AHHHHHHHH
I'm sorry, kid me. I know you really loved this game.

TL;DR: Game is just a worse Crash 3.

LONG REVIEW Incoming:

Let's get to the good: this game is aesthetically pleasing and plays it safe enough to be a follow-up on Crash 3. The elemental boss fights and elemental masks as concept/characters is cool as well. The OST is great, the stages are memorable and even soulfully, it's a Crash Bandicoot game. So, what's the problem?

Sometimes copying the homework doesn't work, especially if you have no idea what you're doing.

Travellers Tale took on the mantle of the Crash Bandicoot series after Naughty Dog was finished with it. Since the series is beloved and has a "if it isn't broke, don't fix it" type of gameplay (I.E. Mario for example, most of the games play similarly) Maybe just take the existing formula and add something new to it?

Wrath Of Cortex takes the old features and mechanically ruins it!

1. It's a precision platformer: therefore, the jumps are supposed to be a PRECISE as possible. Crash feels like he's floating on a cloud most of the time, therefore causing you to miss out/mistime most of your jumps.

2. Enemy/Hazard placement: There are sometimes where the game is too easy. You can often times walk around the enemy and completely avoid the hazard (not by your own skill either. You can simply just.. walk past them.)

Other times, the game bullies you. Submarine level is a good example of this. A big landmine spawns in midair and drops on you while you have a split-second to react. Here's the kicker:

The landmine is triggered only when you go underneath it.

That's not a skill issue, that's just unfair. You also got the wizard with the green orb that follows you. Because of the camera, sometimes it's hard to even see the perspective.

3. Camera Perspective: The camera isn't really an issue. I actually think it isn't a bad camera at all. The problem with the camera is that the perception is mess up. Say you want to time a jump on a platform. You double jump and are attempting to land on the next platform, but the camera follows you upward. Since the camera followed you upward, you can't see where you're landing and sort of have to predict your trajectory instead of visually seeing it. This isn't entirely an issue if you're experienced in platformers, but if you're new to the game, you WILL be frustrated.

4. Coco: Coco is just a worse version of Crash. They tried to make her different and failed. She has a useless stomp move, she moves slower than Crash, can't slide, and only has a single jump. However, I will say that I do like the Coco levels much better from a platforming standpoint than the Crash levels.

5. Misc:

- Long loading screen depending on what console you're playing on. It's so bad that you can't tell if your game is scratched or anything. Also the loading screen used to scare me as a kid.

- The boss fights are booty.

- Sound Effects are VIOLENTLY LOUD

- Certain levels don't match the Elemental theme. Volcano Flying Level in the Water Hub Room. Snow level in the Fire Hub room. Airplane level in the Earth Hub room.

- No new upgrades except the Sneaky Shoes, which-- is super situational.

and so much more..

Overall, this game could have been a lot better than it was presented to us. Instead, we have a half-baked version of Crash 3. Nobody likes their chicken raw.

Would not recommend. What new it brings to the table (compared to the first 3 games by Naughty Dog) are some additional stage gimmicks that immediately feel like they overstay their welcome, and made me dread each subsequent time they came up. Certain collision geometry seems broken or poorly represented, such that sometimes a jump will bonk against what you thought was a smoothly curved roof that turned out to have an abrupt edge that halts your horizontal movement. The whole game is very ugly, like they didn't know how to make use of the new hardware (or more likely, how to develop for all 3 new platforms at once), and at times this can affect gameplay, with dully lit enemies blending into a dully lit environment.
I think my feelings on this game are encapsulated well by the fact that halfway through, I genuinely thought it might have killed my interest in gaming altogether.

Alors non hein.
Crash Bandicoot 3 n'avait pas assez de phases pas ouf en véhicules, il fallait le doubler.
Les phases de plateforme classique bien que moins bine arrivent au moins à rester relativement fun, la physique de Crash a changé (en mal) mais on s'habitue à devoir bouger Crash une fois au plus haut de son saut.

Bon on va dire que les bugs graphiques venaient de mon émulation douteuse, mais le doublage français est TRES mauvais au point d'en être très drôle, et la musique est banale au possible.

Vous pouvez faire ce jeu, il n'est pas particulièrement dur et est assez court mais soyez prévenu que l'on assiste à une grande perte de qualité par rapport à la trilogie originale.