Review of Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

11-20-16 11:29 AM

supremesonicbrazil is Offline

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After the huge success Crash Bandicoot was, a sequel comes in. Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back. An awesome approach for a game title, as well as an awesome sequel to an already great game. Crash 2 pushed new boundaries, introduced new things, and (thank God) fixed some issues the last game had. I believe Crash 2 was the canon one I played the most (I used to play CTR a lot more, but since it's a spin-off I had to divide), had such good times with it. So let's get to it.

[STORY - 9/10]
Following the (normal) ending of Crash 1, where Crash had a final fight with Dr. Neo Cortex on his blimp, Crash won and Cortex fell on the island, crashing through a cave and finding a shining purple crystal there, laughing maniacally while a comic relief happens where his match loses its light and he shouts a comical "D'oh!". One year has passed and Cortex is seen inside the Cortex Vortex, orbiting Earth, discussing his plans with Dr N. Gin, a physicist who serves as his assistant/right-hand. Cortex plans to suck the energy out of the purple crystal he found to power the Cortex Vortex, but N. Gin tells him that's not enough, as they need 25 smaller crystals to reach full power.

Cut to Earth, Crash is sleeping alongside his sister, Coco, which seemingly came out of nowhere since the first game never mentioned her (I personally used to believe she was Tawna but younger, believe it or not), who was using her laptop when suddenly the batteries were dead and she asked Crash to get new ones (I actually didn't understood this part as a child, had to search it up). Crash then went deep into the forest when he reaches an altar and gets abducted to a strange place (which is called "Warp Room" in-game). There, Cortex shows up as a hologram and somehow tricks Crash into believing he's trying to save the world, begging him for help to find crystals on his way and bring them to him. Shortly after, a hologram of Dr. N. Brio appears, telling Crash to look for gems instead of crystals. Coco tries to contact Crash several times throughout the game but always gets cut off, so she decides to research on her own, while Crash sets out to collect both crystals and gems.

One thing's for sure, there's a lot more dialogue here than in Crash 1. I don't mind since I like deep stories like the Bioshock series, but I still prefer taking it in small doses. Crash 2 actually does a great work on this, it doesn't throw everything in your face at the same time, you get to digest it nice and slow.

[GRAPHICS - 10/10]
On a former review I said Crash 1 had stunning cartoon-ish graphics which blended great with realistic environments. Luckily for us, nothing has changed in that way. In fact, things are pretty much more polished, but they still retain that cartoon-ish feel, which is awesome. Plus, aside from new enemies, new scenarios and new everything, Crash also has more death animations (some of them are really funny) and he's not looking side-to-side anymore like the "schizophrenic mammal" he was in Crash 1. He looks a bit less "animal", but if you idle for a long time, he goes back to his old pose.

Level-wise, Crash 1 had kind of a "fixed" setting on the Australian wildness and tribal atmosphere, but on Crash 2 we have more varied settings: not only forests but also snowy mountains, long lost ruins, dank sewers, paradisiac waterfalls, damn, we even get to go to SPAAAAAACE! Crash 2 nails it right on level variety.

[SOUND - 10/10]
Also quoting my former review of Crash 1, limitations on PS1 hardware brought along some kinda bad audio quality issues, which technically could kill games but in fact just made Crash games better. Crash 2 is a way better example than Crash 1 in this aspect, as it also had to compress its soundtrack but levels like Hang Eight/Air Crash/Plant Food (which, ironically, are by far my favorites from the whole game) just got better with this kind of compression.

The Australian ambiance from Crash 1 has been tuned down in Crash 2, but as levels are pretty varied now, it ended up filling this "empty space" the suppression of didgeridoos and tribal drums have left. Don't worry though, you can still hear didgeridoos as a sound effect when Crash dies sometimes. Yet, the general feeling of a Crash game is still retained in this new soundtrack. It still feels like a Crash game down there at its core. Soundtrack-wise, Crash 2 is my franchise favorite hands down.

This game also had "pre-console" versions of its soundtrack released by Josh Mancell on his SoundCloud, which you can check out here in case you haven't read the former review: https://soundcloud.com/joshmancell/sets/music-for-video-games-crash

[DIFFICULTY - 7/10]
Here is where Crash 2 steps down a bit for the greater good: finally we get full analog controls. Good riddance, D-Pad. Overall, on the "main quest" subject, Crash 2 ends up being a tad easier than Crash 1 IMO. There's less levels (25 compared to Crash 1's 30-ish) and bosses are a bit more predictable, yet they still give a bit of a challenge, as we should expect them to give. I believe the same mechanics of "making the game easier should you die a lot" that Crash 1 had still apply here, not really sure but I think you still get an Aku-Aku mask for free and the boulders still slow down for you after dying X times.

