Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure
Reviewed by MaxH
Surely bandicoot fans will be disappointed with this
brief rehash of all thing Crash. It's not a bad game
by any means, it's good fun in most places. But it
has so many factors spoiling this fun that it can't
possibly be as enjoyable as it should.
The story is extremely simple. Cortex has invented a
ray to shrink the earth and he has used it. That's
it. As Crash, you must travel across twenty levels to
collect 20 crystals and defeat Cortex. This,
apparently, will return the earth to it's normal size.
But every single Crash platformer has had a plot
which ends in 'and then cortex was defeated' so this
game's story is hardly disappointing, it's just
rather routine. The problem is developers Vicarious
Visions haven't taken advantage of the plot. Some
pretty cool level and boss ideas could be extracted
from the 'small world' formula. Crash's 3 and 4 both
took advantages of their plot in this manner, so why
couldn't this game?
Why? Because it's too busy shamelessly aping the
previous crash games. Now when I say aping I don't
mean 'not changing the formula' as we saw in the PS2
incarnation. I mean duplicating level themes, enemies
and actual pieces of level design from Crash
Bandicoot 2. Even the music is just a digitised
replica of Crash 2's, and two of the bosses are
straight ports from Crash 2.
And while this doesn't necessarily make it less
enjoyable, it will just seem too stale for Crash
fans. Crash: Wrath of Cortex at least had new level
ideas and enemy designs. The next big problem is that
the GBA can NOT recreate the absorbing level set
pieces and moments of perfect timing as well as they
could on a console. And these tense challenges and
clever pieces of level design are what made the Crash
Bandicoot games so exciting. Here they are gone.
Now, this wouldn't be such a bad thing if vicarious
visions just tried to create a platformer that worked
in 2D, one that would be just as fun on the GBA.
Instead they carried on trying to recreate the feel
of the PS's crash games. But without the
aforementioned highlights, all you're left with is
the tired scarps of a platform game, the same scraps
you'll see everywhere else. It's more playable than
the average platformer, as it does have SOME fun
moments, such as the polar bear chase, which is an
exact copy of that bit in crash 2 where you are
riding on a baby polar bear to get away from a bigger
polar bear. And the flying levels which see you
flying into the screen shooting baddies helps to add
some spice.
But the real meat of the game is in the time trials
and gem collecting. The main game has only 20 puny
levels and I finished it off in a pitiful 70 minutes,
but I spent another three hours or so getting relics
from the time trials and gems from finding and
smashing every box. The slow, meticulous plodding
through of the levels when trying to get every box
when put in contrast with the frantic high speed
sprints through on time trial provide some welcome
changes in pace to the main game. And receiving these
shiny objects for your efforts are very rewarding. It
may not have the slick, compulsive dynamic that the
other games do, but it has the same excellent sense
of progress and reward.
As well as content issues and a shocking lack of
challenge, Crash Bandicoot has decidedly dodgy
controls. All his old moves are here, from the spin
attack to the double jump, so crash fans will be
happy with that. The problem is they are so random.
There is a noticeable delay between the pushing of A
and the jumping of crash in some places, but not in
others, and sometimes the game will refuse to let you
perform a double jump. And sometimes an enemy will
kill you when it's not even touching you! the
randomness of these events is what is most
frustrating. If there was always a delay in your
jump, then you could learn to time your jumps so they
accommodated that fact, but you just have to stab
randomly at the GBA and hope for the best. My last
gripe with the controls is the fact that you have to
hold the L button in order to do the 'Crash Dash'
move. It is basically another name for 'running
really fast' and it is essential that it is held down
through the entire level when you are doing time
trials. The developers should have realised that
holding down the L button for the entire duration of
a level is unbearably uncomfortable. It made both my
hands go numb every single time, surely not a good thing.
There's no denying that the game is an absolute
stunner though. As with Spyro, Universal have
obviously allowed for a lengthy development period
and a lot of money to be lavished upon this major
franchise, and it shows. It looks basically as good
as the 2D sections in the normal games. Perhaps the
most impressive part is the animation. Crash performs
moves with the same energy and fluidity as he always
has and the enemy sprites look the part as well. The
game's levels may be directly stolen, but that
doesn't stop them from being incredibly detailed and
colourful. Vicarious Visions have succeeded in
shrinking down Crash's world without losing anything important.
So really, Crash is a fun game. The main game lacks
the enthusiasm and intelligence that make it's
predecessors so engrossing, but it's still well
designed and (just about) falls on the right side of
average. And the gem collecting and time trial modes
help add some fun and make it just a little more
challenging. But still not challenging enough, the
game lasts barely four hours, and hardly any of it is
actually difficult.
But you have to understand, the paragraph above is
just me trying to find justification for my purchase
of the game. I would not advise you to buy it. If you
can rent GBA games wherever you are, then sure, it's
fun enough to spend that kind of money on and it's
short length makes it the perfect rental. But the
lack of challenge and distinct gameplay make this one
to stay away from otherwise.
Bandicooterific
+ Decent enough level designs and bosses
+ Time Trial mode and Gem collecting mode are worth
the time and effort, and are very satisfying
+ Some good dashes of variety
+ The gameplay is generally fun enough to hold your attention
+ Successful attempt at shrinking down the sounds of Crash
+ Gorgeous graphics
Not all it's crashed up to be
- Nearly everything is (quite literally) stolen from other Crash games
- Except the best parts of them have been left out
- Far too short
- Awkward, random controls
If you like this...
Spyro: Season of Ice - GBA: If you want to see a major playstation
platforming franchise handled with more care, take a look at this
Crash Bandicoot: Warped - PS: The best Crash game of them all,
an energetic, exhilarating and immensely satisfying platformer
Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of cortex - PS2:
Surprisingly good PS2 update of the Crash series.
Overall: 6 out of 10