Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced

"...This is a Crash game???"

I've been a fan of the original Crash Bandicoot games. I owned the previous Crash GBA game and I thought it was decent, so I picked up this game... and it was HORRIBLE!!!!

Story: 5/10
I wasnt a fan of the story. It was decent however. Basically, after Cortex's plan failed for the 10000th time, Uka Uka wanted to take out the Bandicoots for good. N. Tropy and a new character, N. Trance (Note the game title) attempted to suck Crash, Coco, and Crunch through a portal to take them to some floating island somewhere to turn them evil. Crunch and Coco get sucked through but Crash goes through halfway and there is an evil clone of him the game called 'Fake Crash'. Wasn't he in the first Crash Team Racing IIRC? But anyway, that's basically it. Stop N. Tropy and N. Trance. I should note that Uka Uka isnt involved in the game really outside of the cutscenes and the game over screen. Very meh.

Gameplay: 3/10
The point of the game is to do the classic routine by getting all the crystals and gems to beat the game. You need to collect all the gem shards to get to the final battle. They're pretty easy to get. There's your basic moves that's been in all of the Crash games like 'jump' and 'spin'. The 'body slam' is available from the beginning which is good. This game can piss you off however. Sometimes the controls are unresponsive and some of the obsticles are tedious. Sometimes, such as the first boss fight, the obsticles are easy. To give you an example of how annoying things can be, in the battles against N. Trance and N. Tropy, there are 2-3 levels in which you need to beat them. If you die on the 2nd or 3rd, you have to start over to the 1st level. That doesnt really add to the challenge, it makes it aggrivating and annoying. Not to mention the obsticles happen in the same pattern like usual so that makes it worse. The space levels are annoying because it is hard to aim to shoot the fruit.

Graphics: 4/10
The graphics look like crap. Sometimes enemies blend in with the background and they try some '3d' thing where they just make the graphics worse. It makes them blend into the background even more to make things worse. Ugh.. The Big Adventure looked way better than this crap.

Sound/Music: 3/10
The music sounds pretty boring. The only good song was the Fake Crash battle which I believe was taken out of Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped for the PSX. The music was taken out of other Crash games too IIRC... It just happened that they picked the worst ones if they did. The sounds are alright though. Typical Crash sounds. "Woah!" especially. It's the sound you probably will be hearing the most playing this piece of crap.

Replayability: 0/10
There are trials and gems to collect but that doesnt really matter. Get to 100% and them burn this excuse for a game. Do whatever you will to the cartridge as long as it is in pieces or burnt to a crisp.

Overall: 3/10
Dont play this game ever in your life unless you have mental problems, and I highly doubt it if you are reading this review right now. Not even if you are a hardcore Crash fan like I was. If you play this game and you like it I swear on all that is good I will come to your house and kill you Gears of Wars style. Dont buy this game. If you want a Crash game for your GBA, try the Big Adventure. If you did, maybe try the Crash/Spyro crossover games. If you did, try the racing games. If you did.. TOO BAD!!!!

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 06/21/07