gaming Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

[DiscordianBeats 28]

I recently started playing Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex strikes back for the first time in over ten years

And was hit the biggest wave of nostalgia I'd ever experienced, but I wanted to make sure that I liked the game for the game, and not the nostalgia factor.

It turns out I do.

 

The gameplay can be buggy though (like having some enemies looks like they are farther away than they really are.) The controls can be infuriating (having ledges to worry about when trying to use the Joystick) but all in all I think the good outweighs the bad

 

The game's only major flaw for me, is how short it is (only 25 levels not including the boss fights). But if you actually try to 100% the game it is rather long, due to the difficulty in gathering the gems.

 

The game is rather vulgar in some cases, like with Crash's Victory dance, what with the motioning to his junk, and the pelvic thrusts...

The bosses are fun, and each is different, (Except for Tiny, and Ripper Roo)

 

The graphics for it's time are great, and the music is catchy enough to have me whistle it all day long

 

The story could be better polished, but you know what? I still love it, Doctor Cortex needs Crash to Gather 25 Crystals, which he claims he will use to gather the power from the planetary alignment (which would destroy the world he says)

Though I'm not sure if Crash is just a moron, or what, but it becomes obvious very fast (even if you didn't pay attention to the opening) that Cortex is lying. Doctor Nitrus Brio approaches crash, and claims that if crash can gather all 42 gems he can stop Cortex's plan for world domination. Coco is a jerk, but eh... Her first line in the game is "My battery is fried! Make yourself useful and get me another one" but she's his sister, so what do you expect?

 

What are your Thoughts on this?

Edited August 8, 2012 by DiscordianBeats

[Doctor XFizzle 8,669]

I never made it through Crash 2 even though I have it. I think there was an issue with my disc freezing up at a certain level.

 

I have played Crash 3: Warped and I loved it. Dr. N. Tropy is a cool boss and the levels were the right mix of fun and challenging.

[Motion Spark 7,807]

Crash was better than Mario in the playstation 1/n64 era, from my perspective. Crash is basically my childhood compiled, I've played and beaten Crash Bandicoot 2, Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, Crash Team Racing and Crash Bash. I got hours and hours playing CTR, that was my favorite game when I had a ps1. I still get teary eyed when I listen to "Hot Air Skyway" stage soundtrack of CTR, too much emotions and nostalgia to handle... I had a blast with my friends with that game. Crash Bash was really fun too, but I never beaten it completely XD

 

Still to this day, no karting game has even been better than CTR, no Mario Kart in the world can be compared to that game, so after ps1 Crashes, Crash became shit! and it saddens me how a franchise with so much popularity was dying before my eyes. I played Crash Nitro Kart though, I downloaded for gba, it was kind of fun but still, I got Crash Tag Team Racing for xbox, and that was when I knew that Crash has died, that wasn't the Crash that I loved when I was a kid, that game was a weird version of Mario Kart Double Dash, it was horrible, I have to say that Mario Kart Double Dash was much better.

 

I always wondered why Naughty Dog got rid of Crash?

[Nas 2,873]

I'm a huge fan of the Crash games. In the Sony era, I think all three games were better with each release (Crash 3 being the best, followed by Crash 2 and 1). All three were amazing games, but since this thread is focusing on 2, I'll just talk about 2.

 

Oh, yes, that one simple request to get a laptop battery (they had laptops in 1997?!) that started the quest...ah, so very memorable for me. I can tell you initially, though, that the level system wasn't my favorite, in variability of level design, and the way the central hub design was. It just...well, it's nostalgic, but now looking at it, comparing it to past and present Crash games, it wasn't the best.

 

As a Crash game in general, it had all the good stuff. The classic appearance of the bandicoot himself, the gameplay, the sound effects (collecting Wumpa fruits, breaking crates, and spinning enemies into oblivion is just as fun to do as it is to see, and especially hear), but surprisingly not the music (most of the time when I was growing up, I played games with the music levels down or off for some reason...kinda regret it, I could've had more nostalgia opportunity if it ever rubbed off on me)...all of it is just building up a great example of a classic PlayStation game.

 

Overall, I give it a 8.5/10, only for what it lacks and how it's shown in later games, specifically in Crash 3.

 

Crash was better than Mario in the playstation 1/n64 era, from my perspective. Crash is basically my childhood compiled, I've played and beaten Crash Bandicoot 2, Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, Crash Team Racing and Crash Bash. I got hours and hours playing CTR, that was my favorite game when I had a ps1. I still get teary eyed when I listen to "Hot Air Skyway" stage soundtrack of CTR, too much emotions and nostalgia to handle... I had a blast with my friends with that game. Crash Bash was really fun too, but I never beaten it completely XD

 

Still to this day, no karting game has even been better than CTR, no Mario Kart in the world can be compared to that game, so after ps1 Crashes, Crash became shit! and it saddens me how a franchise with so much popularity was dying before my eyes. I played Crash Nitro Kart though, I downloaded for gba, it was kind of fun but still, I got Crash Tag Team Racing for xbox, and that was when I knew that Crash has died, that wasn't the Crash that I loved when I was a kid, that game was a weird version of Mario Kart Double Dash, it was horrible, I have to say that Mario Kart Double Dash was much better.

 

I always wondered why Naughty Dog got rid of Crash?

 

I'm all with you, man. CTR is one of my favorite racing games of all time (though one minor thing ticks me off that's too similar to Mario Kart; both the antagonists [Cortex and Bowser] had a castle for their themed race track, but that just goes along the lines with the normal canon, that they both actually do have a castle in the games, but with Cortex, it's just a lot less emphasized.

 

Anyways, Naughty Dog simply eventually lost the rights to the game, and they just pass passed it along to somepony else. Eventually, the games got bland with Activision making them...