Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back2089 views

by Solvesoul January 5th, 2013

The adventure starts with Coco Bandicoot (Crash's Sister) that orders Crash to go get some batteries for her laptop. On his way he gets abducted by Cortex. Cortex orders Crash to find 25 purple crystals which hold an ancient power. Cortex wants those crystals for world domination but lies to Crash about his evil plan. Doctor N. Brio also contacts Crash and tells him to collect gems for him so he can stop the evil plan of Cortex. So there he is, collecting crystals and gems to ultimately win back his freedom and save the world once again.

Naughty Dog took the formula of Crash Bandicoot and brought it to the next level. Crash 1 already was such a great and classic game but with Crash 2 they tuned everything where Crash 1 failed to succeed. For instance, the animation on Crash is more fluent, the clunky controls are gone and the difficulty has been taken down a notch. To a level where it is less frustrating and more fun to play.


Instead of choosing the levels you want to play from an overhead view, you can now choose it within a warp room. Five warp rooms are available (six if you count the secret one) each containing five levels and each level contains at least one crystal and one gem. You find the crystal the first time you play a level and you get the gem if you can destroy all boxes within a level (which is harder than it sounds). The levels vary from exploring a space station with a jetpack to riding a small, cute polar bear's back and dodging all kinds of obstacles.

The level of humor didn't drop at all in comparison with Crash 1. It's such a subtle humor, the characteristics of Crash are so well done and the same can be said for the other characters. This has been proven since these characters are used in numerous other sequels. There are so many Crash games out there but the ones developed by Naughty Dog are the real classics.

The only common complaint about Crash 2? It's not new. It's the same as the previous Crash with the only difference that you have to collect crystals instead of just completing the level. Sure, now you ride a polar bear instead of a warthog, but in the end it's all the same. The only real new thing was the levels where you can use a jetpack to navigate through a space station. It was a nice attempt from Naughty Dog but the controls are the thing that killed it. It's really hard to learn and not intuitive. The idea is lovely but the execution is not.