It’s hard to believe it’s been 15 years since I was balling my eyes out, pleading with my brother to not return Crash Bandicoot 2 to our local Xtra-Vision. If memory serves, they had already allowed me a days grace with the game, so another night was out of the question. I was distraught. That game completely mesmerised me, and was the first game, Gex: Enter The Gecko being the second, that I truly connected with. I needed to have it. Unfortunately, due to being 8 at the time, it wasn’t until the following year that I was able to own a Crash Bandicoot game, and at that point, Crash Bandicoot 3 had landed, and was all the rage. It would be a couple of years before I would own a copy of Crash Bandicoot 2, and even then, it was a lucky find in a second hand bin at a local rental store, coincidentally, the same place I first picked up Final Fantasy 7 too.
Fast forward to today, and all the Crash Bandicoot games are on the PSN store for a fraction of the price. Yes. My friends buy them all to experience them fully for the first time, since they were nearly all living in Nintendo households. Yes. I come over and play them repeatedly instead. YES.
Anyway, the big question is, does the game in question stand up, some 15 years later? In a word, yes, but the bigger question is, is it’s influence resonating within the industry? I’m not so sure these days but that’s a different discussion so let’s get on with the review!
From the get go, the title screen is as bombastic as usual for Crash, with that familiar Aku-Aku voice quoting the title. Once you hit New Game, you’re led to a video that continues right from the end of Crash Bandicoot 1, of the series’ antagonist falling from his gigantic base in the sky as it blows up, and landing in a mysterious place. It is in this cave we learn of Cortex’s plan to gather all the crystals throughout the land to power his plot for world domination. Cue Crash, who’s introduced chilling with his sister Coco in a forest somewhere.
The first level starts!
The gameplay is very simple, a direct evolution of the Sonic and Mario 2D design of the previous generation. You run forward or backward, jump or spin at boxes to break them to get the delicious wumpa fruit held within, and you either jump, spin, or crouch slide at enemies to kill them. Perfect. Once this first level is completed, you meet Aku-Aku, who explains why is it imperative you stop Cortex, and takes you to the Warp room, where the game really begins.
The set pieces in this game are amazing to me, the warp rooms, or zones, are circular rooms with 5 doors in them, each leading to a different level. They look like something out of a Terry Gilliam film, what with the ominous vortex’s in each doorway, and that huge screen dictating SAVE/LOAD over the area. Once you’ve completed all five levels, you take an elevator to the boss room, which, once defeated, takes you up to the next zone. Really nice design, super straight-forward.
The levels themselves are a whole other palette. From rich forest/jungle areas, to lush swamps, to white and blue Arctic areas, to dank underground sewers, to the vibrant shimmering colours of the future, the game still looks good considering its age. The cartoon-y graphics really do give this game a sense of timelessness that makes it so easy to pick up, no matter how long it’s been. The levels also have a seamless way of transitioning between the 3D gameplay, and the side scrolling gameplay of old, which is utilised for the bonus stages, one in each main level. These transitions add a variety to the gameplay, all while still remaining beautifully simple.
The difficulty curve throughout the game is quite nice, as new challenges get introduced, they flow nicely with the game, so at no point do you feel like an enemy is all of a sudden too difficult to defeat. Indeed, when I re-visited the game last year, it still took me a few hours to beat it. Granted all the enemies are set up so they can be beaten with a spin, crouch dash or jump, but still, sepcially in later sci-fi levels, the enemies can be a little tricky, specially with some of the more clever platform sections.
Nostalgia hasn’t completely romanticized my view of the game however, as I will say the gameplay can be easily perceived as repetitive to people who did not grow up with Crash. The lack of a tangible plot could also easily be construed as a negative point, specially when compared with games of only a few years later, like Jak And Daxter, where the world and story created is huge and sprawling.
That said, I still love this game, and regularly complete it for funsies. If you’re a fan of games from a simpler, and I would argue, better era in gaming, I would say it’s a must play. If you’re a newer/younger gaming fan whose perhaps looking for something a little simpler for your palette, you’re 5 euros could be much worse spent.
