Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex

"The official Crash Bandicoot: Warped expansion pack has finally arrived!"

Class, its time for a history lesson! Take your seats everyone! Now, we all know that throughout time, each console has had it’s own mascot, or flagship character of sorts. Back in the day when Nintendo started, they showed off a game called Donkey Kong, which introduced a little plumber we all know nowadays as Mario. Well, along the way, a company in Japan called Sega came up with their own console, and a little blue hedgehog named Sonic tore up the gaming world. After awhile Sony came into the business and came up with…drum roll please…A BANDICOOT?! Well, anyways, all these characters have stood up to the test of time, and have evolved. Except for poor Crash. Ever since his rights were sold off to Universal Studios and Travelers Tales, he’s gone from being a video game star to living in a ghetto in mediocrity city. But now, crash has gone back to his platforming roots, and well…I can at least say the game doesn’t stink this time.

I’m going to catch that bandicoot!!! Quit laughing!!!

Well, evidently our good evil friend Dr. Cortex has not had his daily dose of failure today, so he’s back against Crash again. This time, Cortex has created a big bandicoot named Crunch by using the power of the four elements (Earth, Wind, Water, Fire). So, Crash, who has gotten wind of this, must now travel to yet another warm room area, find more crystals and gems, and once again, defeat random bosses until a final showdown with Cortex. Sound familiar to you? Well, it should, because this story has basically been recycled for the third freakin time in the Crash Bandicoot series, and frankly, I’m getting tired of it.

Luckily, the overall look of crash and the game hasn’t been recycled as much. Now instead of just looking like a furry orange rat with a big dumb face, they actually have given crash an entire body, and have given him individual hairs on his body. Unfortunately, they have not done the same with coco, or any other characters for that matter. Whoops. Crash’s world is still very colorful, and thanks to the power of the Xbox, you can actually see different effects on the screen, such as heat waves from fire, individual snowflakes, etc. Enemies are animated rather well, as are different characters in CG sequences. Rough edges are also gone, so everything is very smooth. No slowdown is apparent in any of the levels, even after explosions, tidal waves, etc. A lot of effort was put in to make this game look good, and for that, I commend Universal.

While the graphics of the game have changed from other titles in the series, the control hasn’t. It’s too bad that once again you basically have the same moves as in the other crash games, nothing new or innovative at all. On top of that, Crash controls like an old man, running ever so slow through the levels, and always taking an extra step or two before he’s supposed to stop. Plus, using the Xbox’s clunky controller doesn’t make it any better.


Crash Bandicoot 3: The Official Expansion Pack!

The above paragraph header basically describes this game in a sentence. You basically play as crash, or in certain cases his younger sister Coco, in an attempt to stop cortex…again. There are twenty-five separate areas of the game spread around five hubs, with each hub having it’s own boss (The first four bosses are based on the elements. The final boss has you going against all four together.). In these different levels, you basically gather together crystals, which seem to have no real purpose in the game, and gems, which also really don’t serve a purpose other than to get to the final ending if the game (Trust me, you won’t play that long.). You can get a gem by either breaking all the boxes in a level, or by finishing a special gem path, or by completing one of the death routes. To get to the death routes though, you have to not lose a single life. Unfortunately, some of the time you won’t lose a life, and you won’t be able to get to the death path. How funny! Each level also has a bonus level, which are great places to rake in extra lives.

Levels in the game range from basically jumping from platform to platform without touching the lava, and the occasional plane flying or robot commanding. The plane flying levels I found the most enjoyable, because they’re basically the only variety the game has in it other than just get from point A to point B without dying. You get your basic moves that have been used before in past crash games, such as the belly flop, spin, slide, etc. You can earn more moves by beating bosses, like the double jump, and the crash bash. Also, after you beat a level, you can go in to try and win relics in time trial mode. Boxes turn into time stoppers that can take one, two, or three seconds off your time. Before you ask, no, I’m not trying to be this bland. It’s just that it’s hard to be excited about a game when basically it’s not just a rehash, but an almost EXACT copy of Crash Bandicoot: Warped. Everything from the level set-up, the boss setup, the new moves you get, the secret warp, everything except the new levels are basically straight out of Crash’s last adventure.

The sounds that make up the game are what you would basically expect out of a game of this nature. Lots of laser shooting, lava bubbling, platform dropping, etc. One thing I do have to commend the developers on is making background music that fits with the levels pretty well. Although, that really isn’t that hard, considering how simple of a game this is. The voice acting is nothing spectacular, but hey, it gets the job done. As for how hard the game is…well…basically one time one of my friends had his seven year old brother over, and he could play the game better than a lot of people I know. This really impacts how fun the game is, because without at least some sort of challenge to a game, you probably know from experience that the game will get extremely boring.

As you can see, this game returns to Crash’s roots, which by now must be pretty weathered. Until Crash can evolve in some way to escape from his current state, he will always be a poor mans Mario. If you have an xbox, and are basically going to shoot yourself in the foot if you don’t get a platforming fix soon, then get this game. It is the best platformer on the xbox right now, but that’s basically only because it has no competition. Once Blinx and Malice come out though, it’s pretty evident that Crash is going to be blown out of the water. Crash, if you want to save yourself, the time is now.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/08/02, Updated 07/08/02