
I actually enjoyed what I played of Crash 1 and was welcoming the compact level design and super-precise platforming challenges to a point. Having said that, I think I may take your advice and work backwards in order to get more out of the experience. I think I need to finally abandon the shame associated with not wanting to continue games I find difficult or frustrating. There are just too many I want to see through to the end to adopt that mentality and I'm not sure the challenge is really adding anything to my experience after a point.
Having said that, I do want to feel the gratification of completing all three games and in the context of a platformer I'm in my element enough it's not a dealbreaker; but I think adult me needs to learn it's ok to take breathers from things that ultimately don't help the rest of my life.