Crash Bandicoot

"Are you in for a crashing challenge?"

Crash Bandicoot is a Platform game developed by Naughty Dog. Crash is Playstation's answer to Nintendo and SEGA's Mario and Sonic. Despite its minor problems it is a very good game that choose the old and good formula rather than trying something more sophisticated. All you do in the game is run, jump, avoid traps, kill enemies and collect items.

Story: N/A

Take Super Mario Bros, replace Mario with a bandicoot named Crash, princess Toadstool with Crash's girlfriend and Bowser with an evil scientist and there you go, your typical platform damsel-in-distress plot. Does it affect the game experience? Of course not…

Graphics: 8/10

Crash Bandicoot like all good-looking platform games, looks like a very lively colored cartoon. The main theme of the game is a large tropical island and all levels take place in it. So we have dense jungles, rivers, ancient temples, misty mountains with long bridges and finally the sci-fi final levels. All look very good and are full of detail than enhance the overall look of the game like small insects or birds flying around and etc. Especially the background areas are so damn detailed that will make you wanted to be able to walk there too. Crash himself looks like he has come straight out of a Looney Tunes episode, with a very good design and an even better animation, (an increasing quality with each Crash Bandicoot episode). The enemies on the other hand are much simpler and consist of turtles, crabs, boars and other jungle animals. Finally Crash has some very good effect that make the game stand out visually even though it is such an oldie in the Playstation game library. Rain, mist, lighting effects like very hot pipes emanating a red light, special effects like explosions or fire and many more. Generally for one of the earliest PS games Crash is a very good-looking game.

Sound: 6.5/10

Many people seem to hate Crash's music due to its repetitive nature and they are right about that since the few tracks available can bore you to death after hearing them over and over. However they are very well composed and have a very good tribal\jungle feel to them. Sound effects on the other hand much better although nothing special can be said about them.

Gameplay: 8/10

Crash runs and jumps, collects 100 apples to gain a life, smashes wooden crates to find items like the Aku-aku masks that float around you and serve as life points and finally kill enemies by stomping on them or using Crash's Tasmanian devil spinning attack move. Unlike Super Mario 64 and other similar games CB although a full 3D game restrains you in a single horizontal or vertical corridor or path, making it a straightforward action game rather than an exploration-type platform like Playstation's Spyro The Dragon. This however isn't bad, what makes it bad is the fact that it is a bit hard to control where Crash will land after jumping making you loose a lot of lives by falling in the abyss something very common in the temple levels. Crash's fun comes from the fact that it uses the same mechanics that all great platform games use. All levels are full of moving platforms and various traps requiring excellent timing and of course every level is a tad harder than the previous one.

Gameplay in Crash isn't just completing levels though. If this was the only thing available it would be a fairly easy and boring experience. Fortunately there is a big side quest something that made the game so damn fun and was repeated in the next games. That is the Gem collecting, you see each level has a hidden white gem that in order to be obtained you must smash all the crates of a level and without loosing a life. Simple you say? Yes in the first 5-8 levels it is but after those things get tough… very tough… frustratingly tough! How frustrating? Well think about that, you've spent 8-10 minutes to complete a level with all its crates smashes and 10 steps before the end you make a slight mistake, (I repeat that Crash needs excellent timing and precision), and have to start all over again. People that consider themselves simply good in platform games can forget this one, in here you have to be very good and even then you'll have a hard time completing it 100%. One final complain is the fact that in order to save your game you have to find three special crates in a level in order to enter a bonus round and then successfully complete it in order to be able to access your memory card. In addition to the main levels there are some extras where you have to run from a rolling boulder behind you or a level where you ride a hog and avoid obstacles while running very fast.

Positives:
-Very challenging, needs excellent timing and precision
-Very good cartoonish graphics, full of detail
-Very good level design in addition to some special stages

Negatives:
-The challenge becomes frustration
-In order to save you must complete a bonus game in a level
-Sometimes hard to calculate where you want to land after jumping
-After acquiring all Gems this game has nothing else to offer.
-A bit repetitive music

Also Play:
Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (PS)
Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (PS)
Spyro The Dragon (PS)
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! (PS)
Spyro: Year Of The Dragon (PS)

Overall: 7.5/10

Crash is very solid, action-packed and fast paced platform game that is very entertaining to those who like challenging games. All in all despite its problems it was a very good start to the series.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/11/08

Game Release: Crash Bandicoot (EU, November 1996)