Also available on: https://gamebanana.com/mods/527056

WHAT IS THIS?

A mod for Crash 4 designed to make completion and general gameplay more fair and more fun. It aims to fix the flaws and weaker elements of the completion system and level designs to make the game into a better version of itself.

CORE FEATURES:

• Streamlined completion experience – N. Verted mode is now optional, Timeline levels have been shortened, superfluous collectibles have been removed and harder ones have been made optional, and forced repetition has been drastically reduced
• Difficulty balance adjustments - extra checkpoints and Aku Aku crates have been added where needed, difficulty spikes have been reduced (fairer timing patterns, letting Aku Aku save you from instakill obstacles, adjusting or removing unfair deathplanes etc.), and the challenge has been shifted towards the harder collectibles (such as the new Master relics)
• Level design tweaks - obtuse or easily missable hidden crates have been removed, hidden gems and crate puzzles have been made more interesting, and adjustments have been made to level flow in both normal and time trial modes, and in flashback levels
• Lots of other improvements - Rush Hour is split into 2 levels, no nitro bouncing and no flame crates in time trials, color coded outline crates, an upgraded triple spin, tapes are collectable in time trials, exclusive skins unlocked from the beginning and more!
  

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS can be found in a PDF file in the download archive.
• While a lot of things have changed, the game is still Crash 4 in spirit, so don't be afraid thinking it's something entirely different. Also, while some of the elements are now easier, this is not an easy mode. The intention was to make the game more fair and approachable, while still maintaining the challenge.
• Save files are fully compatible, progress will not be erased if you switch between the modded and vanilla versions. However, it is highly recommended to play on a new save for the sake of the experience. Remember, ALWAYS back up your save games!
• WARNING: Other mods can sometimes cause issues if both N.Hanced and another mod make use of the same game asset files. If you encounter any issue (especially if it's a game crash that happens when finishing On the Rails Time trial), uninstall all other mods and see if it works then.
  

Credits

• SpongeBandimark for the Version 2 Intro and Logo (based on this one)
• Demedi for the modeling work on the 3D collectibles
• HAWGT and LongerWarrior for "Crash 4 Exclusive PSN ActivisionBNet Skins”
• boycalledjames for the Version 1 Logo, which is part of "Retro HUD HD".
• Trizio, StefanGose, felipesm2020, Warden201 and Dastanovich for the Italian, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Arabic and Russian translations respectively
• Special thanks to members of the Crash 4 N. Hanced Discord group who contributed to the project with their suggestions, feedback and supportive comments!
  

DETAILED CHANGES

Optional N.Verted mode

N.Verted mode is completely optional with no separate collectibles. (included as an optional mod). Collectibles can be collected as normal, and will count towards completion in normal mode.

KNOWN ISSUE: Due to an implementation detail, the screen is not mirrored in N.Verted mode. This was necessary to make it not count towards completion.

Completion % and Ending unlock changes

The total achievable percentage is now 108%. The first ending requires 100% (i.e. all gems), so it can be unlocked with just one playthrough of each level (except a few). The second requires only 104%, for which the intended way is getting all Flashback medals and Sapphire time relics. Platinum relics and Perfection relics are thus entirely optional, however, they could be used to unlock the endings "earlier".

KNOWN ISSUE: While the percentage values for the ending unlocks have been adjusted, a bug causes the second ending to randomly stay locked, despite having fulfilled the new requirement (104%). Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem possible for me to fix it, so as a workaround, the Ending video files are available in the Lava/Content/Movies folder inside the game’s install location, they are called "C_BonusEnd.mp4" and "C_BonusEnd1.mp4" respectively.

Below is a breakdown for the percentage value of every element:

• Normal levels: 2% × 30 = 60%
• Timeline levels: 1% × 9 = 9%
• Boss levels: 2%, except first Cortex boss (5%) and second Cortex boss (10%); 21% in total
• Gems: 5% for half, another 5% for all; 10% total
• All Sapphire time relics: 2%
• All Platinum time relics: 2%
• All Flashback Medals (previously Platinum Flashback Relics): 2%
• All Perfection Trophies (previously N.Sanely Perfect relics): 2%
  

Gems revamp

4 of 6 gems have been removed, so now there’s only 2: the crate gem and hidden gem. Wumpa collection is still rewarded, as collecting 90% of all wumpa unlocks a level’s skin (as opposed to collecting an ever increasing amount of gems). These changes were made in an attempt to make gems feel more significant (due to there being less of them), and to up the challenge of wumpa collection, as 80% was too easy to achieve.

Redesigned levels

NOTE: A full list of level design changes is included in a PDF file in the download archive.

Levels underwent significant changes. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of the major ones:

Rush Hour was split into 2 levels

• The 2 new levels are unlocked one after the other and come between Food Run and The Crate Escape. They both have the usual collectibles, including gems, relics and skins, and count towards completion.
  

Timeline Levels have been shortened to the alternate character sections

• After the timeline intersection event, the player is teleported to the end of the level, so they don't have to repeat the Crash/Coco section in 2 levels.
• Crates, wumpa goals and relic times have all been adjusted to reflect this change.
• The Crash/Coco sections of these levels contain crate formations from both the normal and timeline versions. Usually, the more interesting variant of each crate formation was kept.
  

Crate modifications

• Hidden crates have been greatly toned down. Crates that were offscreen, obscured by or blending into environment or required highly specific camera movements have either been removed, moved slightly to be more visible or had wumpas added nearby to hint at their presence. The same things were done with crates that the player could easily forget to re-break if they died at some point. (E.g. behind Run It Bayou's first checkpoint)
• Some crate puzzles have been removed, added, or altered to make each section an optimal length and difficulty. Some formations were made more interesting so that they are approached in unique ways.
  

