Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, I apologize stuff kept coming up. Further delaying Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time. But I figured I just recently played another game added to Game Pass. I may review both of them together in one review blog entry. Two vastly different games that's a lot of fun despite their flaws. I highly recommend checking both of them out.
Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time (2020)
Essentially this is a sequel to Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy. The compilation caused a new timeline to happen. Which means Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex to Crash: Mind over Mutant no longer canon. They actually got more ambitious of a concept than just time travel. Crash with his sister Coco gets to do stages across several universes.
Yes you heard correctly they went multiversal with the franchise. There's actually a few more playable characters as well. Along with the sibling, some rather unexpected characters teams up with em to a degree. Tawna and Dingodile from other universes. Even Crash's nemesis Dr. Cortex gets in on the action. Most of the playable characters differs similar to Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 respectively.
I also wanted to say with the recent franchises failing after doing that. Somehow Crash found a way to make such a concept into something truly amazing. The actual stages are well thought out. Even stages you play as another character up to a point. Then you go back to Crash or Coco to finish out harder variation of those stages.
I should mention the game when you start out gives you two options. A more set lifes or virtually have infinite chances? Let's be real you're going to die a lot in this game. There's no way I could've gotten far with the more limited lifes system. I knew very early on the infinite chances was the way to go.
Dingodile is more of a shooter while you got to use gadgets as Dr. Cortex. If it's not obvious from just looking at the characters. They did confirm their appearances was inspired by Saturday morning cartoons. Which ended up working wonders for this Crash game. The difficulty curve is notably higher than ever before.
Let's put it this way you mostly collect gems this time around. If doing every stage for gems wasn't enough. They actually made alternate versions of every stage. Which means if you really want to go the completionist route. You literately gotta do double the work. The audio as a whole absolutely amazing!!! Just when you think they wouldn't do much to keep things interesting.
This Crash game filled with such fun surprises to keep it a rather refreshing experience. I would even dare to say this is better than Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy. Something I really didn't expect to ever say. This game can be very strict as well as overly critical over the smallest mistakes. This is more of an issue within the later stages.
I do like you get these masks that all alter how to get through particular sections of the stages. You know quite like both Mega Man classic and X series respectively. Some stages you really get tested how well you truly adapt at the game. I probably died more than that Crash collection game honestly. I also love the map screen it's incredibly well done.
To a degree I still prefer Crash 2/3 style. Where you simply pick which level within a set. You would have to do them all before doing the boss stages. I will say they sure made progression of the map screen quite interesting. This actually renewed my interest back into the franchise. It's hard to say with the current direction of the company.
I'm just glad we finally gotten a decent Crash 4 game. I did previously play Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex it doesn't even come close. This Crash game kept blowing my mind as I kept on playing. This is filled with content to truly keep you busy for hours. This has to be one of the finest 3D platformers I ever played!!!
My Friendly Neighborhood (2025)
I don't have a lot of experience playing Resident Evil clones. This is currently the weirdest I ever played!!! Obviously parts of the game play was heavily inspired by a few Resident Evil games. To some degree it also pulled from BioShock series. Which is heavily reminding me of Maize.
More so into the actual story of My Friendly Neighborhood. Both games you play as an unlikely hero. As the games goes on you discovered what fully happened. Just looking at the enemies it screams The Muppets to me. They are animatronics that used to be on an television studio for children.
Which is similar to The Banana Splits Movie the horror one. Majority of the actual feel brought BioShock together with Resident Evil 7. Your job is take care of an antenna on top of a building. Of course, the characters don't make things easy for ya. There's some notable differences that helps this stand out from other similar style horror games.
In a sense some aspects of Sesame Street as well. This kept reminding me of Five Nights at Freddy's series. This is an mascot horror game after all. The term is you are being hunted by classic mascot characters. Some of these mascot horror games are quite weird. It took a long time for me to finally enjoy one of these horror games.
You can only down most enemies while given a choice. Depending if you have tape or not. Either you tape em up preventing em getting back up or run past em. To be fair, it's possible to sneak around enemies to prevent encounters. Just some enemies like the dogs are a little trickier.
The weapons are surprisingly smaller than expected. But each one notably differs with none of them sucking bad either. I know this bags the question does more weapons help or hurt an game? Honestly it depends how each weapon was designed. Personally I prefer majority of them being done well than too much lack of quality.
I don't need twenty weapons if too many of them are too similar to each other. Not to mention, too many of them being quite difficult to use. Some of which could possibly harm maybe kill you. I prefer how they kept the weapons a short list. There's no real upgrades for the weapons. Don't worry there's ways they made up for that.
Majority of ammo is the truly strange part. Usually you would expect bullets for your firearms within video games. Instead you use letters that's used in every weapon. Thankfully they do differ how each gun ammunition. It's kinda cool rapid firing letters. Seeing them ricochet around the environments.
Sure some people may not like taped enemies keeps on talking. The inventory is very Resident Evil 7/Village style. You also get a tool box or two in a handful of locations. If you need to put some extra stuff in them. I liked the thought behind the concept. There's a small variety of enemies that notably differs.
