Crash Bandicoot and Dr. Neo Cortex forms an uneasy partnership after discovering a world domination plan by Cortex's former pet birds turned evil geniuses, Victor and Moritz, and attempts to stop them.
This game has a lot of problems. This game is broken. This game is rushed. This game could have been so much more.
But I still love it.
Why do I love it? Well, there's a couple of reasons:
First, the humour. The original trilogy had some humour in them, of course, but here there's a zanyness that was really refreshing: really stupid shit (sometimes even poking with tropes, like when you think you have to do the side quest mini game to progress and then it doesn't happen) happens and it's glorious every step of the way, no one takes the fourth wall even remotely seriously, and the characters are all really hilarious (Cortex's characterization here is the best out of every Crash game, I tell you). I love it.
Then, the level design. SilentCicada's review mentions the "open world" segments are large and empty. Ok, but the parts where there are things are really well done and fun to play, aided by the pretty good controls, so, really, I never felt the "emptyness" he mentions whatsoever. And of course, the "normal" levels, which are linear, you'd say like the originals but in a way more free-form, are the shining part of this game: tight, with good challenges, and even the more "gimmicky" sections like the snowboarding sections are good (except when you want to get those damn gems... Argh). By the way, you ride Cortex's face as a snowboard. This game is so great. I love it.
The music is fantastic. It's funny, it's charming, it creates great ambiance, and overall it's just done well: try to hear the Iceberg Lab song and tell me it's not one of the best themes you've heard in a videogame. And it's all A cappella! No instruments! And there's some really fun(ny) classical music covers! I love it.
The bugs. The bugs? Well, I haven't encountered as much as SilentCicada did, but I did encounter some. I even did some sections in reverse just for the hell of it. Why is this a good point? Because even if the game's bugged it's still charmingly bugged instead of awfully bugged like, I dunno, Sonic 06. It oozes personality even from its flaws! I love it.
The gems. Really, the rewards are not particularly awesome (they are pretty cool however) but the gems really change the way you look at levels, since for most of them you have to do some things that normally don't appear in the levels. This means new gameplay aspects! And they're all pretty fun, strangely! Other games might have had better collectables, but these ones really put a new spin on the familiar level progression and force you to think in, even slightly, different ways. There are some gimmicky gems (like those with the cannons) but they're mostly really good. I love it I love it I love it.
The graphics? They're alright. Pretty good even. I like them.
So why did I give this game only a 4 out of 5? Because it's got problems.
The fact it was rushed is really notable sometimes, and even if the characters themselves make fun of it in a cutscene, it still is a problem. There's a lot of bugs that aren't as fun as the ones I've mentioned (even if, again, I didn't encounter too many of them), but really, the most important problem is something I can't easily describe. When you're playing the game, for how fun and funny it is, you're still feeling like... something's missing. That could have been there but it isn't. I mean, I love Nina, and you use her twice in the game: once in her own level and once in the final boss, so really, kind of one a third times. ...I guess that's rushed development for ya!
As I said, this game could have been so much more. It wasn't. But what it is is still a riotous laugh of a game that I can recommend to anyone, and that I hope my rambling review (it's 5 AM AND it's my first ever full fledged review; combo!) paid homage to well enough.
Whatever you do, please don't consider this just another post-Naughty Dog Crash game. It's so much more than that and it would be remiss of all of you to just leave it in the dust while it can be the catalyst of so many great emotions as it did to me. Give it a try. Maybe you'll like it.
Maybe you'll love it.
...Actually, doing this review really made me realise how much I really do love this game. 4.5 rating, here I come! :D
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File this in the category of games I love despite it not even being finished, it doesn't even try to hide the fact that it had cut content which does mean it's far from perfect, however I have too many fond memories of this game to give it a failing grade.
Let's get the best part out of the way, the game us hilarious as we have by far the best depiction of cortex and Uka Uka here (both with new voice actors funnily enough.) This is all the more impressive when you realise A: crash is a completely silent protagonist in this game (he doesn't even say his signature "woah" when he dies) and B: how little screen time every other character (including Uka Uka) gets outside our odd couple protagonists. Nina was supposed to have a bigger voice acted role but was sadly reduced to having a single level which is a shame because her move set is unique to the whole franchise. Cortex was also meant to have more levels but was largely sidelined to the mere sidekick of crash in admittedly creative levels that take full advantage of the "twinsanity" aspect of the game. The levels themselves look amazing even to this day due to how stylised they are compared to the rest of the franchise, the academy if evil being a particular highlight for me. The music is also awesome, being a mostly a Capella soundtrack that perfectly captures the mood of any level you're in. I guess the one downside this game has that's unrelated to its cut content is how random the story is, it doesn't even try to make sense despite the game wanting us to take it seriously (for the most part) and the evil twins being too pathetic to be threatening and too unfunny to be entertaining.
I hope we get a remake of this game as it's in dire need of one, at least bring back what was close to completion as the concept art for this content looks amazing.
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i hold this game very close to me bc it was one of the only playable or maybe even "good" games in my parents' ps2 collection. it was, and still is, an intensely fun experience that is only bogged down by how fucking short it is. ill be forever mad abt how much content we missed out on bc universal were trying to shoot for a holiday release date, and it rly sucks seeing something so potentially fun and amazing going to waste bc of deadlines. cautionary tale abt video game management and the ultimate realisation for me that maybe you cant always get everything you want to do for something done in time, and you just have to do what you can really well, even if it ends up short. bc barring the fact how short it is (and also how buggy it is) its a rly fun time. levels are creative and fun, the cutscenes are funny and this game as a whole has so much personality and charm to it. its its own wacky, zany aesthetic that i enjoy a lot, even right down to the music.
hope we get a remaster one day
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