A sequel that goes in all sorts of directions, it begins to feel aimless. Crash Bandicoot: Warped takes you on a world tour where you not only run and jump, but also swim and drive different kinds of vehicles in linear platforming stages. The regular platforming stages are more than solid, providing high-quality design that we expect from Naughty Dog after they have proven their strength in that aspect through Crash Bandicoot 2. The boss fights, in my opinion, also saw improvement. While you still sometimes had to wait and dodge obstacles while the boss faffed about in the background before you can land a hit, others provided means for experienced players to make their own route and quickly dish out the pain through their spins!

It's pretty much the rest of the game's design that feels lackluster. I know I'm preaching to the choir when I say the vehicular stages are a really mixed bag. The tiger stages get irritating to complete, I think their hill-y designs compared to the polar bear stages in 2 are what make them less enjoyable. The jetski stages just feel slow and tedious, albeit showing impressive visuals and physics with the water back in 1998. Swimming stages unsurprisingly stink, and airplane stages are underwhelming. It was Crash in his motorcycle that I found the most enjoyment in clearing and getting fast times in. Which is funny, because I feel those stages get the most flack from fans.

Overall, it's still better than the first game, I think. Naughty Dog's last entry for the wily bandicoot shows that the team is willing to experiement and take risks after already proving their worth. Something that would become prevalent in their future titles.