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When a truly revolutionary game such as Super Mario 64 come along, numerous attempts at duplication are always expected. Sega developed Nights (in what seemed like overnight), and Sony, not surprisingly, has their own. This title goes by Crash Bandicoot, and while it wouldn't't call it revolutionary, it is a good game in its own right. You control Crash, a bandicoot created as a test by the demented Dr. Cortex. He was attempting to create his own animal-based army, but during the first test Crash emerged, and after finding that the bandicoot couldn't fulfill his desires, he flushed him from the island. Crash sets off on his journey to see his new love, Tawna (who also emerged from the doctor's experiments) and to prove Dr. Cortex wrong. The game play follows closely to Bug!, but it's less limited to a track. When compared to Super Mario 64 (games will be compared like this for a long time to come), however, the player is very restricted to where they can go and what they can do. The majority of the levels scroll "into the screen," allowing you a third person view point as Crash jogs through the level. The first level consists of a jungle, with trees, pitfalls, and slopes. Levels further into the game send you sprinting from a following boulder, as you would see in a previous Indiana Jones motion picture. This level and most others are especially well-designed, giving the player an adrenaline rush with the realism of the dangers. Other levels are the standard platform fair: Scrolling left-to-right, or, awkwardly, right-to-left. You won't expect too many surprises here -- nothing more than the best Mario games. Gadgets and gizmos make an appearance, along with moving floors, hidden surprises, and power-ups that must be snatched with some trick. These levels just weren't very interesting, mainly due to the rest of Crash Bandicoot's levels. Some levels were unique and fun, but others were just a hassle. Crash isn't the most innovative character, and he seems like a copy of Taz. His primary means of attack are jumping on enemies (a very over-used means of doing so) and doing his spinning/twister attack. This attack can be done in the air or on the ground, while moving or not. Touching an enemy while doing this is all it takes to wipe out a minor enemy (being that the particular enemy can be defeated in this manner). As mentioned, Crash isn't an overly-exciting character, but you do have to give it to Naughty Dog for keeping his moves simple. The play control, is somewhat quirky, though, and often makes it difficult to do specific tasks. I guess you can't win ‘em all. The graphics? They're marvelous -- simply the best I've seen on the PlayStation, and I assume the polygon count is quite high, being that the characters and animation rival that in Super Mario 64, or possibly go beyond that. Of course this doesn't make any difference if the game play suffers. The game play isn't bad, but when compared to other greats like Nintendo's latest Nintendo 64 game and Sega's Nights, it appears to be at a distance "third." The fact is, that the game play isn't unique enough to warrant it a title other than "a solid platformer." The music is some of the best I've had the honor of listening to on a platform game. The intensity of the jungle beat throughout the levels is unparalleled, even by Nintendo's Donkey Kong County series, which, didn't get all that much attention. The sounds are suitable for the game, but nothing we haven't heard in past games. They were executed well, nonetheless. While my write-up on Crash may seem to give the game a look of "mediocre," it's actually fairly good. I'm just afraid that it won't get too much attention, nor sales, due to Nintendo's big day of September 29th. Sure the game play may become redundant at times, but it's solid and challenging, and most importantly, fun, and that's what makes a good platformer. |
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