Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s about time arrives tomorrow on Xbox Series X / S, PlayStation 5, PC and Switch, giving us some of the most polished versions of last year’s excellent platformer, in addition to one that struggles a lot but gets the job done. Digital foundry compared the PS5 and Switch versions side by side, and the differences are, unsurprisingly, quite dramatic.
I assessed Crash Bandicoot 4 on the PlayStation 4, where it usually ran fine. I remember the odd bit of lag during particularly busy levels, but never enough to condemn the game forever. I’ve been playing the PlayStation 5 version for a few days now and it’s pretty much perfect. It’s locked at a consistent 60 frames per second at 4K, and I’ve yet to see it falter. As a fan of faster monitors, I’d love to see a 1440p mode at 120 frames per second, but I’m not getting fast love here. However, I like that it loads a little faster. I was most looking forward to the PS5 version for the challenge maps, but for some reason they made it through that I have to go through the main story before the maps help me collect all the collectibles and time trial rewards.
Surprised anyone that a video game works better on a more powerful system? No? What about a video game that runs worse on a less powerful system?
The Switch version of Crash Bandicoot 4 of course does not run on 4K60. It doesn’t even hit 1080p in linked mode, while maintaining a pretty stable 720p at 30 frames per second, which of course means it looks a lot more cinematic (cough). Disconnected, the resolution drops to 540p, which sounds very dramatic, but it doesn’t matter much when you’re looking at a smaller portable screen.
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It’s still a good looking game on the Switch. It’s just not nearly as nice as it is on the PS5 or even PS4. One reason for this are the light effects. The Switch version only displays dynamic lights when they are up close, or scraps them altogether. Digital foundryThe video shows some fine examples of this, such as the absence of lightning flashes early on on the Switch.
To keep the Unreal Engine 4 game running smoothly on Nintendo’s hardware, the Switch version also uses less particles and loses landscape detail. Textures, water rendering, and shadows have all been brought back for the Switch.
The biggest downgrade for the Switch version, which I can’t see now that I have the Digital foundry vid, is the lack of motion blur per object. More powerful systems use post-processing motion blur to smooth the animation, giving the game a more CGI cartoon-like feel. The Switch does not use these effects, which makes the animation look a bit stutter. It’s something I might never have noticed had I not seen the side by side comparison, and now it makes my eye twitch every time I notice it.
As long as you don’t watch the Digital Foundry video, you will be fine with any version of Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s about timeThat said, here’s the Digital foundry video.
It’s nice to see all the little things that change when scaling a game engine from a glorified Android tablet to a powerful next-gen console, even if it’s one version of Crash Bandicoot 4 for me.