The Crash series makes its debut on the next generation of consoles, and it's forgoing PlayStation exclusivity, as it's now also going on the Nintendo GameCube and Xbox.
Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex follows up the last game, as Crash and Coco must once again stop Cortex and Uka Uka from taking over the world... but they've got company this time, with new rival, Crunch!
Also, the Elemental Masks are also here to cause a ruckus, so we have new enemies this time.
And that's where this game's originality sort-of ends. Of course, there are a few more things, but this game borrows heavity from Crash 3, that it many aspects, one can call this game a rehash.
There are new aesthetics this go around, in addition to old ones, but many of these new themes only last one or two levels, because this game's name is inconsistency.
Remember in my Crash 3 review how I said that the game's vehicles and how many there were could be a point of contention amongst fans?
This game has even more vehicles, and some of them are not really fun to control, like the aerial fly-like vehicle. With that one, you can only shoot after you've locked-on, which takes a bit, and leaves you vulnerable to enemy attacks. I find this one really dumb, because they already had used the airplane from Crash 3 earlier in the game, so why introduce this new, inferior one?
There's also the mech, which its jump while standing still is horrible, and there's the mini-submarine, which its turning is really slow.
It's not all bad, for example, the game's new ball levels were actually pretty fun to go through, but there were only 3 of them, so they barely got fleshed out.
And that's the thing, this game barely fleshes out anything because it's constantly switching things up.
Like Coco herself is playable without any vehicles... for like 2 levels, I believe. And I liked playing as her. I know she's inferior to Crash since her moveset is just jumping and spinning, but I don't know, I actually liked that simplicity.
But again, you don't get to play as her that much, so I'm left unsatisfied and underwhelmed.
The game's presentation is also pretty underwhelming. The characters look pretty ugly in general, especially Cortex. Although the game's voice acting does pick up the slack, as we have new voice actors joining in like Mark Hamill, Thomas Wilson and Jess Harnell, and their performances were really good, in spite of their lines being very bland.
The music as well was also pretty good, reminded me a lot of Traveller's Tales previous work, like their soundtrack on the Toy Story 2 video game.
Overall, Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, while not a bad game, just leaves me underwhelmed.
Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex follows up the last game, as Crash and Coco must once again stop Cortex and Uka Uka from taking over the world... but they've got company this time, with new rival, Crunch!
Also, the Elemental Masks are also here to cause a ruckus, so we have new enemies this time.
And that's where this game's originality sort-of ends. Of course, there are a few more things, but this game borrows heavity from Crash 3, that it many aspects, one can call this game a rehash.
There are new aesthetics this go around, in addition to old ones, but many of these new themes only last one or two levels, because this game's name is inconsistency.
Remember in my Crash 3 review how I said that the game's vehicles and how many there were could be a point of contention amongst fans?
This game has even more vehicles, and some of them are not really fun to control, like the aerial fly-like vehicle. With that one, you can only shoot after you've locked-on, which takes a bit, and leaves you vulnerable to enemy attacks. I find this one really dumb, because they already had used the airplane from Crash 3 earlier in the game, so why introduce this new, inferior one?
There's also the mech, which its jump while standing still is horrible, and there's the mini-submarine, which its turning is really slow.
It's not all bad, for example, the game's new ball levels were actually pretty fun to go through, but there were only 3 of them, so they barely got fleshed out.
And that's the thing, this game barely fleshes out anything because it's constantly switching things up.
Like Coco herself is playable without any vehicles... for like 2 levels, I believe. And I liked playing as her. I know she's inferior to Crash since her moveset is just jumping and spinning, but I don't know, I actually liked that simplicity.
But again, you don't get to play as her that much, so I'm left unsatisfied and underwhelmed.
The game's presentation is also pretty underwhelming. The characters look pretty ugly in general, especially Cortex. Although the game's voice acting does pick up the slack, as we have new voice actors joining in like Mark Hamill, Thomas Wilson and Jess Harnell, and their performances were really good, in spite of their lines being very bland.
The music as well was also pretty good, reminded me a lot of Traveller's Tales previous work, like their soundtrack on the Toy Story 2 video game.
Overall, Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, while not a bad game, just leaves me underwhelmed.
This one is my wife's favorite game from childhood. I never played it back then.
Completed this for the first time yesterday with 106%, though I did not get platinum relics in every stage, too many gimmicky stages for me to go for that.
