A pretty impressive take on Crash, all things considered. The series was always linear enough in terms of its level design that it doesn't feel like a drastic jump to suddenly be playing from a 2D perspective, as I'm pretty sure everyone who's ever talked about this game has noted by now. As a result, you've got the usual Crash fare within the levels on offer; simple, fairly linear levels that house the real meat of searching out boxes and the occasional coloured gem, as well as the relics if you want to get 100%. The basic gameplay and gimmick level archetypes alike are here and accounted for, as you'd expect, so things are definitely off to a good start.

The Huge Adventure also looks damn good for a GBA game, whether in the side scrolling levels, or the moments where the game tries to go for a pseudo 3D look, and the OST is just tracks from the PS1 titles, just noticeably bitcrunched. Doesn't make for any less catchy tunes, though! The boss fights were pretty neat, the level design was mostly good, so things certainly sound like they're in place for a really cool, overlooked part of the franchise's history.

But then you get into the game's bigger misfortunes. Perhaps the biggest being that it's a GBA platformer with a lot of leaps of faith and offscreen enemies that are induced by screen crunch, and that's never fun. Sure, the lesser screen real estate isn't as bad as something like Sonic Genesis or Mega Man and Bass, but every time I died from a leap of faith had me groaning. But I could probably live with it, just trial and erroring my way through that stuff. It's when the control starts fucking me over that I draw the line. I had way too many moments where I'd go for a jump or a slide jump, only to have the damn thing not register and send me into a pit.

There's also some of that typical design to the franchise, where you've kinda just got to know a secret is where it is. Not a huge issue on its own, at least not in the modern age of GameFAQS and the like, but it's that combined with the aforementioned input delay that make The Huge Adventure probably the most tedious title to 100% since the original Crash, up to this point in the series, at least. Well, that, and the obnoxious relic hunt. Whoever decided on sapphire relics not being good enough to get the true final boss, forcing the players to get gold or platinum in a game with screen crunch and unresponsive jumps, all so you get the most nothing final boss since goddamn Crash 2, should've been fired. A real lacklustre end to an already kinda whelming platformer. Kind of a shame, but it is what it is. The Huge Adventure ain't a bad game, but damn do I wish it was better than it is.

That said, I'm really glad someone looked at the hideous amalgamation of Cortex, Tiny, Dingodile and N.Gin and said, "We should use that guy in our CTR remake!", that's the kinda deep cut reference I live for.