Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex

"I think Crash just sold us all out!"

Crash Bandicoot is an adventure game. It is a lot more complex than Crash Bandicoot 1, 2, an 3 for that matter, but it is still not hard to learn. Let me break it down for you.

Game play: The game play went right through the ground in this one. First your Crash, a bandicoot that can stand up. This may seem like a goofie game at first (well it never gets too serious...). Any ways, Crash can jump and spin. They even added a bunch of staple moves. You can now slide and high jump! Now back to the game play. There is about 25 levels to explore, you go around in 3D jumping over pits, dodging tons of traps and ''spinning'' or jumping on enemies. In every level you break crates for goodies (not the TNT ones...) and collect fruit for extra lives. The bosses in this game are kind of lame, but are still a great challenge. One HUGE flaw this game has in this area, is its losing grip with pure basics, no wait it LOST its grip! This game finally pushed it with useless other stuff... That game doesn't feel like crash anymore! More than half the levels you are in vehicles and another quarter you are Coco... I seriously HATE playing a Crash game (If you read my review of the first one you will know I loved and so did others) when your just in vehicles. It's like you are not even Crash, hell they could of put any person in a vehicle! I flying thing, a snowboard, a scooter, as ATV, a mine cart(Which is not that bad), and a FREAKING ROBOT!!! AHH!! I want to know why they thought this was a great idea! And Coco... There is a gimmick right there, advertising ''You can now play as Coco with no restrictions.'' What does Coco play as? Crash with no powers. If they make a new crash game, they better take out all the garbage stuff. Oh yeah one more thing, the load time take like OVER a minute! I thought my game was bugged because of this! I swear I did at least 20 sit ups (on average) each loading time... Poor

Challenge: I'm not even sure any more if the difficulty when up, or that it is just that hard to adjust to so many different freaking things! Like who can Drive, roll a hamster ball, then run through a level just like normal? Well the bosses aren't ever that fun nor fair. The water mask has to be one of the poorest boss on the fair-o-meter... The relics are not even well tested either. Put it this way, I am really bad in racing, and I got the Platinum relic my first time through... Tolerable

Control: Every thing is basically the same, only this time Crash looks like he moves a lot slower than ever! Other than that, flying in a jet pack can only be so much worst...
Tolerable


Story: Hmm the story of Crash. Well first this is almost a pure adventure game, so you don't even need the story in the first place, but this game still has one. It some how has to do with 4 elemental masks helping Uka Uka and a new Bandicoot named Crunch. The mask thing would of flew over with me, if they had bodies... Average

Visuals: From the way I remember it, it looks like the game has not of changed from Crash 3 to Crash 4. They still look good, and has a lot of detail, but there is like no improvement at all... Come on this is the PS2! Average

Audio: I actually think they ruined the music in this one... Not one sound has stuck in my head since I played the game... All the effects are basically the same has before too. Tolerable

Re playability: Hmm still feel like finding those gems? Still feel like going through each level again for relics? Maybe if it wasn't for the loading times... Average

Extras: A few secret levels and speed boots! How original unlike Crash 3 Below Average

Pros:
Pure Crash levels are still great

Cons:
The loading is horrible
To many themes in one game makes it bad

This game is not even worth a rent. This was the first ever game I returned for full value...

This game is getting a four out of ten because it is LOST its touch with the original. Nobody who played the original Crash Bandicoot to hell probably likes the racing and other lame stuff this game sports, like come on, shooting down ships? That is just not right for this game. This one part alone ruins the game. They should of improved this since the last one, but in turn they just made the same crap with a longer loading time.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 07/12/03, Updated 07/12/03