I'm happy to have finally completed this one, as it's one of the first games I remember playing on my PS2 nearly 20 years ago, though I think the furthest I had ever gotten was a few levels into the second set of stages.
Playing it today, it feels like the game has taken a LOT of inspiration from Crash 3, with the constant shift in gameplay styles, Crash's unlockable abilities, the hub world, and having Coco playable, now properly on foot for some stages. I'm not the biggest fan of Crash 3, as I feel many of the vehicle stages in that game just aren't especially enjoyable to play, like the boat and bike levels. It's a shame that WoC doubles down on gimmicks because many of the vehicle levels are easily the worst in this game, and far worse than the worst of Crash 3. The submarine levels in particular are absolutely god awful, it moves at a snail's pace and you will constantly die from objects you could not predict and some shoddy hitboxes.
The aerial levels don't fare much better, Tornado Alley is a poor second level with annoying sound effects and dull gameplay, and That Sinking Feeling is even worse with a frustrating lock-on system and clustered level design. Not a fan of the Crashteroids level either. The Atlasphere levels were generally enjoyable, and I didn't mind the mech suit either, aside from the lack of attack options. The jeep and copter are present, but these I'm probably the most indifferent about, they're just there.
As for the platforming stages, they were the most consistently fun to play, and while I don't think they reach the heights of the best stages in the original trilogy, there were still some memorable and inventive levels here that I had a lot of fun with, like any of the Nightmare Castle or Space Station stages. I also enjoyed the Coco stages, her moveset is weirdly very lacking, but her stages were generally fun and pretty well designed.
I wasn't a huge fan of a majority of the boss fights, as they felt way too gimmicky aside from the second fight which was a decent test of platforming reflexes, and the final boss was also pretty solid in this regard. The other three, especially the plane boss, I found quite irritating to play.
I will say that the game was clearly rushed, and feels less polished than either Crash 2 or 3, with a ton of questionable hitboxes, slippery platforming that doesn't feel that tight, and an overall sense that the game just needed more time in the oven.
It has a solid soundtrack with a couple of really great tunes, and some decent voice acting as well, including the always entertaining Clancy Brown as Cortex and Uka Uka. Some cool cameos from R. Lee Ermey and Mark Hamil as the elemental masks also.
Visually the game looks alright, not among the best looking games from 2001 but the environments look decent and most character models look okay. The GameCube version certainly isn't great, with a lot of frame-rate issues and it looks a little rougher visually compared to the PS2 version. Strange as this version released almost a full year after the original release. Not the best port from Eurocom, a shame as I have enjoyed some of their output, like Sphinx and the Goldeneye remake.
Certainly not the best game in the series, and the low points here are genuinely terrible, but there's enough here that I enjoyed that I can still give this game a light recommendation. Just barely 3 stars for me. If you do want to play it, the Platinum/Greatest Hits PS2 or Xbox release would be a preferable option to the GameCube version.
I'm happy to have finally completed this one, as it's one of the first games I remember playing on my PS2 nearly 20 years ago, though I think the furthest I had ever gotten was a few levels into the second set of stages.
Playing it today, it feels like the game has taken a LOT of inspiration from Crash 3, with the constant shift in gameplay styles, Crash's unlockable abilities, the hub world, and having Coco playable, now properly on foot for some stages. I'm not the biggest fan of Crash 3, as I feel many of the vehicle stages in that game just aren't especially enjoyable to play, like the boat and bike levels. It's a shame that WoC doubles down on gimmicks because many of the vehicle levels are easily the worst in this game, and far worse than the worst of Crash 3. The submarine levels in particular are absolutely god awful, it moves at a snail's pace and you will constantly die from objects you could not predict and some shoddy hitboxes.
The aerial levels don't fare much better, Tornado Alley is a poor second level with annoying sound effects and dull gameplay, and That Sinking Feeling is even worse with a frustrating lock-on system and clustered level design. Not a fan of the Crashteroids level either. The Atlasphere levels were generally enjoyable, and I didn't mind the mech suit either, aside from the lack of attack options. The jeep and copter are present, but these I'm probably the most indifferent about, they're just there.
As for the platforming stages, they were the most consistently fun to play, and while I don't think they reach the heights of the best stages in the original trilogy, there were still some memorable and inventive levels here that I had a lot of fun with, like any of the Nightmare Castle or Space Station stages. I also enjoyed the Coco stages, her moveset is weirdly very lacking, but her stages were generally fun and pretty well designed.
