Crash Bandicoot remastered trilogy given release date for PS4

Activision has announced that Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy will release on 30 June for PS4. The remastered collection will feature the first three games in the series: Crash Bandicoot, Cortex Strikes Back and Warped.

The company revealed the release date in a trailer (embedded below) showing off some of the marsupial's signature moves.

Available for £34.99 ($39.99 in the US), the remastered trilogy includes real-time lighting effects, new animations and cinematics, improved texture resolutions, a completely remastered soundtrack and support for the PS4 Pro.

N. Sane Trilogy was first announced at Sony's E3 press conference in June 2016, although the official title for the collection was not revealed until a PlayStation Experience event held in December.

According to Vicarious Visions, the studio behind the remastered classics, the N. Sane Trilogy also includes new unified save and checkpoint systems, refined controls and full analog stick support. The game's bonus levels and time trials have also been updated.

"This is a AAA remaster," game director Dan Tanguay said in an interview posted on Activision's blog. "We're giving this the love and attention to detail that we pay to all of our AAA games. We're building it using the original level geometry so that it plays as close to the original as possible. We've also referred to this as a remaster plus, as we are adding new features that we think the fans are going to love."

When asked if the new Crash was wearing shorts, jorts or jeans, Art Lead Dustin King said he "actually had to look up 'jorts'."

"Our version of Crash is wearing surfer shorts which we felt reads much closer to the shapes, colours and forms in the original games, and is in line with the original concept art we started from that was provided to us by Sony. We also feel it speaks to his '90s era persona."

However, the team said they did aim to stay true to the look and feel of the original games created by Uncharted developer Naughty Dog.

"The addition of real-time lighting in a PBR (Physically Based Rendering) engine, along with an increase in texture size, can sometimes make our environments look different than the originals," King said. "Generally, while we strive to recreate each level so it looks and feels like the original, we also want to make sure that environments are fun, colorful, and read well in the fast-paced action with the addition of the new technology we are using."