Back To Reviews Crash Bandicoot: Warped Review
Rating: Awesome Simply put, Crash Bandicoot 2 is one of the greatest action/platform games of all time. Crash 2 is more story-line-intensive than the original, with Neo Cortex himself appearing and talking to Crash in holograms at various points in the game. This time, instead of just going from pre- determined level to pre-determined level on a linear map, the game consists of a series of "warp rooms." Each warp rooms includes five levels that can be played in any order you want, plus a save area so you can save your game at any time (thank you!), plus a boss to do battle with once you've beaten all five of that warp room's levels. When you beat the boss, you've beaten that "warp room," or "world," as standard action/platform terminology would call it, and it's on to the next one. There are five warp rooms in all, plus a hidden one with two top-secret, super-hard levels, so do the math and Crash 2 features 27 levels and five bosses. This makes for a very lengthy game considering that each of the levels is absolutely huge compared to the original game's, plus the fact that breaking all the boxes and getting all the crystals as a side quest is now even harder than it originally was. As with any classic game, Crash 2 does a brilliant job of easing you into the gameplay at the beginning and "teaching" you how to play, slowly easing you into what eventually becomes extremely challenging gameplay that will sweat the palms of even the biggest action/platform junkie. The gameplay itself has much more variety than the original and will keep you interested for a lot longer. Crash has several new moves, like the slide, belly flop, and high jump (all of which are very easy to do on the PlayStation controller), and the best thing about these new moves is that you actually have to think about which move to do to which enemy, since some enemies have spikes on their backs,or spinning blades around their waist, and so on. Each enemy has to be approached differently rather than just frantically spinning through the levels. The levels also feature a much greater variety from level to level, including lots of snow and ice levels as opposed to none in the original, along with some sweet water-skiing levels, too. Plus, the variety within each individual level is much greater, with one section of a level consisting of forward-scrolling action, and then maybe it switches to a side-scroller for a little while, for example. The game also has tons of little things that are really cool, like the shocked look on Crash's face whenever Cortex appears, and the cool little secrets such as belly-flopping a baby polar bear in one of the warp rooms several times and getting ten free lives (although, for the balance of the game, this trick only works once). And it is simply hilarious that Crash shakes his butt and does a crotch chop Shawn Michaels-style after beating a boss or getting a gem. Speaking of the bosses, they are really cool and truly make you think about what you're doing with their intricate pattern- based attacks and deadly weaponry. Crash 2 is also even more of a graphical feast than the original was, and while the music isn't as initially appealing as Crash 1's opening tune was, Crash 2's music is still very cool. What I'm trying to say here is that Crash 2 is an absolutely awesome game. Not only does it eat all its action/platform competition like Croc for breakfast, but it is near the top of the list of hottest games of the past year. A definite must-have.
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Crash Bandicoot: Warped Review
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