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Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex

When Sony launched their first Playstation they didn't have a mascot. Nintendo had Mario, Sega had Sonic, but Sony had nobody. In 1996, Sony released Crash Bandicoot and they had their mascot (or basically). There were three Crash platform games and two spinoffs released on the Playstation. He might be most famous, though, for taking on Mario in his commercials, standing outside Nintendo headquarters and challenging Mario to come out. Now that Vivendi-Universal owns the rights to the marsupial he and Mario seem to have kissed and made up for the newest Crash adventure -- The Wrath of Cortex is on the Nintendo Gamecube.

Apparently, Crash has been doing more than just insulting Mario for the past few years. He's also been saving the world from the evil Dr. Neo Cortex. After the last time, Crash decided to take a vacation, but elsewhere a convention of bad guys are trying to find a way to defeat the pesky bandicoot. Uka Uka, the ring leader and a mask, along with Dr. Cortex concoct a scheme that will include four elemental masks and Dr. Cortex's newest weapon, Crunch Bandicoot, a super bandicoot designed to kill Crash. Unfortunately, he's not quite finished yet, but the elementals will help him gain the extra power needed. Seems like Crash has to call his vacation off early and save the world again.

To save the world Crash traverses five worlds of five levels each, with a boss at the end, collecting a crystal in each. These levels are supposedly based on the elementals, but there doesn't seem to be any indication of that. One of the levels which is snow covered is actually in the world with the fire elemental. There just doesn't seem to be any connection with the worlds. It would have been nice to have to worry about the given element depending on which world but it wasn't to be. The crystals aren't difficult to collect. Usually you'll find them right at the end of the level, so there's almost no way you miss it.

Going through the levels is usually very straightforward. I mean that literally. Unlike a platformer like Super Mario Sunshine which is extremely open, Crash is very limited in where you can go and what you can do. It is set up in such a way that you can only go forwards, though forwards may sometimes mean to the side. If you try to go off the given path, you'll be blocked by invisible walls. It can actually get extremely annoying running into invisible walls, especially when in mid-air and you just weren't lined up properly enough.

Other than crystals, there are crates in each level which can be busted upon. Usually a simple spin will do the trick, but occasionally there will be other boxes that need a bit of planning to reach and destroy. If all the crates in a level are destroyed you get a gem, something which is wholly unnecessary in the game, but an extra collectible to complete the game 100%. There are also secondary gems available for taking a second path in a level, and relics which are won by beating the level in a time trial, which is opened up after getting the crystal in a given level. The gems are actually pretty easy to get because of how the levels are set out. With there being only one path to go down, there isn't any searching involved. It just might involve some thinking beforehand, but nothing too difficult.

Crash's moves are standard platformer fare. He has a jump, and can gain a double jump. He has a spin attack which can also be upgraded. There's also a high jump, the ability to crouch and crawl, and a slide. If you have any background in 3d platformers this should all be very familiar to you. There are wumpa fruits in each level to collect. One hundred of them will give you an extra life. There are also aku akus which let you get hit more than once. Without one of these it's one hit and you're dead. There is an exception to this, though. If you die multiple times between checkpoints the game will give you an automatic aku aku so you can take multiple hits. While this is a nice addition, I'd rather have been able to turn it off so that I could do it the way they wanted me to originally, and not use a cheap extra.

In addition to platform levels there are also vehicular levels. In these you take to one of seven vehicles, including a jeep and mech, and proceed through the level in them. These offer a nice change of pace, though I found them to be harder to control, and not as good as the platforming levels. Some of the worst levels were actually in a plane where you can fly around in a full open universe. It just felt very weird and wrong. A better addition is the ball. I'm sure it has a better name, but I don't know what it is. Basically, Crash is put inside a ball and he rolls through the level. These are extremely fun, but they are short and aren't enough of these levels. The boss levels, unfortunately, are quite bad. They are uninspired, bland, easy and boring. Boss battles should be more fun and it just wasn't there.

Crash isn't the only bandicoot getting in on the action. His kid sister, Coco, also has a couple of levels. There doesn't seem to be any real reason for her, though. It seems that she was just thrown into a couple of levels for the fun of it. The levels are no better, and no worse than Crash's levels. They could have just as easily been Crash levels, in fact. If at least the levels were unique for Coco, this would have been a nice addition, but as is it makes no difference.

Though the game has already been on the Playstation 2 and Xbox for a year and half a year respectively the Gamecube version does have one extra: Crash Bash If you hook up a Gamecube/ Game Boy Advance link cable a small little game is downloaded to your GBA. It's nothing fancy, and is just a very simple shooter. You're Crash with his bazooka and have to hit things which come across the screen. The graphics aren't great, the sounds are almost non-existent but it is nice to see the addition either way.

The look of Wrath of Cortex is sometimes good and sometimes horrible. Crash himself looks OK, but there is nothing special to him. It's just a flat texture which can get very ugly. When the screen goes to a side scrolling view Crash looks horrible. The orange used for him is just plain ugly. Especially when compared to the fur effects in Star Fox Adventures. Other parts are the same. While the cut scenes usually look very good, along with the backgrounds there is nothing overly special. It's not bad, just not great. Some of the backgrounds in the levels are actually pretty nice, but it's easy to do that, when the levels are closed. In some of the open levels the backgrounds are popping up. You can see the draw in, and it's foggy and dirty. But when the levels are walled in the backgrounds are actually very nice. The bad guys also have some nice looks to them. The look of the game is actually very cartoony, and it can be seen with the bright colours.

The game does sound very nice. The music is nothing special, but it does fit and is very listenable, nine times out of ten. There are some weird background noises that I couldn't place. Some levels have a weird thud going on, that makes no sense. But this isn't often. The sound effects are also decent. A crate breaking sounds like it should, and the rest of the sounds are imaginative and work in the context. The best part might be the voice acting. The lines are well delivered and almost always well written. It can even be quite humorous. They're not totally lip synched but at least the attempt was made.

This game gets an N-Philes score of C+.

With Super Mario Sunshine having been released, and other platformers available, Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex fails to stand out. The straightforward nature of the levels begs for more openness, which isn't available. It was fun while it lasted, but even that wasn't that long. Getting through the game as quickly as possible takes a few hours. It's extremely short. It's a good platformer, worth renting or even buying for platform junkies, but doesn't have that special something.

Posted in: Reviews