I wasn't a huge fan of a majority of the boss fights, as they felt way too gimmicky aside from the second fight which was a decent test of platforming reflexes, and the final boss was also pretty solid in this regard. The other three, especially the plane boss, I found quite irritating to play.
I will say that the game was clearly rushed, and feels less polished than either Crash 2 or 3, with a ton of questionable hitboxes, slippery platforming that doesn't feel that tight, and an overall sense that the game just needed more time in the oven.
It has a solid soundtrack with a couple of really great tunes, and some decent voice acting as well, including the always entertaining Clancy Brown as Cortex and Uka Uka. Some cool cameos from R. Lee Ermey and Mark Hamil as the elemental masks also.
Visually the game looks alright, not among the best looking games from 2001 but the environments look decent and most character models look okay. The GameCube version certainly isn't great, with a lot of frame-rate issues and it looks a little rougher visually compared to the PS2 version. Strange as this version released almost a full year after the original release. Not the best port from Eurocom, a shame as I have enjoyed some of their output, like Sphinx and the Goldeneye remake.
Certainly not the best game in the series, and the low points here are genuinely terrible, but there's enough here that I enjoyed that I can still give this game a light recommendation. Just barely 3 stars for me. If you do want to play it, the Platinum/Greatest Hits PS2 or Xbox release would be a preferable option to the GameCube version.
This game is so cozy to me
While this isn’t as good as the original trilogy or 4 this is still a solid game. The standard Crash levels are solidly designed, and it shakes the formula up with monkey ball style stages, robots stages, underwater stages, Coco stages, and more. I appreciate the variety but honestly it focused on the non-standard stages so much it was just a relief to see a traditional level appear. I like the design of Cortex’s new minion Crunch he was cool.
I don’t care what anyone says, this game is so amazing. It’s a classic and I enjoy the gameplay, even if it is filthy sometimes.
Fodinha :)
I remember watching my dad play this and the one time I tried I immediately sucked ass.
Has the gimmicky bullshit of Warped with worse level design and movement, but the visuals and OST save it from being bad
There's a good game in there somewhere, it's just burried under a lot of crud. A downgrade in pretty much every way over the original trilogy and especially Crash 3 which this game tries so desperately hard to be.
This is one of those cases where I believe a remake could make a good game out of decent bits, but some parts need a big change in direction while others just need a little nudge. Not totally unsalvagable, but a pretty bland to downright bad game at more points than you'd hope.
This is one of those cases where I believe a remake could make a good game out of decent bits, but some parts need a big change in direction while others just need a little nudge. Not totally unsalvagable, but a pretty bland to downright bad game at more points than you'd hope.
Quando eu era criança adorava esse jogo, hj em dia só posso pensar no quão chato e insuportável foi zerar
Only good thing I remember about this game was the H2 Oh No! level soundtrack, which I can quite happily listen on to a loop.
Not Epic, won't be hearing it anywhere else
WHY WAS THIS SO FUCKING HARD
nunca cheguei a terminar, num lembro de ser ruim.
Ainda é Crash, mas não é Crash
É engraçado escrever esse titulo, pois por mais que o jogo tenha o nome, personagens, estética e tudo que você encontra nos primeiros 3 títulos, principalmente no último já que esse aqui é quase que uma cópia descarada, ele ainda sim passa toda a sensação de não ser um Crash, mas sim isso, uma cópia vazia e sem alma.
Os gráficos são interessantes, a trilha sonora é bem boa, mas a essência do que fez a franquia ser o que é que são com boas fases, jogabilidade complicada porém justa e inovações de gameplay, não se fazem presentes aqui, já que em termos de história podemos passar adiante pois isso nunca foi o forte mesmo.
TWC entrega fases genéricas e com level design muuuito aquém do que foi feito anteriormente, basta pensar que nos jogos anteriores, você ia tendo uma crescente de dificuldade a cada warp room e tendo uma "lógica" em termos da estética delas, aqui isso não acontece, pois ele cisma em entregar fases que não dialogam entre si e que não possuem o apelo para engajar na jogatina, principalmente pela quantidade exorbitante de fases com veículos que se no 3 já enchiam o saco, aqui então...
Falando sobre o desafio do game como um todo, vários inimigos são desnecessários. Antes você tinha que ter, mesmo que simples, uma estratégia para não morrer ou perder um Aku Aku, aqui em vários momentos os inimigos não representam uma ameaça e você pode simplesmente contorna-los sem nenhuma dificuldade. Sobre os bosses, esses são tão sem graça e chatos de enfrentar quanto assistir 40 minutos de uma preguiça dormindo.
