Crash Bandicoot (PS1)
Crash Bandicoot is a 1997 PSX game made by the same people that (would eventually) brought you Jak saying the word “ass” and that one zombie game where you spend about half the runtime killing living people as well.
The only 'golden age' Crash game I’ve ever played on its original hardware was Crash Team Racing, which sits alongside Klonoa as one of the first video games I’ve ever played during the brief period when I did own a PlayStation 1, and was also probably indirectly responsible for my affinity with racing games because those took up most of my old PS2 library. Of course, using the niche Japanese furry as opposed to the widely popular American furry makes for a much cooler gamer origin story, but I consider Crash here as my prison uncle as I wouldn’t play any more of his games until The Wrath of Cortex (uh oh) and Crash of the Titans (really uh oh!)
So yeah, I have very limited experience with what Crash is supposed to be good at: depth-perception 3D platforming. Which is a less embarrassing way of saying I was nowhere near close to 100% game completion because you have to finish a level without dying to actually collect a gem, which I did not even manage to do on the first level, N. Sanity Beach. Hey, you tell me how to cross the box bridge with Aku-Aku invincibility, because all three times I’ve tried to do it I would just fall right through!
Crash Bandicoot has awfully questionable level design for demanding perfection if you want the ending that skips the final boss, which I guess was a fun way to brag about a gaming accomplishment back in the day. 15+ minutes in Sunset Vista had pretty much solidified that I either need save states or more than a week’s worth of free time to actually get everything. Which, I mean despite my grievances with skill, I would be more than happy to do at some point because at its core Crash is still the finely aged wine of platformers.
It’s the same reason you would ever go back to the first installment of any video game series. There’s no additional collectibles, super moves, or other playable characters here. It’s you, a jump button, a spin button for when jumping isn’t gonna cut it, and 24 levels of pure third-dimensional platforming except for that one part where you assault a boar for no good reason. Being bad at a game won’t necessarily mean you still won’t have a good time with it, unless it’s Mahjong or you’re gambling in Vegas.