A fantastic, old-school platformer.
The story opens with Crash's sister, Coco, asking him to find a new battery for her laptop. Crash complies, but trouble lurks around the corner. After a short, playable section, Crash is teleported out of the jungle by the nefarious Dr. Neo Cortex. Crash lands in a warp room and Cortex, via hologram, informs Crash of his plans to make up for his past misdeeds, and that he needs Crash to find crystals to help him. There aren't many characters and the narrative isn't particularly fleshed out, but it offers an entertaining, and often funny, reason to play the game.
In the game, you play as Crash in his journey to collect the crystals in 25 different levels. These range from jungle, to ice and even Mayan environments. They may seem linear at first, but they offer many branching paths and even an enjoyable 2D bonus level in each main level. One stage in particular has some sinking platforms at the end, which lead to a little island in the middle that takes you to a special warp room.
The warp rooms are, essentially, the hubworlds of the game. They lead to each level, allow you to save whenever you want and take you to a boss fight once you have completed said levels. The warp rooms are very easy to use and allow for easy access to any level you may want to replay. One warp room even has a life-dispensing panda!
There is a lot of replay value because of the extra collectibles you earn from completing different tasks in the levels. For example, smashing every box in a level will reward you with a silver gem.
The game controls well and is a joy to play. Crash has a varied moveset to rival even Mario's and they are all fun to use. You can jump, crouch, slide and more, with each being easy to pull off and having uses in the game. You might have some problems, due to the often hectic nature of the later levels, but this won't be a common occurence.
The graphics are very nice to look at and are quite detailed. They are showing their age slightly, but the cartoony art style more than makes up for this.
However, Cortex Strikes Back is not without its demerits. The final boss fight is incredibly anti-climactic, for example. Also, there are a couple of stages later in the game in which you use a jetpack. These are undoubdetdly cool, but I found them annoying and difficult to stay in control of.
Overall, Crash Bandicoot 2 is a brilliant and unique game which holds up well today. Some noticeable flaws bring it down slightly, but it is a game well worth playing, especially since it is purchasable from the PlayStation Store.