The Wrath of Cortext feels like every other video game in the Crash Bandicoot series, which isn't a good thing.
Genre: Three Dimensional (3D) Platformer.
Release Date For (ONLY) Nintendo GameCube: September 17, 2002.
Players: One (1) Player.
Memory Blocks (For Nintendo GameCube, ONLY.): Two (2).
Rating: E (Everyone).
Systems This Video Game Is Available For: Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, & XBox.
This is the box-art of Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath Of Cortex, and I only used the PlayStation 2 box-cover because I could not find a smaller picture of a Nintendo GameCube one. I apologize for the inconvenience.
Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath Of Cortex's simplistic game play makes it almost a chore to play. Whether you are fighting a boss or going through a level that requires you to reach the end of the course, it is still a pretty flawed formula that has not had any dramatic changes from any of the installments on the first PlayStation system, and that is its main problem.
Incase you do not know who Crash Bandicoot is, I will just say that he is a bandicoot that is named "Crash." His main enemy, Doctor Neo Cortex, always tries to get revenge on Crash Bandicoot, and this one is no different. In fact, this video game does not even have much of a storyline, but that is to be expected in a Crash Bandicoot video game like this.
Back in the 1990s, this would have been a very enjoyable video game, but it does not live up to today's standards. Back when the first Crash Bandicoot video game came out, it was so successful because there were not that many other video games you could compare it to, but now there definitely is.
So Doctor Neo Cortex has gotten something new creature that appears to be a dog to help him fight Crash Bandicoot. This creature is always the person you fight in boss battles, except for the last one where you actually fight both Doctor Neo Cortex and the dog-like creature.
What you do in this video game to advance is simply enter a warp-hubble that directs you to one of five levels. There are five different warp-hubbles, and I am not including the secret one you get after you beat the video game. (That one contains five, as well, but no boss.) You will see five different pads in these warp-hubbles. You can choose whichever one you want to go to, and then simply step on it to have some laser zap you to a level that is pretty much like every other level. Once you beat all the levels in a warp-hubble, you fight the boss, and advance to the warp-hubble. This video game could take you less than an hour, possibly.
In the levels, there are some challenging enemies, but you mostly just have to use no critical thinking, run towards them when they have their guard down, and then spin at them. Some do tend to put up a worthy fight, but it just simply is not enough, considering you will know the pattern by the third time you die, if you even manage to die.
In the levels, there are many boxes. You can spin into these boxes to get a life, apple, mask, or maybe even something else. These boxes are put there to make you simply not realize that there is barely anything to this video game. Running through all of these levels without any boxes would make it seem a lot more boring… I am not saying pressing the same button repeatedly to smash a bunch of boxes is "fun."
The normal boxes usually contain apples. The boxes with a picture of Crash on them contain lives. The red boxes that say "TNT" on them will explode in three seconds once you jump on one of them. The green boxes that have an "N" on them will explore right when you jump on them, so it is best that you just hit the green exclamation point (!) at the end of the level so you can blow up all the stuff in it.
The lives obviously allow you to have one extra life. In other words, you will have more chances to complete the level with the extra life than you would without. These lives actually help out from time to time, because you can smash boxes that contain a "C" on them, which is a checkpoint. If you die, then you do not continue from the checkpoint, but outside of the warp-hubbles instead.
The apples are essentially the same thing, except you need one hundred apples to obtain one life. These apples are not always found in boxes, and they are not found in enemies at all. Collecting them may seem tedious, boring, and repetitive at times, and it is. If you truly stink at this video game, then you will probably have to worry about collecting these darn things, but if you are at least an average gamer, then you will not have to.
The mask is probably better than the lives and apples put together. You have one health in this video game, basically. If you get hit by one thing, you die, and start from the checkpoint. This mask enables you to have two health, so if you get hit, you will not have to start back from the beginning of the check point, level, or die! If you get hit, you will lose a mask, though. Once you collect three, you will become invulnerable for a short period of time, and then get your two masks to carry around afterwards. These masks just float above your head, and they change different colors depending on how many masks you have. There will never be two or three masks floating above your head; just one.
The levels are pretty short with a two dimensional gimmick to every one of them. There is this square tile that you can step on in any level, and you warp to some two dimensional platforming. These square tiles with a question mark (?) on them are placed in a randomly different area every time, and there is only one in each level.