What I really like is many enemies. If you do side stuff to help em out. They no longer pursue for reminder of the run. There's a few sections around the TV station you get to explore. Depending on difficulties at a point. Either you don't need any token to save or at least one to do the same.
I also gotta talk about the puzzles. There's some rather clever puzzles in this game. One of my favorites involves figuring out three patterns regarding time cards. You can only use three particular shapes with three of a shape being the limit. This is more of a math problem than solving time theme questions.
Another puzzle I liked was you need three particular key items. You go to the green house to mix em together. I confessed it was late at night. It took a little while before I realized. I needed to hold down the three colored buttons for this puzzle. Quickly press all three of them will not work.
I always loved when an game eventually allows you to fully go around the entire map. Despite some sections getting cut off for reminder of the run. There's not a lot of bosses in the game either. It's more bosses than Killing Time: Resurrected let's get that fact straight here. I won't sugar coat there's some back tracking.
I don't think the necessary portion of that is game breaking by any means. Especially in later playthroughs you could replay the game with cheats. The grading system for your runs is quite similar to newer Resident Evil games with S+ being the best grade you could earn. It's mind blowing this really felt like an Resident Evil game.
The achievement/trophy hunting is surprisingly a lot of fun. If you need to use guides I recommend watching videos. I also like you get the option to drop stuff from your inventory outside using tool boxes. Although for key items you gotta use em fully before doing so. There is a notable learning curve that's roughly close to being somewhat fair.
I'm about to go into major spoiler territory. I will give you a few minutes to leave to prevent seeing major end game spoilers. Alright the entire endgame takes place in the location you first met Ricky. I simply love one of the main characters is a sock puppet. You need to gain access to a particular elevator.
You got a few surprises awaiting you upstairs. A notable amount of this area is made out of cardboard boxes. This kept reminding me of a particular episode of Ed, Edd n Eddy. Edtropolis for anyone wondering which episode. You also have to help this guy on a piano out a little bit.
This is the only character you regularly have the option to help or not. Helping him you pull a lever to make the platform you're on go higher. You get to climb all the way up from the roof to the antenna. You knew something had to happen right? You get to face the final boss easily the weirdest character in the game.
Yes even weirder than another boss that covers the entire entrance with multiple eye balls. This thing is like several of these characters rolled into one. It's sorta like a Chimera from Greek mythology. It's a weird hybrid creature that's notably bigger than the rest of the enemies. You actually have two choices you could do during the boss fight.
Defeat him or figure a way to sneak past him? Which was a rather unexpected angle. Among leaving the building you have one last conversation with Ricky. You are given a choice between a few endings. The game will end slightly faster if you pick Yes. If you chosen No you have to get back to your vehicle to leave.
Believe it or not, I still got a lot more to discuss. Earlier I mentioned cheats you can unlock. Majority of them you could find by collecting VHS tapes. Supposedly one of them has a few possible locations. The last couple cheats are given to you among beating the game on difficulties.
Although they do allow using cheats for the most part. There's a few unlockable modes that notably affects the game. Including Free-cam mode that's virtually the famous No Clip mode. Dusk Mode which is a direct reference to the developers' previous game. I should mention it was two brothers that made My Friendly Neighborhood.
I just found out PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions. Actually came out a day earlier just short of two years following the original Steam release. My favorite mode by far gotten added in through a free update originally. Neighborhorde is very Resident Evil's The Mercenaries inspired.
No literately you get a handful of characters with their own set up. You get a few stages being four possibly referencing either version of Resident Evil 4. You can hit targets to increase your time to a degree. The bosses are essentially the Unfriendly Neighborhood versions. Imagine a more creepier, determine variation of the same characters.
Obviously they are much bigger from they were in the short section of the campaign. It's also possible for more than one to spawn too. I also liked they did change a few stuff between the stages to differ em from each other. I was quite blown away how truly fun this mini game was. You have to beat the game once to play this mode.
I must be obsessed with this Resident Evil clone. I confessed I didn't think much of it a few years ago. Now I wish I would've given it respect back then after playing it. This game officially earned my respect. The campaign without using cheats could be a few hours long. This is easily one of the most surprising games I ever played through Game Pass.
Yes even considering both Mullet Madjack and Crime Scene Cleaner in that discussion. This felt like Resident Evil yet does plenty of things differently. This is exactly why indie games are earning my respect more recently. Games like this are quickly becoming some of my absolute favorites in recent years.
Words just can't express how truly amazing this game was to me. I would actually be proud to hand both brothers' hands for making this I'm not kidding. I felt content wise it's more focus than Resident Evil 7 let's be honest. I still felt a few aspects were done better in RE7 out of respect.
I will say this though I am deeply impressed by this. I would be very interested playing a sequel or a spin off to this game. It's safe to say among my favorite modern horror games by far. Don't expect it to be scary no expect a few wow oh okay moments. Like after you put together a key item after turning the lights on.
Which also gets Ray to leave the area. One of the regular enemies suddenly shows up. Among firing at him causing multiple copies to pop out. Suddenly you go into panic mode hopefully to not get overwhelmed. My Friendly Neighborhood was a rather great addition to Game Pass. I just hope anyone that reads this review considers playing this game soon.
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