Along side Spyro the Dragon was another classic that would span across the PSX and future Play Station consoles. One that possessed great platforming and had secrets dotted around the place, with a fair amount of humour here and there. I am talking about Crash Bandicoot. Yes, the mutant bandicoot that can spin ridiculously and eats a load of apples in those iconic blue shorts That one. I kinda feel that Crash Bandicoot has become the "Gimmick bucket" as I like to call it. What was once a mysterious world of Crash Bandicoot turned into a game franchise where game developers can just throw their ideas as Crash and expect a game to be made of it. If you were a seasonal fan of this game, you'll notice that the Crash world (Much like the Rayman world, only more subtle) changed to be a very different world it started off as, and the game play and feel just doesn't seem the same. When was the day of just jumping on crates and collecting Wumpa fruit? There were a fair few games that did this, to be honest. The road Crash is spinning down, however, seems to be steep and slippery. Although that might not necessarily be a bad thing, for a hard core gamer like me, I would like to see a return of some classics like the first three games.
I was always a little confused with the story of this game. As the title screen appeared with Crash running down the beach and crashing into the camera, there would be a cut-scene that appeared. I've only seen this twice, and never knew how to get it up. It was like a rare treat that happened rarely. From what I am gathering from this is that the evil genius, Dr. N Cortex, is building an army of mutant animals, and he wants a bandicoot to be the general, to lead his army to world domination. He sends the bandicoot into the "Vortex", which never was explained, and Crash jumps out of the window. Then they prepare the "Female Bandicoot", and that's it. I felt this cut-scene was rushed and didn't explain much, but it leaves a lot to the imagination. I like that about a game. Even though this game hasn't got the best cut-scenes, it's future games know how to make dark and eerie ones that are far superior to what this one offered.
So you end up washed up on an island, and you get to start playing the game. Apparently Crash wants to stop Cortex/save the female bandicoot/ and sets off on his journey. There are three islands to tackle, naturally each one harder than the last. The first thing you'll notice are crates. You can jump on them like Mario, and collect these apples called Wumpa Fruit. Collecting 100 will grant you an extra life. There is, however, another way to destroy crates. You can use your spin attack to destroy crates quickly and easily, but don't do it with the TNT crates, otherwise they'll blow up. You can jump on the TNT crate to "activate" them, giving you three seconds to get clear before it explodes. If you use your spin attack on any items you can pick up, they'll be spin away, so be careful. This includes fruit, 1-ups and Aku Aku masks. Aku Aku is some sort of magical mask that protects you from hits. If you collect one mask, you can save yourself from one hit. Collect two, and he becomes golden and saves you from two hits. If you manage to collect three masks without getting hit, you'll wear the mask, and become invincible for a short time. Blocks and enemies alike are destroyed when you touch them. However, you still make noises when you touch something really hot, which is a nice touch. When it's all over, he becomes the golden mask again.
If you get hit when not having one Aku Aku mask, you'll die. What I love about this game is that you don't just die one way. If you look at other games for this system, there's really only one dying animation, give or take maybe one more. This game however, has a fair few. You can get squashed, burned, blown up with your eyes and feet landing from a great height, etc. Although the black screen spinning death gets really annoying at times, they put the creativity into the deaths to try and stray from that. Another thing I like is the idle animation for Crash. If you own the game, just wait for a minute and see what he does, and wait a little longer. It's stuff like that which makes the game richer.
If you are able to break all the crates in a level and not die once (Which is quite unforgiving), you'll be awarded with a gem. These gems are supposedly useless, but they have a use. You'll also notice coloured gems in the level, but shrink smaller when you get closer to them. If you're lucky and skillful enough, a certain level will award you with a coloured gem. These make those gems in the levels stay there for you to use as platforms. These will let you get crates to get other gems. You can also find keys as well, which unlock secret levels. I don't know how to get them, but I think they are found in very select bonus stages. Now, collecting all these gems and keys isn't easy, and trying to find all the secrets in this game will lead to a very good replay value. That is one thing I admire about this game. It has that air of difficulty that old games had. It took a little time before completing, and a fair few game overs. Pat yourself on the back if you can beat this game.
The graphics are very good. Once again, this pushes the PSX to what it can really handle. The animations are smooth, the explosions are cool, nothing lags when an effect is put up and the background is very well done. However, it does seem a little "tight" at times when in some levels. I do feel a little claustrophobic at times when playing this game. The walls and trees and even the water is finely details, but some levels just make me feel like it's a bit of a tight squeeze. Playing Spyro the Dragon didn't help this. It was a wide open space everywhere. You could get up and close with everything and pretty much go nearly everywhere. Here, sometimes the trees feel like walls. It feels like a one-way route to the end of the level. Other levels have either a fog or some darkness obscuring the vision. This is annoying, as it feels like I am neglected some good scenery, but it all adds to the atmosphere of the game's level. I suppose it's only natural. You can't have it so you could explore outside the level path, otherwise you would get lost, and some other levels do feel more "open" than others.
The music is also very good. It includes a lot of different instruments that are chosen to be played depending on the level type you're playing. They also match the music to the surroundings of the level quite well. The boss music is awesome, and the level select music is catchy. It doesn't get annoying when you're looking for a level that you haven't got a gem or key in yet. The sound effects are all clear and flamboyant and add to the game. The sounds are very realistic, which was surprising when I saw the cover of this game.
Overall, I give this game a 9.1/10 It's one of those games. It's core game is simple but challenging, but getting 100% is an entirely different matter. Its level design is well made for straight forward levels and everything in them works together to create a mysterious world where many secrets and history is stored, but none is revealed. Some levels are 2D based, which kinda takes away the 3D feel of the game, but it's still quite amazing. This is a game you must play. If you liked Spyro the Dragon, then you might enjoy a bit of Crash Bandicoot. |
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