Crash Twinsanity

"A spectator will enjoy this game as much as the player, for this game excels both as a game and cartoon alike."

Back in the day, when you thought of PlayStation, chances were that Crash was the first thing that popped on mind. He was Sony's mascot, and now he's here to make up for his last pedestrian outing.

Story

Let's admit it: this sort of game is never about the story. If you're expecting Crash to die a tragic death all while Cortex asks for forgiveness and confesses that he's Crash's father, then you need someone to set the records straight for you. Um, sure Cortex may be argued to be Crash's father, because after all he's the one who created him, but that's that.

On the other hand, if you're expecting this game to be one of the funnier platformer outings, then you're in for a treat. From start to finish, this game never left me without a smile. Crash checking out Cortex's seductive ass then slapping it down the slopes to ride it, Cortex putting on blonde hair and pretending he's Crash's sister, Cortex falling down a pit and shouting, "Don't worry about me; the spikes broke my fall": it's all here, and all wanting to steal smiles off you. All in all, it seems like multiple episodes from your favorite funny cartoons.

Rating: 8.5

Graphics and Constancy

"It's gorgeous" is something you'll rarely hear yourself murmuring throughout the game. However, you'll be happy to know that you'll be satisfied with this game's graphics with every bone in your body. The color palette is mostly vibrant, lurid, and cheery, and that's what your run-of-the-mill Saturday morning cartoon will most probably look like.

The frame rate sometimes stutters, but that never hurts the game play or your performance. The draw distance is really good, and loading times are barely noticeable. All in all, pretty good stuff.

Rating: 9.0

Audio

The music is wonderful. You'll be hearing yourself repeating the same melodies and tunes over and over again just because they're so mesmerizing. The music will become repetitive and redundant at times, but apart from a couple of music tracks, the compositions in this game are solid.

The sound effects are good, and everything fits well.

Rating: 8.0

Game Play

Super Mario 64 pulled it from 2-d to 3-d impeccably, so how did crash do with its jump from very-restricted 3-d to somehow open-ended 3-d? It's a bad comparison, but the notion is that each of the games had a jump from what we're used to to something new. Alright, so the game pulls it off greatly in my opinion. The new twist here is not in that it's gone fully 3-d, but rather in that you can now control Cortex alongside Crash. You have your usual fair of levels along with some good brainteasers to solve out.

One level you'll be riding the slopes on Cortex's back, and another you'll be sprinting inside of a ball of dust (not unlike Super Monkey Ball's, um, balls). That's right. Fresh out of your cartoons is the dust ball that is composed of the following ingredients: two or more entities and anger in between. You roll the ball down the level, and if you take a pause, the dust will clear to show Crash slapping Cortex, Cortex choking Crash, etc.

One word of advice though: make sure you are able to control your temper, since this game is controller-shatteringly frustrating at times. And another annoying thing is the lack of a button to skip scenes. I know the scenes are funny, but when you watch 'em for the 50th time after dying over and over again, you know something went wrong. Also, the lack of some sort of "Level Select" option is infuriating and will put some people off.

Rating: 8.5

Life Span

This game will take you anywhere from 8 hours upwards first time through without going for 100%. If you want to go for 100% and nab all the extras, you'll be putting in some good 10 hours+. Keep in mind, the 8 hours I was talking about is in-game time. So if you want to have an exact number counting how many times you quit out of frustration and anger, add 1/3 of the overall's time to that interval.

Rating: 8.0

The Finisher

This game is a must for any Crash fan, especially after the bad taste the last outing left in their mouths. However, if you're expecting something of Jak or Ratchet proportions, then make sure to lower your standards, even if just an itsy-bitsy bit.

Rating: 8.5 rounded to an 8.0 for GameFAQs standards (could've been rounded to a 9 too, but that just depends on your look at the "half cup full" or "half cup empty" issue).

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/04/04, Updated 11/04/04