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Intro When combating the popularity of Nintendo's Mario during the 32-bit and 64-bit days of gaming, Sony relied on Naughty Dog's ready-made mascot, Crash Bandicoot, to herald their arrival into the console world. Full of all sorts of sass and a marketing budget that could make even the mightiest of companies flinch, Crash went on to become a successful franchise that even spawned a Mario Kart knock-off. Sporting an odd 2D/3D hybrid design, Crash traveled on a linear campaign through some fairly entertaining levels, and now, with some sold licenses and moved companies, the one-time PlayStation mascot is now on the GameCube - and interestingly enough, it's better than its PlayStation 2 counterpart. Gameplay: 8/10 To be frank, I grew tired of the Crash titles after the PlayStation sequel, and when Wrath of Cortex came in for the PlayStation 2, I sent it off to Mac Editor and site whipping boy Bryce for him to have a go-around. Even after dabbling with the game a bit, I was more than pleased that I had designated someone else as the reviewer. So, needless to say, when the GameCube port showed up, I was none too eager to subject myself to another mediocre title that had been done to death. So it's with surprise and delight that I can report that this is one surprisingly fun title. True to the Crash series, the levels are played out with a behind-the-back view and have set linear paths that keep the player on track. To keep from being monotonous, there are bonus levels set within the regular levels that have the view turned to a 2D perspective that is in a quasi-3D format - this is where Crash can move toward and away from the screen - and they do a good job of keeping the levels fresh. One particular irritation that I had was that whenever Crash is hurt and kicked out of the bonus level, the amount of power-ups he collected are shown as being tossed out, which ordinarily isn't a problem. However, when there are 50+ of them, the sound of each one flying off and the length of time that can be accumulated with large amounts can get annoying as there isn't a solid means to bypass it. It's a small complaint, but one that could've been easily rectified as it also holds true on the regular levels. Bonus levels aren't the only distractions as there's a nice variety of level design throughout the various worlds that Crash must venture through. With five levels and one boss per world, variety is key and it has been well taken care of. One level will have him in scuba gear traveling through an underwater level, while another will have him in a missile- and bomb-prepared sub. On-land action will have him in a dune buggy and inside a large ball -- think Super Monkey Ball or American Gladiators - among other goodies. Of course, there are some camera kinks that can lead to unnecessary deaths and Crash's one-hit threshold can make the game needlessly difficult towards the end. He can get an extra bonus power-up that will allow him to take additional hits, but they aren't effective when he falls off a platform, where I was hoping he would shoot back up onto the platform he originally jumped from. On a port-plus
side, the loading times have been dramatically decreased for the GameCube version,
and there's even an additional Game Boy Advance game that can be accessed via
the link cable. While Crash may be aging and some of the smaller problems from
previous installments still remain, I found this latest release to be a solid
platformer and a nice alternative to Mario Sunshine.
Graphics: 7/10 Sound:
8.5/10 Control:
8.5/10 Overall:
7.5/10 [ top ] | |||
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