The levels that the square tiles with a question mark (?) on them are mostly just for extra lives. You may have to actually think and do something to get to another platform, but it is mostly just for you to collect extra apples and lives. If you die on these levels, you can try again as many times as you like without losing a life, but you can not do it again twice in the same level until you complete it. You also have to survive to receive your winnings. Of course, these winnings are only apples and lives, and maybe even masks.
Gamers need to find a crystal in each level to fully complete it. If you do not find this crystal and you beat all the levels, then you will not fight the boss at the end of that warp-hubble. They are extremely easy to find, and you will almost never be stuck trying to find one.
In all honesty, running through levels is not all you do. Sometimes you must play as Crash Bandicoot's sister, or go in a giant ball and complete the level in that condition, but it mostly running through levels, destroying boxes on the way. There are only twenty-five (Thirty levels, if you count the five secret ones.) levels, anyways, so there are not many like that. The racing ones are the best, though.
All of the bosses are the dog-like creature, and this is probably the best part of the video game. The second and fourth boss, especially, put up a rather decent fight, and all of these bosses are unique. Once you defeat a boss, you do get a rather pointless new move (The double jump that you received from the second boss was pretty cool, though.) that you probably will not use. For example, the gun that shoots apple may help you get across some points in the video game, and it may be required at times, but you will never see yourself shooting an enemy with it, considering it is so darn easy to just walk up right to them, do a spin-attack, and kill them.
You can also destroy every single box in a level to receive a gem. They do not really help you do much, and bragging to your friends probably would be stupid, considering this is a horrible video game.
Players can also do a timed course after they beat a level. They can do this time course for any level they have beaten. The gamers just simply have to complete the level in the time the video game tells you to. Once you do that, you will receive a key. These are pretty much useless, but fun to brag about, nonetheless. They basically just open up secret levels at the end of the video game, depending on how many keys you have. You most likely will not find yourself doing such a vexing task, as it is rather difficult to destroy every single box in every single level, no matter how linear they are. At the end of the video game, you will probably just slap yourself repeatedly for ever allowing yourself to buy such a dumb video game. There are also boxes with a number "one (1)," "two (2)," or "three (3)" on them. These will freeze time depending on what the number says on the box, but it is for seconds, not minutes, which should be obvious.
The graphics are okay. They are just average, nothing spectacular, and you will often find many of the levels looking the same, but it is not a huge complaint, considering you will be complaining about the game play a heck of a lot more.
The sound has the same old Crash Bandicoot sound you saw from the first one, as well as a few new sounds, but it really is not that good. Crash Bandicoot does not speak at all, and when your enemies do speak to you, they say ridiculous things, and it seems as though Doctor Neo Cortex is a total wimp in this edition to the Crash Bandicoot series.
Yes, there are some mini-games you can play if you have the Crash Bandicoot video game for GameBoy Advance, and if you have a cord that connects to the GameBoy Advance, as well as to the Nintendo GameCube, but these are not fun at all.
If you can find this video game for ten or twenty dollars, I will just say that you can find something better. The overall experience of this video game made me feel like developers thought they could make any garbage and pass it off as a "video game," but I just find this to not be a "video game," but more of a thing I would like to smash with all the might I have in my gun-like (Well, sort of.) fist. I cannot even see any details on any of the enemies, I cannot even stand doing the time test and having to start from the beginning of the level if I die, and I cannot stand how Doctor Neo Cortex is such a wimp. This is not the exact opposite of state of the art because it does have its moments, but it sort of is. If you enjoyed any of the other three dimensional (3D) platforming Crash Bandicoot video games, then you will like this one, because it is the second best, right behind Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped.
Two dollars might be reasonable, but I would say that you would probably like the time travel Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped has to offer, considering each warp-hubble does have a different environment to it. Enjoy it or not, you will still see that Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath Of Cortex is a very flawed and lazily put together video game that never really shows it true potential as a three dimensional (3D) platforming due to its traditional box-destroying, easy enemies, and lack of any unique levels. I do believe that this could be a good video game, because there are plenty of extras you could come up with, but the developers obviously did not want to do this, and it's just a rip-off of all the other Crash Bandicoot video games you have seen.
Overall: 3.8/10
Review created on November 25, 2005.