| Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Traveller's Tales |
| Publisher(s) | Universal Interactive Studios Konami (Japan) |
| Series | Crash Bandicoot |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox 360 |
| Release date(s) | PlayStation 2
December 4, 2007 |
| Genre(s) | Platform |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Rating(s) | |
| Media/distribution | CD, DVD, Nintendo optical disc |
Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex is a platform game video game published by Universal Interactive Studios (Konami for Japan) and developed by Traveller's Tales for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Nintendo GameCube video game consoles. The PlayStation 2 version was released in North America on October 29, 2001, in Europe on November 23, 2001 and in Japan on December 20, 2001. The Xbox version was released in North America on April 15, 2002, in Europe on April 26, 2002 and in Japan on October 24, 2002. The Nintendo GameCube version was released in North America on September 17, 2002, in Europe on November 1, 2002 and in Japan on December 4, 2003. It was also one of the launch titles for the Xbox Originals service on December 4, 2007.
Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex is the seventh installment in the Crash video game series. It is the fourth platform game in the series not to be developed by Eurocom name's story centers on the appearance of a new superweapon by the main antagonist of the series, Doctor Neo Cortex, along with a group of destructive masks known as the Elementals. The main protagonist of the series, Crash Bandicoot, must travel the world and gather special Crystals that will return the Elementals to a hibernational state and defeat Cortex's new superweapon, a genetically-advanced bandicoot named Crunch Bandicoot.
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Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex is a platform game in which the player controls Crash and Coco Bandicoot, who must gather 25 Crystals and defeat the main antagonists of the story: Doctor Neo Cortex, his new superweapon Crunch and Crunch's power sources, the renegade Elementals. Much of the game takes place in a "Virtual Reality (VR) Hub System" created by Coco to help Crash gather the Crystals. The VR Hub System is split up into five "VR Hubs"; initially, only the first VR Hub is available. Each VR Hub has five teleportation portals to different levels.[1] The goal in each level is to find and obtain the Crystal hidden in the area. In some levels, the Crystal will be located at the end of a level or must be earned by completing a specific challenge.[2] Each level contains a "Bonus Platform" that leads to a special bonus area, where the player must navigate through a maze and collect everything in sight. Once a bonus area is completed, it cannot be played again unless the level is replayed.[3] After completing all five levels in a VR Hub, a sixth teleportation portal to a boss fight with Crunch will appear. By defeating the boss, the next VR Hub will become available for play.[1] When all 25 Crystals are collected and Doctor Cortex and Crunch are defeated, the game is won.[3]
Besides Crystals, Gems and Colored Gems can be collected for extra accomplishment. Gems are rewarded to the player if all of the crates in a level are broken open or if a secret area is completed. Colored Gems are found in special levels and lead to hidden areas. "Relics" can be won by re-entering a level where the Crystal has already been retrieved. To obtain a Relic, the player must initiate the "Time Trial" mode and race through a level in the pre-designated time displayed before entering a level.[2] To begin a Time Trial run, the player must enter a level and activate the floating stopwatch near the beginning of the level to activate the timer; if the stopwatch is not touched, the level can be played regularly. The player must then race through the level as quickly as possible. Scattered throughout the level are yellow crates with the numbers 1, 2 or 3 on them. When these crates are broken, the timer is frozen for the number of seconds designated by the box. As no lives are lost in the Time Trial mode, the level can be played through as often as the player desires. Sapphire, Gold and Platinum Relics can be won depending on how low the player's final time is.[4] The first five Relics the player receives unlocks access to a secret level. Every five Relics thereafter open up another level in the Secret Warp Room. The levels in the Secret Warp Room must be won before the game can be fully completed.[2]
