It’s been years since Toys for Bob dropped Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, and honestly, we’re still talking about how they handled the roster. Most long-time fans grew up with the Naughty Dog originals where characters were, well, a bit flatter. You jumped. You spun. You broke a crate. But the Crash Bandicoot 4 characters are a whole different beast because they aren't just skins or cameos; they actually change the fundamental physics of how you play the game.
The Evolution of the Bandicoot Family
Crash himself is exactly what you’d expect, but polished to a mirror finish. He’s still that goofy, orange whirlwind of chaos. However, the developers added a layer of precision that makes him feel heavier and more deliberate than he did in the N-Sane Trilogy. You can feel the weight when he lands.
Coco isn't just a secondary character anymore. While she shares Crash's move set for the most part, her inclusion as a fully playable option for nearly every level matters. It’s a small detail, but it basically validates her as an equal hero rather than the "tech support" she played in the 90s. She’s got the same double jump and the same belly flop, but the animations are distinct. She’s more calculated, less frantic.
Tawna's Radical Reinvention
Then there's Tawna. If you remember her from the first game, she was basically just a damsel in distress who disappeared for decades. The Crash Bandicoot 4 characters lineup fixes this by pulling a version of her from an alternate dimension—"Tawna-verse," if you will. She’s got this punk-rock aesthetic and a literal grappling hook.
Playing as Tawna feels like a different genre. You’re wall-jumping and zipping across gaps. It’s fast. It’s aggressive. She doesn't spin; she kicks. This version of Tawna is a survivor who lost her version of Crash and Coco, which gives her a gritty edge the series usually avoids. It’s a weirdly dark backstory for a game about a cartoon marsupial, but it works.
The Villains Steal the Show
We have to talk about Neo Cortex. Usually, he’s the guy you’re chasing, but in It’s About Time, you actually step into his lab shoes. Cortex doesn't have a double jump. Think about that for a second. In a platformer defined by verticality, playing as a character who can’t jump twice is terrifying. Instead, he has a head-dash and a ray gun that turns enemies into solid or gelatinous platforms.
It’s a puzzle-platformer sub-game inside a reflex-heavy mascot platformer.
- The Ray Gun: One shot turns a bird into a block.
- The Dash: It’s horizontal only, which leads to some incredibly stressful "will I make it?" moments.
- The Ego: His dialogue is still voiced by the legendary Lex Lang, and he’s as wonderfully pathetic as ever.
Dingodile is the biggest surprise, though. After the events of Crash Bandicoot: Warped, he actually retired. He opened a diner. He just wanted to grill. But after his restaurant gets sucked into a dimensional rift, he’s back in action with a vacuum cannon. He’s slow. He’s bulky. He hovers. He’s essentially the "tank" of the Crash Bandicoot 4 characters, and his levels are some of the most destructive and satisfying in the entire game.
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The Quantum Masks: Not Just Power-Ups
While not "characters" in the traditional sense of having legs and a backstory you can play through, the four Quantum Masks—Lani-Loli, Akano, Kupuna-Wa, and Ika-Ika—are sentient entities that define the gameplay. They talk. They argue. They have personalities.
Lani-Loli is the neurotic one who lets you phase objects in and out of existence. Akano is the mask of dark matter that turns you into a perpetual purple whirlwind. Kupuna-Wa slows down time, which is the only way some of us survived the Nitro-heavy late-game levels. Finally, Ika-Ika flips gravity.
These masks interact with the core Crash Bandicoot 4 characters in ways that make the level design feel incredibly dense. You aren't just running; you're managing a suite of superpowers that rotate every few minutes. It’s exhausting, but in a good way.
Why the Difficulty Curve Matters
There is a common complaint that Crash 4 is too hard. It is. It’s brutal. But the reason it’s brutal is that each of these characters requires a different "brain mode." When you switch from Crash to Dingodile, your muscle memory has to reset. You can't rely on the spin. You have to remember the vacuum hover.
Some fans argue that the alternate character levels are just "filler" because you often have to replay parts of Crash's levels after finishing the character-specific segment. It’s a fair critique. However, seeing the world from Cortex's perspective or seeing how Dingodile accidentally helped Crash move forward adds a layer of "Meanwhile..." storytelling that the series never had before.
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The Forgotten Cameos and Lore
The game is packed with references to the wider universe. You’ll see nods to Crash Team Racing and even the much-maligned Crash of the Titans era if you look closely at the backgrounds. The inclusion of characters like N. Tropy (and his female counterpart from another dimension) raises the stakes. This isn't just about stopping a mad scientist; it's about the collapse of the multiverse.
The chemistry between the two N. Tropys is genuinely creepy. They are so narcissistic that they literally fall in love with themselves. It’s a bizarre, high-concept villain dynamic that shouldn't work in a game about breaking boxes, but Toys for Bob leaned into the weirdness.
Hidden Details You Probably Missed
If you pay attention to the idle animations, you’ll see the personality of these Crash Bandicoot 4 characters shine through.
- Crash tries to catch butterflies or plays with a yo-yo.
- Coco checks her tablet or adjusts her goggles.
- Dingodile scratches his belly and looks generally annoyed to be there.
- Cortex frantically checks his ray gun to make sure it’s still working.
These tiny touches matter because they bridge the gap between a 1996 polygon mess and a 2020s modern masterpiece.
Expert Tips for Mastering the Roster
If you're struggling to finish the game or hitting that 106% completion mark, you need to stop playing every character the same way.
For Tawna, use her kick to extend your air time. Her mobility is her greatest asset, but people often forget she can wall-jump indefinitely in certain areas. For Dingodile, don't just use the vacuum to hover; use it to pull TNT crates toward you and launch them at distant snipers. It changes the combat flow entirely.
When playing as Cortex, remember that his dash resets his vertical momentum. It’s a life-saver if you misjudge a jump. And for the love of everything, use the "Yellow Ring" indicator under your character. It was a controversial addition for purists, but with the depth perception issues inherent in 3D platformers, it’s the only way to play the Crash Bandicoot 4 characters with any degree of accuracy.
The Real Impact of Character Variety
The shift toward a multi-character format wasn't just a gimmick. It was a necessity to keep the "corridor platformer" genre alive. By introducing different movement sets, the developers were able to create puzzles that Crash simply couldn't solve on his own. It turned the game from a test of reflexes into a test of mechanical knowledge.
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Whether you prefer the classic spinning of Crash or the high-tech tinkering of Cortex, the variety ensures the game never gets stale—even when it's making you want to throw your controller across the room.
To truly master the game, focus on perfecting one character's "Perfect Relic" run before moving to the next. Start with Coco or Crash on the early N. Sanity Island levels to get a feel for the physics. Move to the Dingodile levels in the Mosquito Marsh to practice hovering and projectile management. Finally, tackle the Cortex levels in the 11th Dimension only once you’re comfortable with dash-timing. Mastering the specific nuances of each character is the only way to survive the gauntlet that is the final boss trek.