Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex

"Not good, but not bad"

Here is Rockdog's review of Crash Bandicoot:The Wrath of Cortex.

STORY-5/10

The story is nearly the same as the other crashes. Dr. Neo Cortex has another plot to take over the world and to unleash his power, he needs crystals. Sound familiar? A new twist is that there are no bosses like N. Tropy-instead there's a super-bandicoot Crunch. He combines his powers with that of the Elementals-4 masks sent to help Crunch unleash his power-and give Crash some nasty surprises. Still, it's the basic Crash recipie.

GAMEPLAY-6/10

A slight improvement. There are still racing levels and levels where you ride on something (it is no longer an animal, but a scooter or snowboard) and Bonus Levels and so on, but there are new ideas. The best is the Atlas Sphere. There are a few levels where you roll around in a hamster ball trying to collect things. This is quite a good idea. If more originallity like this could have been thought up of, this would be a classical game. Unfortunately, little more came. There is an idea of a new robot type thing (Mech) that you can control, but not till later on in the game.

GRAPHICS-8/10

The game's strong point. The graphics are beautiful and are quite detailed. They've got everything down to a fine touch and the colours are very nice and the backgrounds are fitting. It's as if the developers have thought about the mood of a level, and simply drawn and coloured what was in their mind. The graphics almost have a certain realisim to them, especcialy in the scenes where Cortex and his cronies are nattering to you.

LIFESPAN-8/10

This game is also quite long. You may not think it, and beat the final boss, thinking ''Well, that was a short game'', only to look at the percentage screen to see that you've only completed 50% of the game. There are hidden areas, unlockable paths, hidden levels and in all levels except bosses, record times to break. Put it this way-if you put the disc in the playstation 2 and then decide to get 100% before getting it out or stop playing on it, then you should have nearly a month's supply of food in easy reach.

SOUND-7/10

The old school Crash music. For fast levels, faster tunes and so on. Also, there is a level where you ride a snowboard, and when you land, the ''phut!'' timing is perfect. While not the game's best point (graphics holds the cup there)it is still very good. Also, you can often tell what enemey is ahead by litening first. Say you're Level 17, where it is quite dark and you're friend is watching you, you hear a noise and say ''I bet you a fiver that's a robot ahead''. When you're friend makes the deal, step far enough foward to se the enemey and you'll probably be 5 pounds richer.

MINI-GAMES-4/10

Little or nothing. There aren't really mini-games, not even in the levels. I can't really say much else on the matter.

REPLAYABILITY-6/10

Quite good relic-wise as it's a good way to show if experience can improve things in video-games. There is little else, but at least it's better than most platformers.

SUMMARY-Buy this game if you really want to. Otherwise, rent it to see what it's like first.

7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/15/02, Updated 07/15/02