Por fim, acredito que tudo isso passaria de boas se a jogabilidade não fosse tão travada e lenta. Em muitos pulos ou sequências que demandam isso, parece que o Crash comeu uma feijoada e está com um pouco de gravidade, pois ele é lento para pular e lento para cair, mas vou fazer uma ressalva sobre esse item pois eu não lembro se o os anteriores eram assim também, pois minha memoria está muito mais atrelada aos remakes recentes. De qualquer modo, a jogabilidade nesse game aqui não é das melhores e envelheceu mal.
Resumindo: é Crash, mas não é Crash. Tem seu valor por ser a primeira entrada da franquia na era do PS2, mas não inovou em absolutamente nada. Talvez por ser também o primeiro titulo fora das mãos da Naughty Dog e como o último foi sucesso, repetiram a fórmula. Mas se pensarmos bem, talvez foi esse jogo aqui que decretou que esse estilo que o Crash vinha tendo, não era mais tão interessante de seguir, pois não foi um sucesso aclamado igual os outros, mas não pq a formula é ruim e sim o produto. Então, nota 2,5 que no meu modo de julgar significa o meio termo, que não fede, nem cheira.
É engraçado escrever esse titulo, pois por mais que o jogo tenha o nome, personagens, estética e tudo que você encontra nos primeiros 3 títulos, principalmente no último já que esse aqui é quase que uma cópia descarada, ele ainda sim passa toda a sensação de não ser um Crash, mas sim isso, uma cópia vazia e sem alma.
Os gráficos são interessantes, a trilha sonora é bem boa, mas a essência do que fez a franquia ser o que é que são com boas fases, jogabilidade complicada porém justa e inovações de gameplay, não se fazem presentes aqui, já que em termos de história podemos passar adiante pois isso nunca foi o forte mesmo.
TWC entrega fases genéricas e com level design muuuito aquém do que foi feito anteriormente, basta pensar que nos jogos anteriores, você ia tendo uma crescente de dificuldade a cada warp room e tendo uma "lógica" em termos da estética delas, aqui isso não acontece, pois ele cisma em entregar fases que não dialogam entre si e que não possuem o apelo para engajar na jogatina, principalmente pela quantidade exorbitante de fases com veículos que se no 3 já enchiam o saco, aqui então...
Falando sobre o desafio do game como um todo, vários inimigos são desnecessários. Antes você tinha que ter, mesmo que simples, uma estratégia para não morrer ou perder um Aku Aku, aqui em vários momentos os inimigos não representam uma ameaça e você pode simplesmente contorna-los sem nenhuma dificuldade. Sobre os bosses, esses são tão sem graça e chatos de enfrentar quanto assistir 40 minutos de uma preguiça dormindo.
Por fim, acredito que tudo isso passaria de boas se a jogabilidade não fosse tão travada e lenta. Em muitos pulos ou sequências que demandam isso, parece que o Crash comeu uma feijoada e está com um pouco de gravidade, pois ele é lento para pular e lento para cair, mas vou fazer uma ressalva sobre esse item pois eu não lembro se o os anteriores eram assim também, pois minha memoria está muito mais atrelada aos remakes recentes. De qualquer modo, a jogabilidade nesse game aqui não é das melhores e envelheceu mal.
Resumindo: é Crash, mas não é Crash. Tem seu valor por ser a primeira entrada da franquia na era do PS2, mas não inovou em absolutamente nada. Talvez por ser também o primeiro titulo fora das mãos da Naughty Dog e como o último foi sucesso, repetiram a fórmula. Mas se pensarmos bem, talvez foi esse jogo aqui que decretou que esse estilo que o Crash vinha tendo, não era mais tão interessante de seguir, pois não foi um sucesso aclamado igual os outros, mas não pq a formula é ruim e sim o produto. Então, nota 2,5 que no meu modo de julgar significa o meio termo, que não fede, nem cheira.
