Crash Bandicoot 4 was announced last week, and now we’ve also gotten the ESRB rating for the game. Fitting for a Crash Bandicoot game, the game got the normal rating for a kid-friendly platformer, though that doesn’t mean that there aren’t things in the game some may find objectionable or tacky.
The new game, subtitled It’s About Time (fitting since it’s been many years since the previous mainline Crash Bandicoot game that wasn’t the N. Sane remakes), was rated E 10+ for alcohol references, cartoon violence, comic mischief, and language.
Cartoon violence comes in with the normal sort of slapstick that comes with these games as Crash jumps on, punches, kicks, and otherwise dispatches enemies that include pirates, robots, and dinosaurs. Enemies also use cartoony guns and rockets to fight back, though anyone hit by these weapons disappears in a puff of smoke and cartoon sound effects.
Alcohol also makes appearances in Crash Bandicoot 4, as taverns and barrels of alcohol are seen along with a cartoonish depiction of a drunk man vomiting. Adult language is also used in the game including “ass” and “bastard”, which is quite odd for a Crash game.
While it’s possible these new additions are a sign of the game trying to grow up at least a little bit with its audience, it’s not too much and unlike something like, say, Conker, Crash Bandicoot remains a family-friendly game that can afford to drop one or two minor swear words.
Either way, it seems like Crash Bandicoot 4 will have a lot of things to show us that might not have been in the original games. While cartoon violence has always been a part of Crash (such as in the end-level screens where Crash is repeatedly hit by all the crates he missed), all the new powers like time manipulation, new time periods, and new environments will hopefully bring the fresh air that Crash is looking for to the series.
Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time will be coming to the Playstation 4 and Xbox One (and later the Xbox Series X) on October 2.