Crash and Coco start the game with four lives. Crash and Coco lose a life when they are struck by an enemy attack or suffer any other type of damage. More lives can be earned by instructing Crash or Coco to collect 100 "Wumpa Fruits" or break open a special crate to collect a life.[3] Crash and Coco can be shielded from enemy attack by collecting an Aku Aku mask. Collecting three of these masks allows temporary invulnerability from all minor dangers.[2] If Crash or Coco run out of lives, the game is over. However, the game can be continued by selecting "Yes" at the "Continue?" screen.[3]
Nine returning characters from previous Crash titles star in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex along with five new characters. The protagonist of the game, Crash Bandicoot, is a genetically-enhanced Eastern Barred Bandicoot who must defeat the antagonist Doctor Neo Cortex and his new superweapon. Coco Bandicoot, Crash's younger sister, is a highly intelligent computer expert with an interest in Hong Kong martial arts films. Aku Aku is a kindly omnipotent witch doctor who guides and aids Crash and Coco in stopping the plans of Doctor Neo Cortex.[5]
The main antagonist of the series, Doctor Neo Cortex, is a mad scientist who created Crash Bandicoot among other characters and now seeks Crash's elimination along with world domination. The controlling force behind Cortex's plots for conquering the world is Uka Uka, the evil twin brother of Aku Aku. A number of recurring villains from the series serve minor roles in the game. These include Doctor N. Gin, Cortex's right hand man, Doctor Nefarious Tropy, a scientist who specializes in time travel, Tiny Tiger, a hulking and ferocious Thylacine, and Dingodile, a dingo-crocodile hybrid armed with a flamethrower.[6]
Five new characters in the series make their appearance in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, particularly Doctor Cortex's genetically-enhanced superweapon Crunch Bandicoot, a bionic bandicoot created for the purpose of destroying Crash Bandicoot.[6] Acting as Crunch's power source are the Elementals, a group of destructive masks who control the elements of Earth, Water, Fire and Air. The Elementals consist of Rok-Ko, a bad-tempered and rock-headed earthbending mask who controls earthquakes and landslides, Wa-Wa, a stick-in-the-mud waterbending mask who controls thunderstorms and floods, Py-Ro, an easily-perturbed firebending mask who controls volcano eruptions, and Lo-Lo, a joke-cracking airbending mask who controls tornadoes.[7]
In a newly-built space station orbiting the Earth, Uka Uka, having called a convention of recurring villains in the series, berates the attendees for their recently unimpressive evil productivity,[8] and forces them to come up with a plan to eliminate Crash Bandicoot, their main opponent.[9] Doctor Cortex comes forward with the announcement of a previously secret genetically-enhanced superweapon of unbelievable strength, but reveals that it is missing a power source.[10] Uka Uka then tells the group a tale of a battle between the Ancient Ancestors and the Elementals, a group of renegade masks who had the elemental power over earth, water, fire and air and used these elements to ravage the globe. The Ancients were able to imprison the Elementals with the aid of special Crystals that put the masks in a state of hibernation.[11] Cortex deduces that if they awaken the Elementals and harness their destructive power, they can bring his secret weapon to life and do away with Crash Bandicoot forever.[12]
Back on Earth, the world is suddenly terrorized by severe natural disasters, leading Aku Aku to conclude that Uka Uka, his evil twin brother, is up to something.[13] A confrontation with Uka Uka confirms his suspicions and nearly results in his destruction at the hands of the Elementals. Aku Aku returns to Crash and Coco Bandicoot and alerts them of the current situation, disclosing that the only way to stop the Elementals is to imprison them once more with the Crystals, which have been scattered across the Earth.[14] Using Coco's new Virtual Reality Hub System, Crash and Coco are able to travel the world and gather the Crystals, fending off attacks from Cortex's superweapon, Crunch Bandicoot, and the Elementals along the way. However, by the time the Crystals have been gathered and the Elementals have been put in their hibernation state, Crunch's elemental powers have reached maximum capacity, forcing Crash to battle Crunch at full power in Cortex's space station.[15] Nevertheless, Crash is able to defeat Crunch, snapping him out of Doctor Cortex's control.[16] Infuriated by this failure, Uka Uka attacks Doctor Cortex with a fireball, only to have it hit a vital part of the space station, causing a chain reaction that results in the space station's self-destruction.[17] Crash, Aku Aku and Crunch are able to escape and return to the Bandicoot home on Coco's space fighter ship, while Cortex and Uka Uka deploy an escape pod and end up landing somewhere in Antarctica, where Uka Uka furiously chases Cortex around a small ice floe.
Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex was originally intended to be designed by Mark Cerny (who designed all the games in the series thus far) and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. After a falling-out between Vivendi Universal and the two entities, Traveller's Tales was forced to alter the game from a free-roaming title to a standard Crash title. Traveller's Tales had to begin development of the game from scratch and were given only twelve months to complete the game.[18] The game's music is composed by Andy Blythe and Marten Joustra of Swallow Studios. The original Crash Bandicoot theme by Mutato Muzika also appears in the game. Only two of the series' original voice actors reprised their roles for the game: Clancy Brown voices the dual role of Doctor Neo Cortex and Uka Uka, while Mel Winkler provides the voice of Aku Aku. Debi Derryberry inherited the role of Coco Bandicoot from Hynden Walch, while Corey Burton voices the returning villains Doctor N. Gin and Doctor Nefarious Tropy, taking over for Brendan O'Brien and Michael Ensign respectively. Kevin Michael Richardson provides the voice of new character Crunch Bandicoot, while the Elementals, consisting of Rok-Ko, Wa-Wa, Py-Ro and Lo-Lo, are voiced by Thomas F. Wilson, R. Lee Ermey, Mark Hamill and Jess Harnell respectively.[19]
| Reception | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | (Xbox) 70.47%[20] (PS2) 70.12%[21] (GC) 63.28%[22] |
| Metacritic | (Xbox) 70/100[23] (PS2) 66/100[24] (GC) 62/100[25] |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| GamePro | 3/5[26][27][28] |
| GameSpot | (PS2) 6.6/10[29] (Xbox) 6.4/10[30] |
| GameZone | (PS2) 8.0/10[31] (GC) 7.2/10[32] (Xbox) 7.1/10[33] |
| IGN | (PS2) 7.4/10[34] (GC) 6.9/10[35] (Xbox) 6.7/10[36] |
| Nintendo World Report | 7.5/10[37] |
The PlayStation 2 version of Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex was met with mixed to fair reviews. Louis Bedigian of GameZone wrote a positive review, saying that "any Crash Bandicoot fan would be a fool not to go out and buy this game. I started playing at 2am one night and did not stop until three in the afternoon!"[31] Doug Perry of IGN described the game as "a decent playing and pretty looking Crash Bandicoot game. It's nothing terribly special, but it's not bad, not bad at all."[34] Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine felt that "when the strongest feeling I get from a game is the desire to play its predecessors, something's not quite right."[24] Game Informer criticized the "outrageously bad load times", saying that they "keep the game from being average."[24] Shane Satterfield of GameSpot concluded that the game "maintains the status quo and fails to deliver a fresh, compelling experience."[29] Star Dingo of GamePro cautioned that "if you were hoping the new management would give Crash a big kick in the pants, however, this is one pair of pants you will find quite unkicked."[26] Electronic Gaming Monthly criticized the trial-and-error gameplay, saying that "when forced to blindly jump, die, then discover what you missed, where I come from, that’s just cheating."[24]
Though the Xbox version of the game rated generally higher among critics than the PlayStation 2 version, reviews remained mixed. Play Magazine noted that "they've caressed the music to great effect, made the bosses a bit more challenging, [and] adhered to a massive replayability standard that would drive any developer to drink."[23] Game Informer felt that "every little morsel of platforming goodness in The Wrath of Cortex has already been done to death on the Playstation."[23] Carlos McElfish of GameZone warned that "if you are looking for an innovative and original experience that does justice to the series you’ll have to look elsewhere."[33] Official Xbox Magazine concluded that "this is a game for those who want what Crash has always had to offer – good graphics, jump-and-spin gameplay, and tons of collectible items. Nothing more, nothing less."[23] Hilary Goldstein felt that while Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex was "a fun game for the most part," "it fails in some areas, like proper game balance and correct use of surround sound."[36] Shane Satterfield of GameSpot passed off the game as "a slightly updated version of the orange marsupial's 1998 debut on the PlayStation."[30] Star Dingo of GamePro concluded that "love it or hate it, Wrath of Cortex Xbox is more of more of the same."[27] Electronic Gaming Monthly felt that "save for a few additions to WOC, like some cool hamster-ball levels, it's almost identical to its predecessors."[23]
The GameCube version rated the lowest among critics out of the three versions. Ben Kosmina of Nintendo World Report promised that "gamers experiencing the wacky mascot for the first time may enjoy it."[37] Michael Lafferty of GameZone described the game as "safe, sterile and redundant."[32] Matt Casamassina on IGN concluded that "at the end of the day this is the same Crash game I played so many years ago without any real innovations or evolutions."[35] Nintendo Power praised the "sheer variety" of the gameplay.[25] Kilo Watt of GamePro said that "graphically, this version is slightly below the recent Xbox release but in line with the competent PlayStation 2 iteration."[28] Electronic Gaming Monthly agreed that "Wrath on the GC is much more polished here than on the PS2,"[25] while Play Magazine denounced the GameCube version as "a shell of the other two console versions, so I beg you to pass."[25]
The Wrath of Cortex's lackluster reception would be lampooned in a cutscene of its successor, Crash Twinsanity, where Cortex alleges that the main cause of a character's check being bounced was the game's poor sales.[38]
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