Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex

hey remember when people did reviews in this forum

well


so I've been replaying oldish games recently for something to do so I thought I'd raise my 63% score a bit. Not sure why because I've heard there's nothing fantastic to be gained from it being finished, but meh.

I've got the PS2 version, the one "plagued" by loading times. They're not great, but they're not several minutes long like some people claim... but then again maybe it's the US version that's more b0rked. I dunno. Mine's PAL of course, possibly effected by the 7% slower 50Hz set up. Possibly not. Loading times are never great (especially considering the PS1 titles barely had any) but they don't kill this game. Other things do.

Wrath of Cortex was an early-ish PS2 game, the first multi-platform Crash release and also the first not to be developed by the founding fathers of the series, Naughty Dog. The game hasn't aged well. It's not that Wrath of Cortex is a bad game as such, it just lacks polish. Also Crash 2 and 3 have stood the test of time better than this one IMO, and if a PS1 game is aging better than a PS2 one... you know there's problems.

WoC was developed by Traveller's Tales, before they hit gold with Lego Star Wars. Whereas Naughty Dog were creating games such as Crash Team Racing, TT were spewing out things like Sonic R, so it makes you wonder why Universal hired them for the task.

First off, gameplay. People say it's not a massive change from Warped. This is somewhat true, though it would be foolish to say it doesn't add anything at all. There's more time spent doing things that aren't platforming than the earlier games... I wouldn't really say that's a great thing but it adds variation. Generally the platforming segments are identical to the stuff seen in previous titles, though I found Crash's movements a bit more "floaty" this time around. The levels are longer, which though sounds good on paper, makes the time trials unnecessarily difficult. Rather than expand the levels there should be more levels, so therefore more crystals, gems and relics to collect and more replay value overall.

Coco becomes a fully playable character with her own set of moves this time. But now there's no point in her whatsoever. She's a gimped Crash, as opposed to a random extra as in Warped. There's just no point in that character in this game so why it was a selling point is beyond me.

There's Super Monkey Ball-like sections this time too, which is a nice addition. Many questions are raised as to why N. Tropy, Tiny and Dingodile hang about doing very little to stop you though. Would be great if the bosses were a bit more interesting than CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH all the time, so perhaps they should have reversed roles?

The camera system's a bit lazy this time around. In the PS1 games it stayed in a useful position at all times - this time it moves about cutting off your view and making things that extra bit difficult. Makes a more challenging game though I guess. Apparently the game was originally going to adapt a more free-roaming style of gameplay similar to what Twinsanity ended up doing... did they just forget about the camera? Very difficult to make timed jumps when you're relying on shadows you can't see.

The game got praised on release for its graphics

but why?

Sure it was early days of the PS2 I guess, but the character models look ugly and flat (and Cortex just looks plain weird). Coco has no expression and Crash has lost his attitude entirely. None of them have any personality in this game. It's something that was quickly fixed in Twinsanity but it's something that shouldn't have been broken in the first place. The only characters with personality are the masks and they're... masks.

f you hit a fish in a submarine, you'll explode. If you jetpack your way over some very dangerous looking green lights, you'll explode. Except wait, you don't even have an explosion, you just disappear and all that'll remain are your shoes. THIS IS NOT A VALID INTERPRETATION OF DEATH TRAVELLER'S TALES. Coco is run over by a truck like thing, what happens? She falls over. BORING. This isn't pushing the system to its limits.

Often the short draw distances are noticable too. You'd think they'd be good at dealing with those after Sonic R.


And there's something strange about the sound too. The music isn't terrible (though it certainly isn't memorable) but the sound is dynamic in the sense that if you're far away from the camera, crates will be quieter. This means every TNT crate beeps at different volumes and I can't really see much benefit in that.



But Crash 4 isn't a bad game, it's just not a good Crash Bandicoot game. Anyone thinking of purchasing it might want to turn their attentions to Crash 3 instead (or Crash 2). If it wasn't for the original game this would be the runt of the litter. Of course then again I've not played the more recent games - they might be worse for all I know


though then again this game didn't sell well, and as such Twinsanity, the sequel, didn't get a GameCube port.

i bought it on Xbox Live a long time ago (the version with the furry Crash)

Didn't really like/finish it. It felt like an inferior version of Crash 3 if ya ask me. Crunch being in all of the boss battles was like...wat. Fortunately Travelers' Tales got their **** together in Twinsanity despite all of the glitches that lead to cheap deaths. :V

I will say this though, at least Wrath of Cortex isn't as bad as Enter The Dragonfly. Holy **** was that awful.

Twinsainity is the last true crash game.

all the wii games just ruined the character for me.

althrough the two racing games made after the first one were great.

I remember that game.
I love it <3
I was about 81% or something like that

I liked it, but I do agree with everything you said (especially with Coco being playable, I raged everytime I had to play as her).

I remember Twinsanity making a joke about the Wrath of Cortex not selling well.

Crash 3 was the first game in my life that I completed 100% (101% actually), so it's no secret I wasn't a huge fan of these games. I never actually got a PS2 until about a year ago, so my only experience with this game was me rolling with it at a buddy's house. I don't remember it being horrible, but I forget how old I was at the time. Probably young enough to not care though, I remember legitimately enjoying it.

Aw c'mon, the graphics aren't that bad. The character design "revamps" in Crash of the Titans are much worse.

Nitro Kart was OK, but Tag Team Racing's single player mode felt unfinished (as if though they only made 60% before deciding "**** it") and detracted from the actual racing.

Oh boy, I didn't play Wrath of Cortex, but yeah Enter the Dragonfly is a huge stinker.

Models are only slightly if at all better than the ones on the PS1 with less obvious pixels in the textures, the framerate is horrible, load times like Sonic 06, loads of glitches, it feels unfinished (stuff like few levels, Moneybags only appears once in the entire game, in the first level, despite gems all over the place to pay him with, etc), the humor and story seem lacking, etc. Apparently Check Six Studios was forced by Universal to have the game out for the holiday season, and if certain Sonic games are any point of reference, it shows.

Also, Traveler's Tales games usually seem like hit & miss to me. It seems like they'll generally have certain elements in a game that hit the mark really well while others are left seriously lacking (Ex: Good-looking robots, voice talent from the movie cast plus Frank Welker as Megatron, and G1 skins in Transformers: The Game, while it feels unfinished and mundane to play and the story is pathetic, Sonic R looks good and has some pretty true-to-Sonic elements, but plays a bit odd, has unbalanced characters, and is very short, etc).

This post has been edited by Clutch on Apr 8 2009, 03:42 PM

I rented this hoping it'd be like 2, and I got treated to some really boring levels which weren't platforming. I never beat a single world in it, I just stopped playing it altogether pretty quickly.

I did beat it, not 100% tho

Crash 3 was much better. I really liked the bosses in 1/2/3, but in Crash 4 they all sucked. Too easy, if you can say. Now for the levels: still good, but something was lost.

So I agree with you.

EDIT: And this was my first PS2 game!

This post has been edited by Jlhgomez on Apr 8 2009, 04:32 PM

I'll always prefer Cortex Strikes Back over the rest, but 1,2,3, and CTR are the only ones I truly consider Crash Bandicoot Games..

This was the 2nd PS2 game I ever got, right after Kingdom Hearts. I liked it but was slightly disappointing, cuz the loading time was ridiculous and everywhere, and the gameplay had a really light and unnatural feel to it, unlike the originals.

All the same, I beat it 100% like the rest, and enjoyed it for what it's worth.