If you’ve started playing Uncharted 4, by now you’ve probably gotten up to that scene. The secret one. You know, the one in chapter four.
SPOILER WARNING: DON’T GO FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN’T PLAYED PAST CHAPTER FOUR OF UNCHARTED 4
In the fourth chapter of Uncharted 4, after a hearty dinner of noodles that don’t seem to disappear no matter how many get eaten, protagonist Nathan Drake and his wife Elena decide to play some Crash Bandicoot, which means that you, the player, get to play Crash Bandicoot.
Yep, Naughty Dog rebuilt an entire level of Crash inside Uncharted 4. This comes after they explicitly denied that anything like that would happen in Nathan Drake’s final adventure. “We wanted to put a Crash Bandicoot game inside,” Uncharted 4 co-director Bruce Straley had said to the AV Club last year. “Not gonna happen, though. Don’t worry.”
Outside of the novelty of getting to play a PS1 game inside of a PS4 game — nostalgic start screen and all — there’s something really rad about this entire sequence. It’s all very human in a way that video games don’t often get to capture. The relationship between Drake and Elena feels real and true. Like any couple you’ve ever met, these video game characters slurp down noodles as they talk about their days. When one of them clearly isn’t listening, the other will call them out. They rib each other when they play video games, with the more experienced player gently encouraging the newcomer and offering direction when needed. Thanks to some smart writing and Naughty Dog’s incredible animation work, the scene has genuine heart.
It makes for a sharp contrast to the rest of the game, where Drake is jumping from ledge to ledge in the most unrealistic fashion imaginable. (Raise your hand if you thought “Physics do not work like that” every time he’d leap across a chasm and grab the edge of a nearby cliff without breaking all of his fingers.) Here, in just a few minutes of tranquility, Naughty Dog has achieved something pretty damn great. And it’s all thanks to Crash Bandicoot.
Comments
20 responses to “Let’s Talk About That One Scene In Uncharted 4”
While I could be cynical and just wave it away as fan service, this raises an interesting point.
The more stories we get in these games, the more _videogames_ will be represented in those stories. All for that.
Gone Home is probably the best example before this game. That game had old game carts as a nice touch. And Magic Eye. Magic Eye was awesome.
Is Nathan so out of touch with the world to call a Playstation a “TV game thing”?
Anyone else spend way too long up in his attic firing plastic balls at things?
I spent just long enough to get the trophy. 🙂
My skepticism of the easiness of modern games was confirmed in the limited lives of Crash….
I also praised the sun that d-pad controls are long longer a thing
So frustrating on the D-pad. Drake was using the stick. Why couldn’t I?
They still can’t get the kissing right.
Technically a level isn’t a game so their refusal to put it in still holds if you want to be pedantic.
It’s a cool idea though. The last game I saw that did this was Prince of Persia: Sands of Time which had the first level of the original POP remade in the game’s engine. A while later, Prince of Persia Classic was released which was a remake of the first game so maybe this is a hint that we might see a Crash Bandicoot 1 remake? I don’t know who owns the rights to it at the moment but if it’s Sony then it would make sense.
Activision has the rights to Crash Bandicoot.
I loved the banter in this scene..
“Why is the boulder chasing me? I have done nothing to this boulder”
“He fell down the hole? I wouldn’t do that.” Drake always auto grabs the ledge. HAHAHA
It was really cool when you finish the crash level or die when it cuts back to Nathan and Ellie looking at the screen and you can just marvel at how far video games have come in a really, really short time.
Felt similar about Frank’s use of his Vita in House of Cards.
I was struggling to time the fences. Then, approaching the first fence, on my last life, Elena says “use the spin move” and in my head I’m thinking “I don’t remember being able to spin the fences down but I haven’t played Crash Bandicoot in years” so I try it and… SPLAT.
Not having played the game yet, I was like “Am I missing some sort of sexual innuendo here?…”
Huh?! You dont know what crash bandicoot is?!
That’s what they’re calling it these days?
Oh I know Crash Bandicoot the game…
My head went to sex first and decade old game second so I just thought I missed an obscure pun for a second or so…^_^
Wait, now are you being sarcastic and trying to say that crash bandicoot is an obscure sex pun?
You are sick! 😉
Nathan be like: I’ll crash your bandicoot 😉