Crash Twinsanity is a broken, unfinished mess. A hodgepodge of ideas thrown together, not all being used to their full potential, with an "open world" that wears its presence thin when whole segments can be accidentally re-triggered and with no way to go back without reloading a previous save.
It is my favorite Crash Bandicoot game ever made.
Crash Twinsanity is the result of the effort of Traveller's Tales, a studio born out of the shutdown of their previous iteration called Traveller's Tales (yes, I know). Famously released unfinished and broken, Crash Twinsanity has achieved a bit of a cult status among Crash fans, with people such as myself being able to ignore the (myriad) of problems the game is riddled with thanks to TT's willingness to experiment with the formula, and dedication to keep the tone as crazy and funny as it could possibly be.
The game follows after the ending of the previous game, Wrath of Cortex, three years after, to be precise. Everyone's favorite evil scientist starts our adventure by paralyzing Coco Bandicoot, disguising himself as her, and luring our intrepid protagonist to a trap deep in the jungle of N.Sanity island.
We are then free to follow Cocortex or explore N.Sanity Beach, one of many interconnected segments in Twinsanity. The narrow, corridor-like levels of classic Crash Bandicoot have been replaced with wider, "open" levels, each hiding puzzles and platforming challenges for those willing to snatch every gem in the game (now no longer tied with the box counter of old).
Crash's gameplay is about the same as every previous entry, so it is rock solid, but it isn't the only style offering in store for us: as we progress, Twinsanity will change its gameplay from platformer, to a Marble Madness' inspired section where we control a Cortex and Crash as they tussle around, to Crash dragging around Cortex and using his giant head as a malled and a spin-extension, to snowboarding segments (the snowboard being an unwilling Cortex, who in this game gets royally Squidwarded, pardon the term), to, eventually, playing as Cortex himself, in shooting segments with very little platforming (a disappointment, considering this was one of the game's selling points).
Finally, there's Cortex'sdaughter niece Nina, who is even more underutilized. Armed with giant fists that act as grappling hooks and allow her to wall jump, she is literally played only twice in the entire game. Hers is an encapsulation of the game's biggest flaw: missed potential. Traveler's Tales threw everything at the wall to see what stuck, being limited in time to what they could allow remaining on the wall, whilst still having stuff to throw at it to boot.
Somewhat softening the blow is the game's presentation, as Twinsanity is vibrant and colorful, models are expressive, a much more impressive look when compared to Wrath of Cortex. Accompanying the visuals are the performances the VA put forth, of note is Cortex's, who really sells the sheer pain his character is (hilariously, admittedly) put through. Finally, all is tied up by the game's now legendary soundtrack, all performed a cappella by the group Spiralmouth who really give Twinsanity much of its zany personality.
Of course with the good one must point out the bad, and sadly Twinsanity has plenty: the game is held up by code tied together, it seems, by wet and soft spaghetti, as glitches abound and are frequent enough to become a problem should you not have the patience for it. A couple of times it is completely possible to accidentally access and re-do entire segments previously finished with no way to backtrack to safety until you have completed them again, should you not have finished beforehand.
Whether you enjoy Twinsanity or not is highly dependant on your patience for these things, because there is no hiding them, as you cannot hide there was much more to the game that did not make it in. I, personally, love this game, flaws and all, for its personality and presentation and for being incredibly fun beyond those issues.
Maybe I'm just insane, tho. Fitting, isn't it?
It is my favorite Crash Bandicoot game ever made.
Crash Twinsanity is the result of the effort of Traveller's Tales, a studio born out of the shutdown of their previous iteration called Traveller's Tales (yes, I know). Famously released unfinished and broken, Crash Twinsanity has achieved a bit of a cult status among Crash fans, with people such as myself being able to ignore the (myriad) of problems the game is riddled with thanks to TT's willingness to experiment with the formula, and dedication to keep the tone as crazy and funny as it could possibly be.
The game follows after the ending of the previous game, Wrath of Cortex, three years after, to be precise. Everyone's favorite evil scientist starts our adventure by paralyzing Coco Bandicoot, disguising himself as her, and luring our intrepid protagonist to a trap deep in the jungle of N.Sanity island.
We are then free to follow Cocortex or explore N.Sanity Beach, one of many interconnected segments in Twinsanity. The narrow, corridor-like levels of classic Crash Bandicoot have been replaced with wider, "open" levels, each hiding puzzles and platforming challenges for those willing to snatch every gem in the game (now no longer tied with the box counter of old).
Crash's gameplay is about the same as every previous entry, so it is rock solid, but it isn't the only style offering in store for us: as we progress, Twinsanity will change its gameplay from platformer, to a Marble Madness' inspired section where we control a Cortex and Crash as they tussle around, to Crash dragging around Cortex and using his giant head as a malled and a spin-extension, to snowboarding segments (the snowboard being an unwilling Cortex, who in this game gets royally Squidwarded, pardon the term), to, eventually, playing as Cortex himself, in shooting segments with very little platforming (a disappointment, considering this was one of the game's selling points).
Finally, there's Cortex's
Somewhat softening the blow is the game's presentation, as Twinsanity is vibrant and colorful, models are expressive, a much more impressive look when compared to Wrath of Cortex. Accompanying the visuals are the performances the VA put forth, of note is Cortex's, who really sells the sheer pain his character is (hilariously, admittedly) put through. Finally, all is tied up by the game's now legendary soundtrack, all performed a cappella by the group Spiralmouth who really give Twinsanity much of its zany personality.
Of course with the good one must point out the bad, and sadly Twinsanity has plenty: the game is held up by code tied together, it seems, by wet and soft spaghetti, as glitches abound and are frequent enough to become a problem should you not have the patience for it. A couple of times it is completely possible to accidentally access and re-do entire segments previously finished with no way to backtrack to safety until you have completed them again, should you not have finished beforehand.
Whether you enjoy Twinsanity or not is highly dependant on your patience for these things, because there is no hiding them, as you cannot hide there was much more to the game that did not make it in. I, personally, love this game, flaws and all, for its personality and presentation and for being incredibly fun beyond those issues.
Maybe I'm just insane, tho. Fitting, isn't it?