This game, so far, extremely fascinates me. The game is like an alternate universe version of Warped if it was extremely mid. Like, not even bad. I just wonder what happened during development for the game to come out like this? The visuals of the environments go back and forth between looking really nice to really awful, and the character model quality varies heavily (usually leaning towards looking bad). Aku-Aku invincibility states don't have a clear indicator of when they end because the invincibility music is way more quiet and subtle compared to the loud tribal drums that clearly gave you a sign of when they're about to end, and your hitbox is not increased. Lots of sound effects either don't play when they're supposed to or they're mixed incorrectly. The music is often very good (ESPECIALLY for Cortex Vortex and Eskimo Roll), but it's also mixed so poorly that I sometimes can't hear it even when the game is at max volume.
But despite all that, the level design itself isn't awful? I actually like the way the levels are laid out in this game, they're just dreadful to actually play because Crash and Coco control so terribly. They're extremely floaty and slow. They feel like if you stuck a Lego Star Wars character into Crash Bandicoot. Normally, Lego Star Wars feels very fine to control, but Crash shouldn't feel like this.
The boss fights mostly suck. Rok-Ko's fight was a cool idea, but the execution fell flat because the ball controls are terrible outside of the ball levels designed for them. Wa-Wa isn't even a boss fight against him and Crunch, you're really fighting against the camera and the terrible depth perception above instant-kill water and projectiles. I also probably spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out how to beat Py-Ro before I realized that shooting the water cannon on the mech suit slows you down when you're chasing him back to the other side. It took me ages to realize what I was doing wrong, but the fight is piss-easy otherwise. Lo-Lo actually has a really fun boss fight that I enjoyed, probably only because it was copied from N. Gin's Crash 3 fight. The final boss was anticlimactic, but REALLY good! I actually like the Cortex/Crunch fight a lot! But yeah, the Elementals are extremely disappointing, as underdeveloped characters with underdeveloped boss fights.
That issue of depth perception I mentioned for Wa-Wa actually has affected my whole experience with the game. I can't tell if I'm being tricked because Crash moves so slowly compared to the previous games that I think he should be farther ahead than he really is, or if it's because of the collision of the character being bad, or if it's because the camera is so terrible that I can't tell how close or far something is from Crash. I'm misjudging the distance of so many jumps and enemies, taking contact damage, falling into pits, and whiffing spin attacks that you'd think I'm a brand new player based on how poorly I've been doing in the first 3 worlds of the game, as I write my initial thoughts. I literally have never had this issue with the PS1 games so I'm not sure what's the problem here.
This is one of those games that I think REALLY deserves a remake, though I'm typically opposed to the idea of game remakes, generally. You don't have to change anything, just adjust the controls, stick the game in a new engine, and give the game the polish it lacks. I think it would be way more passable if just a few things were tweaked.
EDIT: I wrote this review before fully completing the game, so I wanted to add on at the end that I had a way better time getting all the Platinum Relics in this game than I did playing most of these stages normally. With a few exceptions, this game was extremely easy to get the Plat Relics for. The issue of depth perception will always be a problem, and made some relics way harder to get than others because you waste time whiffing so many spin attacks and jumps, but using the Crash Dash somewhat remedied the control problems I complained about. It sucks that this is a post-game powerup that exists only for getting Relics, but it was like that in Warped as well. Unlike Warped, though, Crash controlled completely fine at normal speeds so it felt like a proper powerup rather than a fix for slow and floaty controls.
Also, after understanding the circumstances the game was made under, I'm a little nicer towards it. It was supposed to have been a next-gen, ambitious experience, and Traveller's Tales had to restart development partway through and finish in 12 months. That explains why so much of the game is like a worse version of Warped, they probably tried to refer back to it and base the new game off it as closely as possible in the time they had. It doesn't excuse the quality entirely, but I understand how it turned out the way it did.
But despite all that, the level design itself isn't awful? I actually like the way the levels are laid out in this game, they're just dreadful to actually play because Crash and Coco control so terribly. They're extremely floaty and slow. They feel like if you stuck a Lego Star Wars character into Crash Bandicoot. Normally, Lego Star Wars feels very fine to control, but Crash shouldn't feel like this.
The boss fights mostly suck. Rok-Ko's fight was a cool idea, but the execution fell flat because the ball controls are terrible outside of the ball levels designed for them. Wa-Wa isn't even a boss fight against him and Crunch, you're really fighting against the camera and the terrible depth perception above instant-kill water and projectiles. I also probably spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out how to beat Py-Ro before I realized that shooting the water cannon on the mech suit slows you down when you're chasing him back to the other side. It took me ages to realize what I was doing wrong, but the fight is piss-easy otherwise. Lo-Lo actually has a really fun boss fight that I enjoyed, probably only because it was copied from N. Gin's Crash 3 fight. The final boss was anticlimactic, but REALLY good! I actually like the Cortex/Crunch fight a lot! But yeah, the Elementals are extremely disappointing, as underdeveloped characters with underdeveloped boss fights.
