The sneaker-wearing marsupial debuts on the Nintendo GameCube in his biggest adventure yet. Dr. Neo Cortex, Crash's longtime nemesis, has some new tricks up his sleeve. Besides creating Crunch, a bionic bandicoot, the no-good doctor has released four elemental masks of unspeakable power and assembled a cast of super-villains that would rival those found in a dozen James Bond flicks.New Tricks for an Old Bandicoot
Needless to say, Crash has his work cut out for him. Fortunately, Crash will learn a killer set of new moves throughout the game. The TipToe move can be used to sneak around trouble, the Super Double Jump allows Crash to reach high places, and the Crash Dash gives him a boost of speed. New offensive moves like the Death Tornado and the Bazooka will teach bad guys not to mess with this videogame mascot.
Most of the 30-plus levels involve collection runs through fixed paths. Some of the best moments come when you take control of one of eight crazy vehicles. While it doesn't seem a good idea to hand the keys to someone named "Crash," here he gets to ride a submarine, glider, snowboard, off-road vehicle and Super Monkey Ball-style sphere.
Collect Crystals to advance through the game. Collecting all the gems will unlock secret levels. You can also race through already opened levels to earn Relics.
Nabbing 100 Wumpa Fruits earns an extra life. You can even play as Crash's sister, Coco, for the first time ever.
Graphics
The worlds are designed around elemental themes like fire, water, earth or air. Nice graphical touches include snow falling, flames flickering, and bugs swarming around lanterns at night. Despite mundane architecture in places, the levels look quite pretty.
Crash comes to life nicely with exaggerated animations. You will see him perform even his most acrobatic moves with fluid life-like motion. The game looks and feels like a quality cartoon most of the time, but you may notice a few graphical hiccups now and then, especially during the flying levels.
Crash Gets Connected
Developer Travelers Tales will certainly get kudos from Game Boy Advance owners for building in a cool connectivity feature. Using the Nintendo GameCube Game Boy Advance Cable, you can load the Crash Blast minigame onto the Game Boy Advance.
Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex is a solid 3D platformer. The colorful graphics may not wow your friends, but with cool new vehicles, secrets to unlock and 30 levels to explore there is enough action to satisfy fans of the genre. Plus, Game Boy Advance owners can use the great connectivity feature to take Crash on the road.
This game has been rated "E" (Everyone) by the independent Entertainment Software Rating Board. Progress is saved to a Memory Card (not included) and requires two free blocks.
