Crash Bandicoot review by Tyson
Overall
Pass
Nintendo has Mario, Sega has Sonic, and now Sony has Crash Bandicoot. While Crash may not be the official mascot of the PlayStation, the games advertising and hype has propelled him to such status. Sadly I found the first Crash Bandicoot game to not be very fun to play. I would recommend anyone to pass on this game.
Gameplay
The story of Crash Bandicoot sets out with our playable character Crash Bandicoot being used in some kind of experimentation for world domination but he escapes and now he has to go back to save his girlfriend Tawna. The games story is told though an opening cinematic and in the instruction booklet. Sadly there isn't any other parts story mentioned as you play through the game.
Crash is set to play like a mix of a 3D and 2D game. Each stage will have you move from the start of the level to the end of the level. Many levels will have Crash walk along a trail that he can move all around in while other levels play out like a standard 2D platforming game. Some levels feature a unique gimmick like riding a warthog or running away from a boulder rolling towards you. But what ruins my enjoyment of the levels is their difficulty. Some levels are way to hard then they should be. While the levels have a checkpoint system in them they are also horribly placed. Some levels the checkpoints are way to close to each other while other levels they are spread out way to far. Another frustrating aspect of many levels is that they are over bottomless pits. So this means that a missed jump is going to be a death. Some levels are just horrible to play because of the bottomless pits like those 2 bridge levels.
Along with some frustrating level design comes other problems that ruined the games enjoyment for me. One is the camera. The games camera cannot be adjusted like in other 3D games. This means that some jumps have horrible viewpoints and it is easy to die that way. Another frustrating aspect is that Crash can only take one hit then he is dead. While there some tiki masks you can pick up for an extra hit or two but again their distribution throughout the levels is horrible placed. Some levels have 4 or 5 masks in them, some levels have 1 or 2, then other levels have none in them. Its all horrible designed.
The games save system isn't well designed either. You can only save if you complete a Tawna bonus level and you can only access these by collecting 3 tokens from certain levels. If you fail to find all 3 tokens or if you fail the bonus level then you cant save your game. This has to be one of the worst save game systems in a game that I have played. The only good thing I could say about the save system is that it also allows you to use passwords to save your game if you don't have a memory card.
What I felt worked in Crash was his move set. Crash can jump or spin. You use these to move throughout levels, attack enemies, and open crates. The crate mechanics are pretty good too. Each level has a certain amount of crates to break and if you break then all and you earn a gem. These gems are used in other levels to access other parts of the level that you cant get to normally and this will help you get access to break all the boxes in some levels. As you break crates or explore the level you will collect Wumpa fruit. This acts as Crash's coins in that every 100 you get will give you another life. I also enjoyed the boss fights as they did use some different mechanics then what you experienced in the games levels.
Control
My main complaint with the controls in Crash Bandicoot is that he felt a bit stiff to move around with the directional pad. The games button layout is pretty good as they will either cause Crash to jump or spin.
Graphics
Crash Bandicoot is another PlayStation game that really shows off the systems graphical capabilities. Crash looks good and animates well. The world environments are well detailed and seems to be of a higher polygon count and texture detail then many PlayStation games. I also didn't notice many frame rate problems while playing throughout the game.
Sound
Wow Crash Bandicoot has some really catchy music. I loved the theme song and many of the songs used in the games levels. Sound effects like explosions, crates breaking, collecting Wumpa fruit, picking up tiki masks, and Crash himself all sound great.