That issue of depth perception I mentioned for Wa-Wa actually has affected my whole experience with the game. I can't tell if I'm being tricked because Crash moves so slowly compared to the previous games that I think he should be farther ahead than he really is, or if it's because of the collision of the character being bad, or if it's because the camera is so terrible that I can't tell how close or far something is from Crash. I'm misjudging the distance of so many jumps and enemies, taking contact damage, falling into pits, and whiffing spin attacks that you'd think I'm a brand new player based on how poorly I've been doing in the first 3 worlds of the game, as I write my initial thoughts. I literally have never had this issue with the PS1 games so I'm not sure what's the problem here.
This is one of those games that I think REALLY deserves a remake, though I'm typically opposed to the idea of game remakes, generally. You don't have to change anything, just adjust the controls, stick the game in a new engine, and give the game the polish it lacks. I think it would be way more passable if just a few things were tweaked.
EDIT: I wrote this review before fully completing the game, so I wanted to add on at the end that I had a way better time getting all the Platinum Relics in this game than I did playing most of these stages normally. With a few exceptions, this game was extremely easy to get the Plat Relics for. The issue of depth perception will always be a problem, and made some relics way harder to get than others because you waste time whiffing so many spin attacks and jumps, but using the Crash Dash somewhat remedied the control problems I complained about. It sucks that this is a post-game powerup that exists only for getting Relics, but it was like that in Warped as well. Unlike Warped, though, Crash controlled completely fine at normal speeds so it felt like a proper powerup rather than a fix for slow and floaty controls.
Also, after understanding the circumstances the game was made under, I'm a little nicer towards it. It was supposed to have been a next-gen, ambitious experience, and Traveller's Tales had to restart development partway through and finish in 12 months. That explains why so much of the game is like a worse version of Warped, they probably tried to refer back to it and base the new game off it as closely as possible in the time they had. It doesn't excuse the quality entirely, but I understand how it turned out the way it did.
Basically Crash 3 but worse.
Overhated. Se não fosse pelos problemas na fase da água, controles bugados na fase voo, power up chato de andar devagar, gráficos estranhos para os personagens e entre outros, até dava pra ser o meu favorito da série. As novidades que eu mais gostei foi poder jogar com a Coco a pé e as fases em que o Crash anda dentro de uma bola. Também curti as mascaras que representam os elementos.
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.
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.
this game loads more than the amount of time you actually play it
i dont know about you guys but the really bad explosions only add to the crust factor of this game, but it's like a charming kind of crust. the floatiness of crash is kind of hard to control, however.
also i dont get people complaining about the story. it's crash bandicoot, automatically assume cortex is going to be up to some wacky bullshit that will make the game non-canon in about 20 years.
also i dont get people complaining about the story. it's crash bandicoot, automatically assume cortex is going to be up to some wacky bullshit that will make the game non-canon in about 20 years.
Yeah, you can see why this Crash 4 got retconned out of existence. A ton of the game is spent playing crap vehicle levels. I didn't care for them much in Crash 3, but now they're even more tedious. When you do finally get to play a real Crash level, they're nothing special. It's pretty much just Crash 3 but with more and worse vehicle levels, and really mediocre platforming levels
It's Crash 3, again. The graphics suck for the most part and there's plenty of bugs to find but it's understandable since this was an early gen game that apparently had a rushed development. BUT! The soundtrack slaps (as usual for most Crash games), and the platforming sections are very fun and sometimes better than 3, i think? The worst parts of this game are definitely the vehicles sections with the worst controls ever seen by any game ever probably, maybe, idk (except for the hamster ball ones those are awesome) but overall, it's not a bad experience. If you've never played Wrath of Cortex because of the mixed reviews, i think you should give it a chance! It isn't as bad as people make it out to be, even if the game can be very rough at times. I find it more enjoyable than Warped for the most part.
I don’t care if it’s a blatant rip-off of Crash 3, my 5 year old self had no idea about that and had a blast having this as my first video game ever. The nostalgia is so strong with this one, especially the soundtrack which had no business being this good.
It is one of those game where I played the pirated version as a kid and can never beat it because it's just broken (can't load some level).
