Crash Bandicoot Fusion - Gameboy Advance

Back when Naughty Dog lost the series the Crash Bandicoot video game franchise went almost crazy. Many games were made by various developers and publishers so it was really hard to compare the games to each as a series. 
There are now many categories of Crash Bandicoot games and Fusion (Purple) falls under Spin-offs. I feel it was under shadowed by the console games and at the time they were bad so would someone be bold enough to even try a handheld game?
Here is what people missed out...


Graphics

The Gameboy advance is a 32 -bit console meaning it is more powerful than the SNES which most people are mistaken for because very little games show off the extra 16-bits. Crash Bandicoot Fusion however managed to perfect the power of the console and produced one of the best looking games on the GBA. 
In the cut scenes it looked almost 64-bit though they were only still images with text at the bottom so that keeps the Frame Rate per second down. But then as we move onto the actual gameplay you will notice how well designed Crash's body is. In my opinion he and other character models with the exception of the sheep and spyro look better than Donkey Kong country on the SNES and that is embarrassingly one of the only 2 games that I think that can produce that when this console is almost twice as powerful.

Vicarious Visions did an amazing job and they really deserve the 10 out of 10.


Sound

When it comes to good Video game music I instantly think DOOM, Mega Man 2, Super CastleVania IV but then if I think hard enough I can remember how great of a sound track the original Crash Bandicoot had. I would be seeing that Vicarious Visions has a challenge but with all of the developer and company changes makes me think realize that they don't much to compete against, all of the sound tracks seem to be poor for this franchise excluding the exclusives but was Fusion another example of this? No.
After the Gameboy logo fades out to black you are greeted by the slap bass of the opening theme. This is what you want to hear from a Crash Bandicoot game, this is a song that reminds me of the PS1 days and boy does it get better.
Ok maybe not straight away when the cut scene music sucks but once you get into the jungle you enter ear sex. The area music, the minigame music and my favourite the Boss battle music against spyro it is all there and it keeps you ears happy right from there to the arctic cliffs to the Lava stage to the end of the game. There are only a few bad tracks and that is where it looses the mark from absolut perfect.


Story

With this game being based at children you wouldn't really expect anything good. You would be expecting something cliche or a spin off of something else or just something new and bad in the making. I'm not going to say you are wrong.
The plot is basic the two main enemies from both Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot join forces to rid themselves from the heros. They do this by genetically modifying, well putting a mask on, a Ripto's so they look like the Hero from the opposite game, so ripto's would look like Spyro in this game.
The choice of dialog was horrid. Spyro says "You're not like the other Ripto's" after you knock him off a huge castle and then you become friends. I mean it is aimed for kids but how does that even make sense?
This was the only part of the game they really screwed up and in some ways I forgive them, making a story with Spyro and Crash sound difficulty but did they really have to make it that bad?


Gameplay

To be honest I was a little disappointed when I found out there was very little depth and variety in this game. All you do is collect wumpa and play Mini games. There are not many unique mini games either, most of them seem to pop up in different worlds yet with a level and environmental change. The game itself is a little short too, only a few worlds to explore and it could be finished in a few hours if you are good at the game.

Being good at Crash Bandicoot Fusion takes practice. The arcade style mini games become harder and hard as you progress and getting that purple gem you get once you beat a game seems almost impossible. Even the in the first world the Helicopter shooting game is tough, it took me roughly 20 tries before I could beat it and that is pretty insane on the first world. What really annoyed me was when I saw that style of mini game again 2 world later and that one took me hours to beat. In that game it is pretty much, if you miss one parachuting snail you have really had it. Other mini games get really annoying later, even the funny ones where you shoot the sheep with the Bazooka become insanely difficult.
This game may not be as tough as some of the NES sidescrollers like Ninja Gaiden and CastleVania I and III but it certainly can suit the consoles difficult game play style.

It may be difficult but it is easy to play. There is a nice addictive charm with the mini games even when they annoy you. They remind me of arcade games. You could almost never win but it certainly wont stop you trying. I really can not get enough of playing this, even if I do come to it every now and again. This game is really replayable, even after multiple rage quits. There is something speaking out to me that I really like.

I really suggest this game to those who enjoy classic Arcade games. The Mini games will appeal to you and the challenge could do the same. Perfectionists and Completionists, I wont want you to be avoiding this one either because getting 100% in Crash Fusion is a sure fun experience. I guarantee enjoyment from this and since it is cheap I would recommend buying it rather than playing it on Vizzed. (there is also an easter egg in the non emulated version).





MechaMento!!

Nice job on this review man, it is a nice solid review over 1,000 words! You are very thorough and organized with your review and I must say that it really came out quite awesome. You have plenty of detail to support each category of the game which is good because some users put a lot of focus on one and not enough on the other, so I am glad you were consistent all the way through. One thing I like about your review is that you say why you gave each category that score because some just slap a score down and don't say why it earned that score. 

Overall, an awesome job man, I think this came out quite nicely and you did a great job on this. All I can say is to keep reviewing frequently because your reviews will only get better! Keep up the great work! 

good job on the review mecha it was long and detailed just how i like them and good job on your detail on all the catergories