Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

"Similar in style to the original, but with many minor improvements"

At the start of Crash Bandicoot 2 the player is shown a warp room. From here, you have the choice of entering one of the five levels that are available. Each of the five levels is different, and each is packed with many various things to do and to find. Pink crystals are hidden in the levels, and have to be found in order to complete the level. Find five of these, and you will have completed the whole warp room. There are in fact five warp rooms in the game, which means that there are twenty-five levels altogether, excluding the boss stages and secret levels! There is just so much to do in the levels, that you can spend literally hours just trying to find the hidden gems. The only problem with the game is that the difficulty level gets very high after the first warp room, and the game gets increasingly frustrating as the levels go on. Crash Bandicoot 2 will take many hours and a high amount of patience in order to complete properly, so if you're finding every other game is just too easy, then Crash Bandicoot 2 could very well be the game for you.

The game play is good, for the reason that Crash Bandicoot 2 is effectively made up of two completely different types of levels. The first type is the average 2D levels, seen in games such as Super Mario World for the SNES. The second type is probably unique to the Crash Bandicoot series of games, in which you can run up, down, left or right, but you can't run outside the set path. Sometimes in Crash Bandicoot 2, both of these types of styles are used in the same levels, which works very well. In Crash Bandicoot 2, you have to run through levels in order to get a pink crystal at the end. Each of the levels in this game are huge, and each level is different from the other.

Some levels are very icy, meaning that you slip practically anywhere. Some levels have swarms of bees coming after you. Some levels even have a huge polar bear chasing after you down the level! Because every single level is original and different, the game generally doesn't get boring until you get very far through the game. On the way through a level, there will be a pink crystal. If you get this, you have completed the level. But there is also a gem to find in a level. In order to get this special gem, you have to smash every single box in a level. This is no easy task, as some of the boxes are extremely difficult to find, and may require you to figure out a certain puzzle first before you are able to smash them. Because of the variety and originality of the levels, Crash Bandicoot 2 is a game which is very playable and fun.

Crash Bandicoot 2 follows the same style as the original in terms of graphics. You can run left, right, up and down, but you have to follow a set path. In some places, the game will look as though it's in 3D, where you can run in any direction, but not outside of the set path. In other places, the game will be 2D, where you have to run up ladders and across platforms. Either way you look at it, Crash Bandicoot 2 has excellent graphics. Because the game is not 3D, this leaves a lot of room for other things, such as extra detail on objects, or better animations on characters. Most games seem to have a certain amount of fogging in the distance when the objects and characters in the game are too detailed. The objects and characters in Crash Bandicoot 2 are extremely well detailed, yet there is no fogging at all, and you can clearly see far into the distance. The graphics are very good in this game, and are a great improvement over the original.

The sound effects are good in this game, and there are literally hundreds of them in the game. Each enemy has a totally unique sound effect which you can recognise them by. Boxes smash as you spin through them, ice cracks as you skate over it and the sound of a boulder thundering after you in one level really makes the level fun to play, all of these unique sound effects give each level its own special atmosphere. The speech is fine, with most of it being well acted and understandable. However, only the music is the problem. It just doesn't suit the game well enough. Although there is quite nice music in the way of drums, a platform game such as this could really have done with some faster music. Overall, Crash Bandicoot 2 is a great game, and a great improvement over the original.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/03/00, Updated 01/08/04