But, besides that, Crash 2 made it easier for you to accumulate lots of lives. In fact, there is even an easter egg/exploit/whatchamacallit which gives you 10 or so instant lives simply by jumping lots of times on a polar bear beside one of the levels' portals on the Warp Room (later on this polar bear was simply known as Polar, being part of the "hero crew").

Bosses, in specific, take a bit more of time to defeat, not because they're hard, but because they more slow-paced than Crash 1's bosses, which, sincerely, is great for me, although that means you get more time to react, thus, probably making them easier for you (or not, it still depends on your pace).

Luckily, again for the greater good, you can save the game anytime you want by standing in front of a big wall in the Warp Room, the password scheme is gone, you can truly play at your own pace now, everything's way better.

[DEPTH - 9/10]
And here is where the sequel really shines.

As per usual, Crash 2 makes you collect crystals and gems are still there, this time colored gems are sort of "padronized" in five different colors: blue, red, green, yellow and purple. I don't really remember how were the colored gems back in Crash 1 but this seems a lot better for me. They are still vital as they open secret paths with hidden crates to collect. Some levels can have one or two gems to collect, these extra certain gems (including some of the colored ones) are now earned through special ways that aren't breaking all crates in a level, like going through certain secret paths that other gems unlock, and speaking of which...

Did I mention there's a secret Warp Room? Yep. Some specific levels have certain places which trigger specific parts of some levels that were otherwise unreachable in their normal path, and they're very well hidden in places you'd never expect (unfortunately you are forced to go through one of those every time you want to visit, there's not a thing like a "special portal that opens in the main Warp Room" for you to access the secret one).

Crash 2 also got more varied bonus stages that are more accessible than Crash 1's. You don't need to collect anything, you've just got to find a big green "?" platform which will take you there. There are also Skull Routes, platforms with a skull craved on them which take you to harder sections of the level. They might even hide a gem there, who knows. But it comes with a price: the only requirement for entering these routes is to reach the platform without dying. If you die even once before getting there, when you get to the platform it will just be a white wireframe, showing that the platform is gone and you'll have to redo the level from start.

Whilist in Crash 1 we had lots of platforming and a donkey to mount on and rush through tribal houses, Crash 2 has a LOT more different gameplay styles. Alongside basic platforming and the "auto-runner sequences" with Polar the Bear, Crash can also surf waterfalls with a motorized surfboard, have a sort of lum or firefly that guides him through the forest at night and even ride a jetpack on space!

There's also additions in the controls: back at Crash 1 all you could do was jumping and spinning. Crash 2 allows you to crouch and slide, as well as stomp things with your belly (there are specific crates which can only be broken by belly-stomping them). As in Crash 1, there's also an alternate ending which requires you to collect every single collectible in the game, so... yeah, good luck with that.

[ADDICTIVENESS - 9/10]
There's something I almost forgot to say: you can die as many times as you wish, you'll get your gem even so, assuming you reached its requirement. This is what makes Crash 2 a lot more re-playable than Crash 1 for me. Also, it may not look like it, but bosses can be replayed here as well as Crash 1, you just got to hold a button or a combo of buttons if I'm not mistaken while changing floors in the Warp Room. I personally like to replay Crash 2 a lot for a reason: I love the musics. Be they compressed or not, Crash 2 achieved one of the best soundtracks I've heard in my life.

[OVERALL - 10/10]
I couldn't help myself. I try to not give a whopping 10/10 all the time but I gotta admit these games are really perfect to me. Crash 2 is one hell of a game and I can't deny it, it fixed all of the issues I had with the original game, I've got literally nothing to complain about, I swear. I can only imagine how the Crash 3 review will be like...

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11-20-16 07:34 PM

Eniitan is Offline

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Eniitan

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You did a review on a PS1 game I very much like and adore. I always love seeing people review games I love to play most of the time. Or was part of my childhood days of gaming, which this game of course was. I enjoyed reading your review I did read it before, but had some things to do so I couldn't post here sooner.

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