Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure

"Crash has not crashed... yet"

Crash Bandicoot is known as one of the most fun and / or addicting platform games to ever embrace the Platform genre. The original Crash Bandicoot was amazing for its time period. Cortex Strikes back was also quite awesome. And Warped? Wow, that game was simply breathtaking. Now, let's move on to "The Huge Adventure". This game is also pretty good. But it just does not deliver the powerful impact that most Crash games do.

Gameplay 8/10
The gameplay of this game is great. It has different types of levels, like the jungle levels, the underwater levels, the jetpack levels, and many more. And even though the game has gone 2-D, doesn't mean that the bosses get any smaller! Tiny is still as bad as ever, and N-Gin is still an evil machine mastermind. Plus, the special abilities that Crash can learn are still there, one being the Bodyslam. But there are two things that slightly gets on my nerves. First of all, most of the levels have one place to go, and only one place to go. Sure, there are bonus rounds, but even those are severely limited. In fact, most of the time, the bonus rounds just get in the way. Second of all, where the heck did the Bazooka go? That was one of the greatest game concepts from Warped, and Universal Interactive cut that?! What?!! But other than that, I find the gameplay to be quite enjoyable, and in no way a waste of time.

Story 5/10
So. Uka-Uka tells Cortex to stop fooling around. So Cortex shrinks the world down to the size of a grapefruit. (Well, at least that part is pretty creative. But the coolness of the story ends there.) Aku comes and tells Coco and Crash to get crystals and gems and whatnot, so Crash goes out to get those crystals and gems and whatnot. Quite a boring beginning. So there you are, playing as Crash, stuck in a warproom. Again. Like most of the other Crash Bandicoot games. And after you beat a certain number of levels, you get to face a boss. And if you beat that boss, well, you get to go to the next level of the warproom. Oh joy. Just like most of the other Crash Bandicoot games. Seriously! If the world was shrunk, and everything is 2D and strange, then shouldn't the warproom concept be different? Shouldn't it be something else, since the warproom turned 2D, and because of that, may not be functional? Well, according to Universal Interactive, I guess not. The creativity of the story really does stop at the shrinking of the world.

Sounds 5/10
Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure has quite an annoying soundtrack. It may seem pretty cool for the first 2 loops or so, but then, it just gets plain dull. But not only does that specific level have it; all the levels that are the same type have it! Let's say that you've just finished a Jungle level. Now you go to the next level of the warproom, and there is another Jungle level! Maybe new jungle music will be on it! ... Nope. Just the same, annoying music. And when you have to retry every level like, 20 times to get the Time Relics, well, believe me. You get pretty darn tired of listening to the songs.
As for the special effects sounds of the game? Hmm... Not too good, either. There's still the sound of Crash whirling, but that also gets really old and annoying since you use it every level... But there's also the sound of Wumpa Fruit being collected! That's annoying too. You hear it at least 200 times in every single level. And then there's Crash's "WOAH!" which he says each time he dies. And that is the most annoying sound of all. Not only is it annoying because it sounds weird, it's also extremely irritating because you practically hear it every level also, and the combined weirdness of the sound and the fact that you just died... Well... Those two don't really match up well together. All in all, this particular Crash Bandicoot game has a mediocre, if not below average, soundtrack and sound effect.

Graphics 7/10
The graphics of Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure, are actually pretty decent. The color scheme of the game is quite good, with no colors actually jumping out and killing your eyes, but no over-subtle colors either. The enemies don't look like cardboard cutouts, and the way that the background scrolls by when you're progressing through the level is actually quite appealing. And yet, when you fly with a jetpack in some of the levels, the graphics are just a little bit better than horrible. The enemies in the airplanes look like the airplane is a part of them, literally. Other than that, though, the graphics are a little bit above average compared to other Game Boy Advance games.

Replay Value 5/10
With all the downfalls of this game, it's not actually fun to play this game a second time. In fact, sometimes it seems like a chore. But if you're just going for a speed run, it's actually not that bad. You speed through the story, so you don't have to relive the atrociousness of it. And you don't have to mash the B button to keep on spinning throughout the level. But this is definitely not a game that you would love to replay. It has too many flaws for that.

Play Time 7/10
This game could be long or short, depending on what you want it to be. If you go for a speed run, and skip getting all the relics and gems and whatnot, you'll probably finish this in under 5 hours. But if you try to get all the relics and gems, then it will probably take you quite a long time to beat compared to other Game Boy Advance games. In fact, the Play Time is also decent in this game. Not amazing, but not bad either.

Gameplay: 8/10
Story: 5/10
Sounds: 5/10
Graphics: 7/10
Replay Value: 5/10
Play time: 7/10
Total Score: 6.16/10, which rounds to 6
Final Score: 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/21/09

Game Release: Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure (US, 02/25/02)