However, these graphics and animations, which did indeed give a whole new depth of character that developers could unleash upon their creations, truly shined on the Playstation, whose power could handle such animations.

Bandicoot-backing on the praise of the character's facial expression and animation, the graphics as a whole in this game are superb. The background environments, textures, an characters are all very detailed and look quite good (for the time period). Unfortunately, this is where my praise for the game ends, or at least takes a brief hiatus while my grumpier twin steps in to wail on my keyboard for awhile because, though the game is a technical masterpiece and very pleasing to the eye, this game falls short in what makes a game a game: the gameplay.

Among the first forays into the 3D platforming realm, Crash Bandicoot's allows players to move in the X, Y, and Z planes. For the technically, or mathematically unsavvy, that means you can move side to side, forward and backward, and up and down. As such the 3D platforming genre was basically unexplored territory, a clean slate with no established cliches. No one would fault them for trying new ideas or for pushing boundaries that have not even been created yet. And there are some instances in this game in which they fully explore and utilize the new 3D elements they have created, the boss fights being somewhat shiny examples of this, and a few sections of other levels, forcing you to think in 3D and utilizing the full depth of field they have been given. But for the most part, Crash Bandicoot plays it safe. Instead of diving into the new 3D pool, it is content to splash around in the shallows. The 3D aspects are there, but never fully realized.

A very obvious example of this is that the levels, though fully 3D levels, still feel like 2D affairs when played in that you go from point A to point B, hop over obstacle C, skip over D, and jump over E. These are not fully realized worlds that take advantage of the 3D technology, they are 2D concepts executed in 3D graphics. Though the level backgrounds are wonderfully rendered in 3D, they are so filled in with textures and claustrophobically so that I do not feel as though there is any world outside of what I can see. I feel that if I took a step beyond the jungle (or factory or temple) I would be greeted by blackness. I feel like the levels are tunnels with very well done wall paper, leading down one pipe and into another. Super Mario 64 (another 3D platforming game that came out around the same time, you may have heard of it) on the other hand, feels like a full world. Even at the very edge of a map, it is so well implemented and realized that I feel that if I could somehow pass beyond that invisible wall, I would still have more world to explore.

Another stumbling block I encountered is in the way in which the levels are designed. In CB you only move in one direction at a time. What I mean by that is that the levels are structured so that you move from one Crash Bandicoot sized ledge, straight left, straight right, straight forward, ad nauseum, making sharp, 90 degree turns and starting over again. There is very little dual movement in which you are moving both toward the screen and to the right. Again, this is a very 2D concept, that a player can only handle moving along one axis at a time. We're big boys and girls, we can multitask. It will be ok.

I hate to turn this into a review that could have been entitled "Like Super Mario 64 But..." however, it is impossible look back at this game without comparing it to the others of its kind. And please don't get me wrong, it is still a ground breaking game that helped establish the 3D platformer as a genre in the first place, but I still feel let down when I look at the way 3D is implemented in Super Mario. It is as though the developers of Super Mario were looking at it as a 3D game and then built up everything else off that concept, and that Crash was built as a 2D game and then later had 3D graphics applied.

It is still a great game, a lot of fun to play, and it will go on to be one of the Playstation's best selling games of all time, and there has to be a reason for that and there is: great graphics, a fun playable character, a 3D environment to play around in, and solid platforming elements. Can I really fault a game for not being what it could have been? Perhaps, perhaps not. But I can give it a lower score in my review. Cuz I'm the reviewer. Word.