'Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy' Gameplay News: First Game's Unreleased Level 'Stormy Ascent' Now Available on Remastered Collection
An unreleased level named "Stormy Ascent" from the first "Crash Bandicoot" title was recently added to the "Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy" remastered collection.
Coinciding with the recently concluded 2017 San Diego Comic Con festivities last week, its developers revealed the first ever teaser for the unreleased level.
In an interview over at Sony PlayStation Blog, Taylor Kurosaki, who was attached to the making of the original titles at Naughty Dog, and Dan Tanguay, "Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy's" game director from Vicarious Vision, provided more insight into the making of "Stormy Ascent" and its recent addition to the remastered titles.
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According to Kurosaki, when the making of "Stormy Ascent" was assigned to him back in the Naughty Dog studio, he did not yet have a "great understanding" of designing a game's difficulty at the time. "This level was so close to the end of the game and, you guessed it, it ended up being insanely difficult," Kurosaki recounted.
The "Crash Bandicoot" developer added that he ended up making the level extremely difficult to accomplish that even he - the man who knew how to calculate the distance of Crash's jump in "Stormy Ascent" as well as other details - could not pass the level so easily.
Kurosaki said the level was playable in its original form but was still "too d*** difficult." When they did not have enough time left to polish "Stormy Ascent" to make it easier to play, it was then decided to leave it out of the final release.
However, Tanguay noted that fans soon found the "Stormy Ascent" level through a GameShark code. It then stirred a wide interest among the "Crash Bandicoot" fan base who asked the developers to release the lost level.
"The team here at Vicarious Visions knew the fans really wanted Stormy Ascent, and so did we," Tanguay added.
So they first let one of the developers - who Tanguay referred to as the best player of the game on their team - try and beat "Stormy Ascent's" original gameplay.
"It took him 60 lives to get through it – needless to say it was much more challenging than he had expected. However, he still fell in love with it and we decided to bring it life," Tanguay added.
Tanguay also said that "Stormy Ascent" is not just one of the most difficult levels in the franchise, it is also the longest stage in the entire trilogy.
Players who have already purchased the "Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy" on PS4 can now download the "Stormy Ascent" level for free until Aug. 19.
