What the hell is a bandicoot?
This game was the playstations attempt to have a character that defined their product. And while he didn't have nearly the impact of Mario and Sonic, Crash Bandicoot still is a memorable character. Yes, he may have been stolen a bit from the Tazmanian Devil, but he still holds his own. He spins around, he wears pants, and he's an idiot. Everything you want in a friend.
Crash Bandicoot is one of those good old platformer games...you know, games where you jump a lot, and collect things, and break stuff with your head. Yes. Crash Bandicoot also steals a bit from Mario Bros., but you can't stay mad at him for that. I mean, who could resist making a game where the pitch is: "It's Mario Brothers with a...uhm....a...oh yeah...a Bandicoot!" You have to make a game when something that desperate is mentioned.
Now some of you are going to think I don't dig this game because there is no real originaltiy to it. Not true. I think the game is a load of fun. Hard to the point of wanting to kill a puppy....but fun nevertheless. And it actually has some originality in it.
For example, there are some bizarre characters featured in the game. Dr. Neo Cortex, Crash's Girlfriend, the Uka Uka mask, Ripper Roo, Pinstripe, and other ugly characters. All of them give you a sense of this strange world that Crash lives in. The boss fights are pretty satisfactory, and some of the levels really have a unique feel to them.
So the bottomline is this: Crash Bandicoot takes everything that is successful from previous platformers, and adds weird, interesting, and hilarious characters to it. It's nothing new....but playing as a stupid strange make-believe marsupial is more fun than it sounds. ( I still think Bandicoots are made up. In fact, I think that Sony made it up, and when people got too close to the truth, they quickly genetically spliced a rat and a kangaroo, and had them multiply.....then dropped them all over New Austrilzaland by plane.)
So if you like hitting floating boxes with your head and all the other stuff that's just like mario brothers, you'll enjoy this game. On the other hand, if you're one of those weird Mario loyalists, who thinks any game with a box in it is copying Mario Brothers....then you'll hate this game. But then again....if you love marsupials....then you'll want to give it a try...or go back to Sonic the Hedgehog....god...is there anything about this game that isn't ripped off?