The "Crash Bandicoot" series was one of the most popular PlayStation franchises out there in its heyday. And the first two games in the series, "Crash Bandicoot" and "Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back," despite some flaws, were very fun and enjoyable platformers. But "Crash Bandicoot: Warped," the third entry in the franchise, sees the much-loved PlayStation series at its absolute finest.
Every aspect of "Crash Bandicoot: Warped" has been fine-tuned and polished to perfection to make this the best entry in the franchise. Much like the first two games, the visuals and music remain spot-on, but it's the gameplay where this one truly shines. Where the first two games would suffer from different problems, such as lack of variation, poor boss fights, and general trial-and-error gameplay that led to some instances of "fake difficulty," this game suffers from none of those. The game throws a number of different styles at you, and makes them all work wonderfully. The levels feel lengthy, fun and well-designed, and the boss battles, one of my biggest problems with earlier "Crash Bandicoot" games, actually feel more enticing and interesting this time around. What's better, the game doesn't suffer from the same trial-and-error issues that plagued the first two games: where "Crash Bandicoot" and "Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back" would often have you die due to some kind of strange, seemingly impassable, and often cheap aspect of the gameplay, that won't happen this time. This actually feels like the first "Crash Bandicoot" game that I've played where all of my errors, deaths, and fails were legitimately my fault, and not the error of the game's development.
It's plain to see, "Crash Bandicoot: Warped" is easily the best of the "Crash Bandicoot" games, and if you haven't played this gem, do yourself a favor!
Final rating: 10 out of 10 "Fantastic"