Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

"A Sequel Done Right"

We all remember the first Crash Bandicoot game. We also remember the mixed feelings about how fun it was. The second in the series corrects the mistakes in the first and adds more puzzles to add the fun.

Story: The story is that Cortex wants to save the Earth to right his past mistakes. He enlists Crash's aid to collect the crystals so that he can save the Earth. Or does he have a different, hidden motive? The story here is definitely better than the original. It has more depth, and more excitement. It actually helps to pull you into the game. While not deep like role playing games, the story here fits the game quite well.
SCORE: 10

Game Play: The game play for this game is excellent. It's much improved from the first one. The levels have become much more exciting, with new bonus level designs making the level overall more fun. There are even quite a few secret levels, which are challenging and even more challenging to unlock. The award system has been completely redone, with a crystal in each round, and one or two gems to collect. The game play will have most playing till the end, while the first would have made people give up before reaching the end of N. Sanity Island. The controls are excellent. Crash can now do more than jump and spin enemies, but he can slide and belly flop too! This serves to add the excitement that most found lacking in the first game. The big thing however, is the difficulty. The difficulty has been toned down, allowing many more players, both less skilled and younger players, to beat the game without a lot of trouble.
SCORE: 10

Graphics: The graphics like that of the first, are great for a system like the Playstation. Most things are sharp, not a bunch of blocks. The enemies are well done, with lots of detail, as are the boss fights and movie sequences at the beginning and end of the game. Tons of people don't like games with bad graphics because they are just not nice to look at. This game is different. It has good graphics, that sit on the edge of a perfect 10, but there are some faults. Some levels the graphics are a bit bad, and the level looks like the background, so you end up jumping off in an attempt to reach that far platform which, in reality, is the background.
SCORE: 8

Sound: The sound for this game is well, a little disappointing. The sound is too repetitive, with similar music for levels with similar themes. This gets old quickly and makes levels seem like clones of others. The music itself is not very good either. It does not capture the mood of the game and levels as the first one did. It does not offer the same amount of mystery and awe that was present in the original. The upside to this is the voices, which were good all around, especially the improvement to cortex's voice, making him sound much, much better.
SCORE: 6

Replay Value: Replay value for this game is overall pretty high. The different parts of the game come together to make an experience you'll want to come back to every now and then. Whether your replaying it for fun or to completely finish the game, you will have a lot of fun doing so(probably not on the second, but that depends on your skill). It will not have you playing it over and over for weeks on end, but it will last quite a while if you find the initial experience good.
SCORE: 7

Final Score: 8
This game deserves a high rating. Anybody could find this game enjoyable.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/30/06