Crash Bandicoot? More like Crap Bandicoot (Wrath of Cortex)It is October the 29th, 2001. The Playstation 2 is thriving, the GameCube just got released, and the original XBOX arrives in just 17 days. Needless to say, the video game industry is about to enter one of its greatest ages. Famous for its excellent games on the original Playstation, the Crash Bandicoot franchise is expected to be a big part of this new era of high-quality 3D games. The PS1 had Crash Bandicoot, Cortex Strikes Back, and Warped, which were all praised but critics and gamers alike. When it was announced that a fourth mainstream Crash game was going to be released on PS2 (as well as GameCube and eventually XBOX), titled Wrath of Cortex, fans got excited. However, Wrath of Cortex was the first Crash game to not be developed by Naughty Dog, and it shows. The project was sent to Traveller's Tales for whatever reason. Up until that point, TT was pretty much only known for Sonic R and Sonic 3D Blast, which were both... pretty terrible, let's be honest. So why Konami gave TT developing rights, I do not know. Let's see TT's take on Crash Bandicoot.
Graphics - 3
The graphics for Wrath of Cortex were disappointingly bad, even for an early title. Final Fantasy X came out 4 months before and looks beautiful. The art style of Crash Bandicoot games is cartoony and playful. There are lots of bright colors, and textures are very smooth. In Wrath of Cortex, these "smooth" textures just look low-budget. Weirdly enough the crates have pretty good wooden textures and particles, but overall the models in this game are quite poor. There's also a very annoying problem with depth in this game because of the crappy lighting, so I'm always looking for Crash's shadow to see where I'm landing. The backgrounds of each level are also literally just 2D images that spin around to face you. The XBOX release in 2002
did fix the lighting and
update some textures, but it's still not fantastic by any means.
Examples: [url]https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bWXgnp0ZHhg/maxresdefault.jpg[/url] and [url]https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xofZeHvP9sM/maxresdefault.jpg[/url]
Sound - 7
The best part of this game is the tunes, but even those can be ruined by a few problems. Problem number one, the soundfont only has like 5 instruments. Okay, hyperbole there, but each song has the exact same "boingy" feel to it. Problem number two, the PS2 release has a looping problem. In the original release, when the song ends there is a solid 3 second period of silence before it starts again from the very beginning. In the Greatest Hits re-release, this problem is somewhat fixed by having the songs loop immediately, but this loop is still quite jarring.
In any case, most of the songs actually sound pretty good. Something I really appreciate is that every single level has its own music. In terms of depth, they didn't short anyone out. The official OST has 42 songs, 36 of which are full-length. You can find the full OST here (my favorites are 2, 17, 20, 27, and 28): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9Vf2Yh33As
Gameplay/Addictiveness - 5
If you're a young child like I was when I first played, you'll love this game. It's a cute platformer with bright colors and fun tunes. However, as I've grown older and recently picked this game up again, I've realized this game is really not that great. Many of the levels have poor design and rely on cheap tactics and silly hitboxes to kill you. The game is
extremely linear, which is normal for the Crash series, but you can't even jump over railings or on side platforms half the time. There are also definitely some moments that force you to take it slow, which greatly disrupts the flow of gameplay. Yet another issue that may turn you away is the loading times in this game. The original PS2 version and I believe the GameCube version average out at over 45 seconds to load each level. That's 45 seconds of boredom. The Greatest Hits and Black Label versions bump it down to about 12 seconds though, which is long but not awful.
However, it's not all that bad, as there are a lot of collectables so it can be fairly addictive if you're into that. Also, one of the goals of the game is to break every crate in each level, so the game is also sort of a treasure hunt (and sometimes puzzle game when you gotta navigate those Nitro boxes). There's also a lot of vehicles in levels that add some variety. There are a fair amount of complaints about many of the vehicles for being forced on you with their crappy controls, but there's some pretty fun airplane levels. There's also 3 very enjoyable Atlasphere levels, which are basically Monkey Ball clones. **** the submarine levels though, those are everything that could go wrong in a platformer.
Story - 2
This is quite possibly the worst and most cliche story I've ever seen in a video game, not to mention the voice acting and writing is atrocious. Basically, Doctor Neo Cortex wants to take over the world so he cloned Crash and made him into a huge muscular weirdo named Crunch. Crush wants to help Cortex achieve his goal of world domination, so they are collecting the 4 elemental tiki masks to have unstoppable power. Nothing special at all here, just your classic "I want to rule the world so I made a supermutant" trope. I can't find examples of the voice acting, but let's just say the lines are really cheesy and the accents are very stereotypical.
Depth - 7
This game features 30 full levels and 5 boss fights. While it was the most levels in a Crash game at the time, it doesn't take particularly long to "beat" the game. However, of course, the true ending requires you to get every gem and relic. Each level has 1 or 2 gems (usually one for crates and one for a bonus path) and 1 relic. You get the relic by completing time trials under a certain time. Some of the platinum relics will take you a very, very long time to get. I have some speedrunner blood in me, but holy heck these can be annoying. Anyways, the replayability gives the game a lot more depth, but I'd still say you can 100% the game in maybe 25 hours.
Difficulty - 7
Getting through each level is a breeze. I got pretty bored just going through each level, and I had reached 99 lives by the end of world 2/6. That being said, this game can be quite frustrating sometimes. Like I said earlier, there is a big problem with depth perception in this game because of the lighting. There are countless times where I have missed precise jumps because I didn't know where I was falling. You pretty much always have to watch for your shadow. Additionally, Nitro boxes (which explode and damage you if you touch them) have stupid hitboxes, and there are a few that I honestly do not think you can get past without taking damage. The boss battles are also usually cheap and very difficult.
The difficulty in your first playthrough feels artificial and entirely the developers' fault. However, when you play through again to get the gems and relics, that's when the real game begins (and when it starts to get fun). There are some secret routes that unlock if you get through a level without dying, and those are usually real difficulty that relies entirely on your skill. The time trials can also be incredibly difficult and you might end up missing a relic by a single frame. Overall, the game is easy peasy unless you're a completionist.
Overall - 5
Overall, Crash Bandicoot - The Wrath of Cortex is a game filled with flaws that are balanced out by its fun endgame and catchy tunes. The graphics suck, the story is textbook cliche, and the gameplay is nothing special. The difficulty feels artificial, but there's some good challenges awaiting you if you choose to fully complete the game. Ultimately, it's not a bad game but not a good game either. I recommend it if you're looking for a simple game or are fan of Crash Bandicoot's format, but don't expect it to be near as good as the first 3.
Graphics
3 Sound
7 Addictive
5 Depth
7 Story
2 Difficulty
7
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