Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure

"New system, new developer. How does it fare?"

Crash Bandicoot and the gang go portable in The Huge Adventure, and this time the game's being made by Vicarious Visions. So how does it fare?

Story: 6/10
Nothing too awe-inspiring here. The evil Cortex uses the gems and crystals placed all throughout the world to power his shrinking ray which reduces the earth to the size of a grapefruit. With ultimate control now in the hands of Cortex and his minions, it's up to Crash and Coco to save the world once again. Joy.

Control: 7/10
The controls are pretty basic for the most part: use the d-pad to move, A to jump and B to spin; you'll most likely learn them by heart within the first 10-15 minutes of playing. However, as you progress through the game, you come to parts where you must crawl under a line of nitro crates and if you let up on the d-pad, you get hit/die. Why is this annoying? Because Crash crawls at the pace of a snail and if you even slightly let up on the buttons... BOOM! It gets quite uncomfortable having to hold down/right for such an extended period of time, but maybe it's just me. I also found the use of the L button for the turbo run ability to be uncomfortable when I first gained it, but I got used to it after a while. Pretty good control, but I wish they would have used the R button for turbo run and made it so Crash could crawl a bit faster.

Graphics: 8/10
Very nice visuals... almost the same quality as the PSX. The graphics are vibrant, colorful and are actually possible to see pretty well without having to use an external light accessory. However, I did encounter a few glitches: more than once when going into a spin, I've had Crash get caught in it and won't get out without moving forward (it's especially annoying in time trial since it slows you down). I've also had the game freeze up on me once, but these are really the only imperfection in the graphics (and they don't occur all that often).

Sound: 8/10
It would have been nice for a change in music, but the same tunes from the PSX Crash games were used in this one. Of course, that's not necessarily a bad thing since the music in each level is enjoyable to listen to and the sound effects are quite fitting, but something new would have been a refreshing change. There's also an option in the pause menu that lets you set the volume of both background music and sound effects which is cool. Another good thing about the sound is that there's some variety in the music: each type of level has an ambient tune to go with it.

Gameplay: 9/10
What I really like is that not only do you have the standard linear levels, but two new types of play: flight and chase. In the flight levels, Crash gets to fly around with a jetpack and can shoot an unlimited amount of orbs from his hand at oncoming planes and blimps. Then you have the chase parts where Crash is on the back of a polar bear running toward the camera being chased by a large yeti - you must maneuver yourself past electrical fields, nitro boxes, seals and other obstacles while trying to escape. Other than those two, it's your basic linear platformer. There are a number of different themes for the levels though: jungle, industrial, outer space, snowy and underwater, so you do have variety.

In each level, you can collect a number of different items: a crystal, one or two gems and three different colored time trial relics. You get the crystal just by going through the level; the first gem in each level is received for breaking all the crates in that level (the second can be found later on); and the relics are won by going from start to finish as fast as possible in time trial mode. The more of these items you collect, the higher your completion percentage of the game is. I also like the wide selection of enemies throughout the game - most can be killed while others you just need to avoid. The gameplay alone makes up for any other flaws this game has.

Replay Value: 10/10
Inarguably the best feature this game has to offer is replayability. No matter what, you are always going to have to come back to a level after completing it to get either a second gem or a time trial relic. In the early levels of the game (ones with two gems, that is) you won't be able to get the second gem until you find it in a later level. Plus getting gold and platinum time trial relics is near impossible without the turbo run ability you get after beating the game. It's pretty easy to just go through all 20 levels and finish the game, but going back and finding all the crates in each level to get those gems and beating times for those platinum relics takes time, patience and skill. There's no satisfaction like having a 101% on your save file...

Overall: 8/10
This title does have a few flaws, but the gameplay and replay value more than make up for them. If you're a fan of Crash on the PSX or just a fan of platformers in general, you'll definitely want to pick this one up, but a forewarning to past Crash players: you're not going to find anything new here as far as features go - just new levels and the same fun you've had on the PSX. That should be enough to warrant a $30-40 purchase though; I know it was for me.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/25/02, Updated 03/25/02