Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex

"Thankfully the game isn't crushed..."

Crash Bandicoot has became a platform icon at the 32-bit era, much like Sonic and Mario at the pervious eras. Today is very hard to know which platformer is the obvious icon, some say Ratchet and Clank and some say Jak and Daxter. Nobody really knows, the real question, if Crash Bandicoot can survive this era and stay updated to our time? The answer is probably no, but it's a great game.

Story

Crash and his friends are after Cortex again but this time he have a new secret weapon, Crunch Bandicoot and the elemental masks. Will Crash be able to spoil his plans again?

Gameplay

If you played any Crash Bandicoot, you'll have no problem getting used to this one, because it's the same control interface of Crash Bandicoot. Crash can jump, spin, slide, body slam, double jump and even rodeo jump. Also after beating the boss he'll gain new powers such as normal double jump, spin glide ad the fan's favorite from the third Crash game, the Bazooka. It's much the same but the only new power which is extremely useless is the sneaking option. Much like the dash, only much slower, I never used it since it wasn't necessary at all. Even it's the same deal, it doesn't affect that this Crash game is still fun.

There are the same amount of levels, yet there are many backgrounds and places to explore, jungles, sewers, china quarters and many more. Each level is different and you'll have to collect apples, 1ups and the very well-known Crystals, yes, you have to collect those again. There are also the gems that you can find through the stage if you smash all the boxes, yet this time it's much easier than the previous games. Except for the normal platform stages, there are vehicles that appear not only in a part of a stage, but also they have a stage of their own. Right on the 2nd level you are on a plane destroying warships and it's very fun and a nice change from the regular play.

Also new for this game is Coco, Crush's sister. Although she was playable in the last game, this time she plays like Crash, almost. She's slower, instead of spin she kicks and... that's much about it, although she stars in one of the best levels in the game, Coco isn't much of a good change.

You still have to crush boxes which hold special items like the Aku-Aku mask, jump box, and the evil TNT and Nitro boxes. But new is the invisible box which is actually works. It turns Crash being invisible for a while what makes him invincible for a while. Much like new stuff to help the one-hit Bandicoot, yet I don't much care it plays great.

Also a new addition is the ball levels, there are 4 of them and they're pretty fun. Much like a combination of Sonic 3D blast isometric view (well it's the same company) and Super Monkey Ball's gameplay. Those stages have great design and they're really adding to the fun.

More of the bosses, while the pervious games had many bosses, the only boss in this game is Crunch. However each time another elemental mask help him from Rock to Air... Unlike the easy levels, the boss stages are very hard, especially the second one which you can only pass if you know how to jump AT THE EXACT SAME SECOND. It's an unbalanced game and it's a big drawback, yet once you pass it, you'll never have to repeat it.

Graphics

Unlike Spyro who stayed the same, Crash looks better than ever. 60 frames per second, lush environments, good animations, very original places. You can't say Crash hasn't evolved. However the game has a very long loading times which can get to 1 minute and believe me, it's long as it sounds. Although people say there's a minigame in those time I don't get it, what?! Let's hope it'll get better next time.

Sound

Same voice acting with new addition MARK HAMILL. No Crash isn't going to be a jedi, but he does some voice through the game. Also Cortex is back and so the rest of the characters sounds pretty well, even the new Crunch character. The music is still ''Crashy'' and it has it's moments with some memorable tracks. However some of them aren't noticeable and you won't think there is music at some level at all.

Replay Value

Much like Crash Bandicoot 3. There's still need to find all the gems, relics and the secret stages, but it's a short experience. Unless you'll wish to play time attacks in order to get the platinum relics, you'll want to get rid from it about 4 days since you got it.

Overall

It's fun, yet repetitive, Crash Bandicoot 4 is a good addition to the franchise and it's worth renting. Don't buy unless you like Crash that much, but if you like the gameplay, you won't be disappointed.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/14/03