Now that I finished it... I really didn't miss much. The game might look similar to Crash 3 at first, but it goes too overboard with the variation, making the platforming section a lot fewer than previous game, which is a negative because the platforming is the best part of any Crash game.
Not to mention the variations in gameplay isn't really that fun, the robot section is boring, the racing (the only one) is too floaty, the jetpack is too slow and annoying, the minecart is just meh, the plane section is alright but I never really liked those stuff even in Crash 3 anyway.
And don't get me started with Coco's stage, she is objectively worse to control than Crash because she get none of his power up (except dash).
Now that I finished it... I really didn't miss much. The game might look similar to Crash 3 at first, but it goes too overboard with the variation, making the platforming section a lot fewer than previous game, which is a negative because the platforming is the best part of any Crash game.
Not to mention the variations in gameplay isn't really that fun, the robot section is boring, the racing (the only one) is too floaty, the jetpack is too slow and annoying, the minecart is just meh, the plane section is alright but I never really liked those stuff even in Crash 3 anyway.
And don't get me started with Coco's stage, she is objectively worse to control than Crash because she get none of his power up (except dash).
O jogo até que é legalzinho,porém ele tem muitos defeitos
A Arte é muito feia principalmente não sei o por que não viraram memes, principalmente o Córtex que tem aquela sombrancelha gigante
Tirando a arte,as músicas desse jogo são muito boas e a gameplay é igual a quase todos jogos de Crash,ele é apenas legalzinho mesmo
A Arte é muito feia principalmente não sei o por que não viraram memes, principalmente o Córtex que tem aquela sombrancelha gigante
Tirando a arte,as músicas desse jogo são muito boas e a gameplay é igual a quase todos jogos de Crash,ele é apenas legalzinho mesmo
This game is fun to play, which is why I have decided to not rank it any lower. At its core, it is another Crash game that follows the formula of Crash 3 to a tee, which is one of its biggest issues. "Crash 3 but worse" is a pretty apt description. This game has plenty of vehicle levels which are of mixed quality. I genuinely do like the Atlasphere and see it as a positive inclusion. The water levels, jeep level, and mech suit sections all have very questionable controls that have me questioning how much this game was playtested. Some of the hitboxes in this game are just atrocious (ex. nitro crates in Atlasphere, horizontal lasers in Cortex Vortex, sea mines in water levels), and can make achieving platinum relics frustrating for the wrong reasons. The best parts of this game are simply ripped off and I cannot give this game the benefit of the doubt for that reason. As for controls, I do like how Crash controls generally, disregarding some very jank movement occasionally. For some reason, the tornado spin blows in this game and barely lets you glide, which is an interesting feature. Crash has a new power-up, being the nitro sneak shoes which are useless, and frankly insulting as a power-up. Forcing a player to use a boring gimmick is not a power-up. Otherwise, the power-ups are literally recycled from Crash 3. As for graphics and performance, this game looks pretty decent for a PS2 game.. most of the time. Some of the cutscenes and sprites look awful likely due to the development of this game being crunched (haha). I like the lore additions of this game, being Crunch. Overall, this game is another victim of crunch time in video game development, as the developers originally wanted to do something new with the Crash IP as an open world game. Crash would likely be in a completely different place now if that game was made without compromises, and it is certainly an interesting thought. This game is decent, but I would only recommend it to someone who has played the original Crash trilogy, the better games in this formula.
Poucas pessoas conseguem explicar exatamente porque esse jogo é considerado mais fraco do que a trilogia, e eu certamente não vou saber explicar também.
Além de não trazer nada de muito novo em relação ao Crash 2 e 3, um dos grandes problemas para mim é toda a aparência dele. Tudo parece feito de massinha, as caixas são molengas quando pula nelas, alguns efeitos parecem incompletos e as animações sofrem por causa dessa massinha, são travadas e não tem a mesma energia que sempre tiveram
Se eu jogasse quando criança, certamente iria amar, mas infelizmente não foi o caso
Além de não trazer nada de muito novo em relação ao Crash 2 e 3, um dos grandes problemas para mim é toda a aparência dele. Tudo parece feito de massinha, as caixas são molengas quando pula nelas, alguns efeitos parecem incompletos e as animações sofrem por causa dessa massinha, são travadas e não tem a mesma energia que sempre tiveram
Se eu jogasse quando criança, certamente iria amar, mas infelizmente não foi o caso
The loading times weren't that bad