Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex (2001) (VG)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Family | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Crash Bandicoot must gather ancient crystals to stop the destructive nature of a group of renegade masks known as the Elementals.

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Clancy Brown	...	Dr. Neo Cortex / Uka Uka (voice)
Corey Burton	...	Dr. N. Gin / Dr. N. Tropy (voice) (as Cory Burton)
Debi Derryberry	...	Coco Bandicoot (voice)
R. Lee Ermey	...	Wa-Wa - The Water Elemental (voice) (as R. Lee Ermy)
Mark Hamill	...	Py-Ro - The Fire Elemental (voice)
Jess Harnell	...	Lo-Lo - The Air Elemental / Computer (voice)
Brendan O'Brien	...	Tiny Tiger (voice)
Kevin Michael Richardson	...	Crunch Bandicoot (voice) (as Kevin Michael Richards)
Thomas F. Wilson	...	Rok-Ko - The Earth Elemental (voice) (as Tom Wilson)
Mel Winkler	...	Aku Aku (voice)

Also Known As:

Crash Bandicoot 4 (USA) (short title)

Country:

UK

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:E | Australia:G

Company:

Traveller's Tales

Quotes:

[first lines]
The Great Uka Uka: Imbeciles! FOOLS! NINCOMPOOPS! Can't you idiots do ANYTHING right? According to this, your track record for spreading evil is PATHETIC!
Dr. Neo Cortex: Uka Uka, it's not our fault. That wretched bandicoot is to blame!
[a crash hologram appears]
Tiny the Tiger: Grrr...
[he swipes at the hologram]
The Great Uka Uka: I will not let anthing stand in the way of evil... ESPECIALLY not a brainless orange marsupial!Crash must be eliminated!
N. Gin: Err... Uka Uka? Need I remind you that Crash always finds a way to defeat us? Maybe he's just too good for us.
The Great Uka Uka: Enough excuses! You five idiots need to come up with one good plan... or else!
Dr. Neo Cortex: How do I get into these situations?
[...]

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

Looks and sounds good, I suppose.

In the days of the original Playstation, Crash Bandicoot was an unofficial mascot for the machine. Indeed, the three 2D/3D platform games he was in were of the highest quality. The transition to the Playstation 2 was successful, but not instantly so, as this game demonstrates.

Wrath of Cortex reminds me of a lot of big budget follow-ups, such as the new Star Wars films, in that it's great to look at and listen to, but it has very little else to recommend it. The story concerns Cortex creating a new evil bandicoot and using the four elemental masks to power it. This means you must gather all the crystals to stop him, facing the villainous bandicoot Crunch and one of the masks every five levels. The graphics and music in this game are what make it really worth playing, especially as Coco is now playable in platform levels for the first time. Unfortunately, the collision detection is erratic, the camera angles often make simple jumps a total chore and there's nothing much here that hasn't been done before. It's more like 'The Best of Crash' than a new game in its own right. Though Cortex's vocals are as witty as ever, the new villains are uninteresting. The masks in particular lack the individual characters of the bosses in 'Warped' and just seem like loud oafs. The long between-level loading screens are also a pain. You seem to spend half your time watching Crash floating in a giant bottle of Tizer.

To sum up, if you'e looking for a PS2 follow-up to the PS1 Crash plat-formers then you'd be better off with the far superior 'Twinsanity'.