Crash Bandicoot

"I admit that it's not the best 3D platformer, but man it's good."

The year is 1994 and the Sony Playstation is just out on the market in Japan to try to fight with all the system making companies to became the best sellers. At the time there was a lot of different systems, but most will agree with me when I say that there were only two companies that actually mattered: Nintendo and Sega. One of the main reasons why these two companies were more successful than all the others was not only because they had good games, but also because both Nintendo and Sega had two big name mascots. Mario and Sonic are without a doubt two of the most wellknown videogame characters of all time, and it was clear that Sony needed someone that they also could use as a mascot.

While the Sony Playstation never really got an official mascot, there are a few characters who began on the Playstation that quickly became more popular than the games that they where in. Lara Croft is perhaps the best example of this, and another one is of course the biggest platform hero on the system: Crash Bandicoot. Naughty Dog managed to create a character who looked like he had the same attitude as Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog, but also some of the sillyness that Nintendo's Super Mario had. The first Crash Bandicoot game was one of the important early games on the Playstation.

The game takes place on three Austrailian Islands called the Wumpa islands which are owned by the mad scientist Doctor Neo Cortex, who preforms mad experiments on the animals that lives there. One day he and his assistant Doctor Nitrus Brio tries to preform an experiment that creates animals into strong mutants. They have captured two Bandicoots for this, one male and one female.

They begin with the tests on the male which is Crash, but it turns out that the experiment failed even if it evolved Crash to be able to walk on two legs. Crash escapes their lab but sadly the two evil doctors still got his girlfriend Tawna Bandicoot. Now Crash has to travel through all the three islands to get back to the lab and save his girlfriend.

There are many different type of levels in this game, even if most of them include the basics of platforming. Since the game is in 3D, you see this from many different camera angles which gives you a bit different game play, but in about say 60% of the levels you see it just behind Crash's back, and in these stages there's usually one road which leads up. The point is just like most platform games to reach the goal at the end of the stage, but to get there you have to jump over a lot of different objects and either kill or avoid the enemies on the way.

Another kind of levels are the levels where Crash always is chased by a big boulder that will crush Crash if it rolls over him, so all Crash can do is to try to run away from it. The problem in this levels is that there are fences, big signs and of course there are also many holes that Crash must jump over, while being chased by this big boulder. This means that the player has to decide quickly when it's time to jump, to move left or right e.t.c. There are also two similar levels where Crash rides a hog and also have to avoid a lot of objects in order to beat the stage.

Finally there are these kind of stages that I like to call Temple/Factory stages, where instead of always going forward you have to go in different directions, and in some stages you are always supposed to go either right or left, and on these stages you also have to climb up, which sorta makes it feels like you are playing a 2d platformer instead.

There are two common ways to kill an enemy. Most enemies can be killed by just jumping on them, while some even became excellent bumpers when you jump on them which allows you to reach places that you otherwise wouldn't be able to reach, but on some enemies it just isn't enough to stomp them. On these you can try to use Crash's spin attack, which kills almost all regular enemies with just one hit. There are a few that either can't be killed, or you just have to push them of a cliff with your spin attack.

Just like in most other platformers Crash also have to destroy something in order to get any power ups, even if there isn't many in this game. First of all there are apples all over the stage that he can pick up and when he have found 100 apples he gets an extra life, but there are also many extra lifes on the stage that he can pick up as well. Then there are also a lot of small wooden boxes that Crash can destroy and take what's inside. Usually it's an apple, but sometimes it's either an extra life or one of the three different type of bonus stage cards. However watch out to step on the red TNT boxes, they explode three seconds after that you've stepped on them, and they explode directly if you use spin attack on them.

In order to get to a bonus stage you must collect three of the same kind of bonus stage card on the regular stage, then you will get to a bonus stage. I think there are two stages where you can find Dr Cortex cards which takes you to a stage where you unlock secret levels, then there are a few Dr Nitrus Brio bonus stages where you just get a lot of extra lifes, and there are the most regular stages where you can get a few extra lives, and if you manage to get to the goal in these stages you also get a chance to save your game. Some think that this is a strange and odd way to allow the player to save the game, but I think it's right that you have to earn the ability to save your progress.

When you've cleared all the stages you can take on the game's ultimate challenge and find and break all the wooden boxes in every stage to get all the crystals and see a what I think is a better ending. Personally I think it will take to much time and energy for someone like me, but it's nice that the game gives an extra challenge for those who wants get as much as possible from a game.

What made me give this game such a high score as a 9 was because while I played it, not only did I have a good time but I also felt that this game had something that many other awesome platform games should have, good replayability. When you have played through the game a few times it shouldn't take many hours to beat it, which makes it an excellent "pick up and play for a while" game. Even if Crash never became Sony's official mascot and is now more or less a fading hero that no one seems to care about anymore, nothing can take this masterpiece away from him. I'm fully aware that I gave this game a higher score than Super Mario World, Sonic & Knuckles and Donkey Kong Country.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/10/09

Game Release: Crash Bandicoot (US, 08/31/96)