters have even appeared in each other’s games, such as Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto’s Rampage and Spyro Orange: The Cortex. Like the N.Sane Trilogy, which updated the first trilogy of our badass marsupial friend’s adventures for new consoles, the Spyro Reignited Trilogy includes remasters of the first three Spyro the dragon boy games.
Like Crash, Spyro has become a colorful mascot of the PlayStation brand and was quite popular in his day. In each game you have to control a witty dragon who saves his friends as he travels through.
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Rehydrated, based on Heavy Iron Studio’s console version of Battle for Bikini Bottom, is a three-dimensional platformer that manages to maintain the charm and nostalgia of its licensed character and its underwater world.
Like Crash Bandicoot, gameplay is based on collecting items, battling enemies and traveling through three-dimensional levels full of traps, moving platforms and other hazards. The player can switch between different characters, including SpongeBob, Patrick and Sandy, each with unique abilities that unlock new locations and secrets.
And even if those who aren’t fans of SpongeBob don’t think the game is all that great, the remake’s faithfulness to the spirit of the original game works like a kind of time machine, taking you back to the early 2000s.
Rayman Legends Definitive Edition
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch
Although the graphics in Crash Bandicoot are three-dimensional, some levels use a two-dimensional perspective. So we’d like to highlight one of the best two-dimensional platformers of the last decade and the best game in its series so far, Rayman Legends.
With great graphics and level design, as well as dynamic character movement and nice bonuses included in the Definitive Edition, Rayman Legends continues to age like a good wine. It also has a very Crash Bandicoot-like atmosphere with funny characters and a story full of humor.
Oddworld: Soulstorm
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5
Oddworld and Crash Bandicoot have already formed their identity as platformers these days like F95Zone, but the story of the two series is similar. They both started around the same time, in the late 1990s, and were PlayStation exclusives (Oddworld also came out on PC).
The Oddworld series may have more serious motivations in terms of story, but there are plenty of funny moments there as well, which the last installment puts a special emphasis on. In Oddworld: Soulstorm you will find an improved 2.5D platformer with complex control, as well as new game mechanics – loot and crafting system that allows you to create and customize your own weapons. Even though the game can pull you into the gameplay for a long time, you should still remember how to stay healthy while playing video games.
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Wii U
The Donkey Kong Country series always proves to be neglected compared to other Nintendo exclusives, even though it includes some of the best platformers. The latest installment, Tropical Freeze, was in many ways a return to the series’ roots and was originally released on Wii U and later ported to Switch.
In it, Donkey Kong the monkey, the famous tie-dye banana lover, battles a bunch of Arctic villains who want to turn his cosmic paradise into an icy tundra. In the Switch version, the already beautiful game gets a number of interesting bonuses, such as new collectibles and an additional Funky Mode with reduced difficulty.
