Introduction

In late 2000, after the release of Crash Bash, a new generation of consoles loomed over the horizon. What better time was there for a new full-on platforming adventure for Crash to be made? Universal Interactive and Sony Computer Entertainment were both ready for the future of Crash! This was going to be a game of a great many firsts. The first Crash game to be released on the PS2 and the first Crash platformer not to be developed by Naughty Dog.

This was going to be a major undertaking, which meant Universal needed someone they could trust to develop the game. Enter Mark Cerny, video game industry figurehead and ex-vice president of Universal Interactive Studios. At the time, Cerny was in the early stages of a long-lasting and fruitful relationship with Sony Computer Entertainment. His vision for the game was for it to be Crash's first open world adventure, rather than being linear and level-based. Traveller's Tales (these days known best for making the Lego games) were set to develop and everything was ready to go.

Then something peculiar happened. Universal Interactive entered an agreement with renowned publisher Konami. This agreement would allow Konami to publish Crash Bandicoot games on next-gen consoles, with Universal Interactive handling the production. Konami's vision for the next installment in the Crash Bandicoot series was quite different from everyone else's. They wanted the game to be a multi-platform release and they wanted it to be a game in the classic Crash Bandicoot style.

Universal Interactive Studios had no choice but to agree with Konami's decisions, which would end up making this the first Crash game to be on non-Sony consoles (add that to the pile of firsts!). This, understandable enough, led to a falling out between Universal and Sony. Mark Cerny left the project and Traveller's Tales were forced to start from scratch. To make matters worse, they were only given twelve months to complete the project this time around!

While Traveller's Tales were working their collective butts off trying to make the game, two fine gentlemen by the names of Andy Blythe & Marten Joustra (collectively known as Blythe-Joustra) were working on the soundtrack. Blythe-Joustra were essentially the in-house composers for Traveller's Tales at the time. They specialized in jazz, but for this game they went for a more tech-y vibe. In contrast to Naughty Dog's games, the soundtrack to Wrath of Cortex would end up being a lot darker in tone. In the end, Blythe-Joustra's soundtrack brought a flavour to the game that was entirely new to the series.

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex was released for the PS2 in late 2001 and later came out for the Nintendo Gamecube and original Xbox in 2002. The game received a positive reception at the time, often being cited as fun, but derivative. Retrospective reviews, however, have been a lot less kind to this game. The game went on to become the best-selling 3D platformer on the PS2.




In a lot of ways Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex is similar to its predecessor, Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped. It's a linear 3D Platformer where you play through one level at the time. As a reward for completing a level, you get a pink-coloured crystal. If you manage to break all the crates within a level, you also get a clear gem as an extra reward! These crates can contain a great many things. Most commonly, you'll find Wumpa Fruit within a crate (as well as scattered around the level). Collecting 100 of these will grant you a 1-up! You can also find Aku Aku masks in certain crates, which give you an extra hit. If you collect three Aku Aku masks, you become invincible for a short time. On rare occasions, you will even find a free 1-up in crates!

Every time you collect five crystals, you get to face one of the game's five bosses, making for a total of 25 main levels.

But wait, there's more to it than that! Some levels also have a coloured gem that can be collected along with the clear gem. These can only be gotten by reaching a certain part of the level without dying. This will reveal a Skull Platform that will take you to an extra difficult part of the stage. As a reward for beating this difficult section, you'll get a coloured gem! Collecting coloured gems will open up certain paths in other gems that lead to additional clear gems. Gotta keep collecting!

To top it all off, every level has a relic to be collected. These can be obtained by going back into a level you've already completed and doing a time trial. You have to run through the levels as fast as you can, all the while collecting crates that have a '1', '2' or '3' plastered on them, which will stop the clock for the appropriate amount of seconds. There are three tiers of relics: Sapphire at the bottom, Gold in the middle and Platinum to show that you're a real Crash Bandicoot pro.

While the game is mostly a 3D platformer, the game does introduce a great variety of non-platforming levels to break up the monotony. These levels range from taking a swim underwater, to racing crooks in a jeep to even rolling around in a ball! These levels all still come with the standard assortment of crystal, gems and relics, but suffice it to say that this game isn't afraid to mix things up.




I'm going to be playing through this whole game with my good friend and fellow goon Ikwaylx. We're going to be completing this game from top to bottom. That means collecting all the crystals, gems and relics. It is possible to achieve full completion by only collecting sapphire relics, but we're going to be getting all-platinums regardless!

In each video, we'll be completing five levels and beat a boss after. We will also go into certain levels a second time right away to collect the relic, assuming we can already get the platinum relic at that time. This might make some of the videos a little long, but please bear with us! Ikwaylx and I are both huge Crash Bandicoot nerds, so we're going to be spending a lot of the time discussing elements of this game and how they compare to previous games. We won't be talking over cutscenes though, that would be rude!

One thing to take note of is that we did an LP of the first three Crash Bandicoot games not too long ago. We consider this LP to sort of be a sequel to that one. As such, our commentary might leave you at a loss if you haven't either watched that previous LP and aren't familiar with Crash Bandicoot in general. The info in the previous section goes a long way towards explaining everything, though!

TL;DR It's Crash Bandicoot on the next gen. STRAP IN, SUCKA!