Hidden gems and colored gems

• Some gems had their location or method of collection altered, either because they were in unintuitive places, hidden in similar ways (offscreen, requiring leaps of faith), or didn’t require much effort to find or collect. They are now hidden in more clever ways and/or involve platforming puzzles.
• All crates near hidden gems that required manually breaking have been removed, so the 2 gems can be collected separately.
• Some of the color gem puzzles have been altered to be less trivial and more interesting. Additionally, a purple gem has been added somewhere in the game, with a similar philosophy to the other color gems, and the hidden gem route in Off Balance was repurposed as the purple gem route. (KNOWN ISSUE: The purple gem doesn't appear in the main collectible grid, I couldn't find a way to make it work)
  

Level difficulty, length, and flow adjustments

• A few obstacles (especially in later levels) were made more fair, e.g.: the cars in Rush Hour were slowed down, the electric panels in Building Bridges now turn off for longer, and the Minecarts in Toxic Tunnels are not instakilling.
• A few levels now have additional Aku Aku and/or Checkpoint crates, in sections that were too long or too difficult to do without them.
• Nitro crates don't „hop” anymore to reduce unfair deaths, and randomness during time trials and Perfection Relic runs.
• Most bonus rounds that required backtracking because of Switch (!) crates no longer do so, so they aren’t made artificially longer. Additionally, some crate puzzles have altered so that they are more interesting and don’t require as much trial and error and forced deaths.
• Most Gem routes (including the one in Toxic Tunnels) now don’t need to be visited to get the crate gem, and the hidden gem was moved to the end of these routes. This is to make getting the Crate gems and Perfection relics in these levels less tedious and frustrating.
• A lot of bounce crates were changed to other types or removed, so as to not slow down the flow of platforming.
  

Flashback level redesigns

• Excessive crate bouncing was significantly reduced
• Obstacles are more varied and interesting, with all new puzzles
• Difficulty and section lengths are more balanced, with difficulty increasing steadily in later levels
  

Retro Mode Rebalance

• A large amount of wumpa fruit has been removed to prevent players accumulating lives without progressing to the next section (some sections had upwards of 300 wumpa)
• Some life crates have been removed, changed, or moved into more strategic places (usually hidden or hard to reach).
  

Time Trial changes

• Flashback tapes are now collectable during TTs.
• The timer stops at the exact moment the player touches the crate hologram at the end, instead of the moment when the screen has faded to black, letting the player see their exact time sooner.
• Flame crates have been removed entirely from TTs because their cycle does not reset along with the level, which made runs inconsistent and luck-dependent (especially for high level play).
• Adjustments have been made to levels so that finishing TTs is easier: the number of explosive crates is reduced (especially ones that are in the way or are hard to see), there are more Aku Aku masks, and some obstacles are no longer instakilling (Aku Aku can save you from them)
• Fixed a bug where certain Nitros wouldn't explode neighboring time crates. (The crates that were bugged are ones that only turn into Nitros during time trials)
  

Time Relic revamp

See mod images for the exact relic times.

The Triple Spin was upgraded to the Hyperspin. This version allows max speed to be kept as long as the player keeps spinning (essentially, the fastest spin can be chained indefinitely), instead of the speed always resetting after the third spin.

Relic times underwent a major overhaul. As of version 2.1, the relic times are mostly close to their vanilla equivalents difficulty-wise (accounting for added time crates, level design changes and the hyperspin). Relics that were originally way too lenient were made stricter for a consistent difficulty across levels. Sapphire and gold relics don't require hyperspinning at all, much like the vanilla version, and as such, it's not necessary in order to unlock the final ending (which now only requires the sapphire relics).

Master Relics replace the purple developer relics, and provide a higher challenge for skilled players looking to perfect each level. They require great usage of all advanced mechanics and high precision.

NOTE: Relic ghosts have NOT been adjusted, as such, they don't represent the skills required for each relic.

Other changes

Digital download and preorder skins

• The mod called „Crash 4 Exclusive PSN ActivisionBNet Skins” is included in this version, so all of the extra skins are unlocked by default.
  

3D Collectibles

• Collectibles have 3D Icons. Additionally, some collectibles have a slightly different design or color.
  

Color coded outlines and brighter time crates

• Outline crates are color coded, so crate puzzles can be figured out without needing to hit ! crates, reducing forced deaths.
• Time crates in solid form are brighter yellow so it's easier to tell them apart from normal wooden crates. Their outlines are also yellow, as there are instances where they need to be activated with an ! crate.
  

Cortex control adjusments

• Cortex has a slightly higher jump to compensate for bad collision boxes in some levels (e.g. Fossil Fueled). The hitbox of his dash was made shorter, as previously it extended too far past his head, causing him to accidentally trigger explosive crates with a dash despite not visibly colliding with them.
  

New Intro and Logo

• A New intro is included reminescent of the Crash 3 intro, but customized for Crash 4. A custom logo for the N.Hanced edition is also included.
  

Pass And Play removed

• Pass And Play mode was removed, because it enabled a Time Trial exploit.
  

Leaderboards are disabled (due to a bug)

• Leaderboards and time record uploads are disabled. Without this change, the game would crash when On the Rails time trial is finished (Tawna's portion of Rush Hour), likely because the database entry for this new level doesn't exist.