Product Description

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, the first PS2 addition to the series, delivers the same mix of intuitive gameplay and elaborate adventure that fans have come to expect, with many enhancements and all-new environments and missions. Neo Cortex is back, and he means to rid himself of Crash once and for all. To energise his most diabolical creation to date, Cortex channels the power of the Elementals, a group of renegade masks with the destructive power of Air, Earth, Water and Fire. To stop the Elementals and Cortex's new weapon, Crash or Coco (a fully playable character for the first time) will face five game hubs, 25 dynamic levels and five unique bosses, as well as the appearance of a new character who will rock the Crash world.

You can complete specific levels of the game to play as Crash's fiery sister. Coco will have a wide variety of moves and animations tailored to fit her personality. New free-roam sections will be implemented within certain levels of the game. These sections feature puzzles and hidden areas never before seen in a Crash game. New bosses and mini-bosses offer up a Noah's Ark-sized list of new creatures. The game also has an all-new graphics engine that brings vivid life to environment and characters as never before.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7387 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Sierra
• Released on: 2001-11-23
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Platform: PlayStation2

Amazon.co.uk Review
Crash Bandicoot is a bargain basement Taz, a capering, rolling-eyed dingo-like creature. Over the few years before his PS2 debut, Crash Bandicoot: the Wrath of Cortex, he's appeared in various PSone titles--usually Mario wannabe platformers, but there've also been blatant Mario Party and Mario Kart rip-offs in the shapes of Crash Bash and Crash Team Racing.

Never less than fun, yet never a realistic contender when compared against the genre-defining Mario 64, Crash has sometimes received a fairly rough ride from the press. With original developers Naughty Dog passing on the chance to produce a PS2 version, Travellers Tales have created this effort, and in terms of gameplay, there's no progression here whatsoever. This is Crash as we know and tolerate him, albeit with fancier lighting effects. All the familiar faces return, including (obviously, given the title) arch-goon Dr Cortex.

And it's great, as it goes. Ignore the on-rails nature of the gameplay and the dismally slow loading times; it's unlikely you'll come across a jauntier, more ridiculous, stupid-brilliant game for some time. As well as the usual platform action, there are mine-cart chases á la Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom, hysterically playable Marble Madness-style levels, secrets, bonuses, vehicles, new moves; all kinds of everything, as Dana might have put it if she were into video games rather than winning the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest. Simple to pick up and play, crammed with outlandish ideas, colourful, loud and a laff riot into the bargain, it would be a hard heart that didn't warm to this old 'coot. --Steve Colton

Manufacturer's Description
Crash Bandicoot's first PlayStation 2 title returns to the stunning blend of platform and action elements of the million-selling PSone games, but uses the PS2's superior technology to create a larger and more interactive game world. As such, Wrath of Cortex finds Crash running, jumping and spinning through over 30 hazard-filled levels, with a host of familiar faces from the long-running series also along for the ride.

Once again the series' villain and Crash's arch nemesis, Dr Cortex, is up to no good--he's planning to use the power of the elements to raise a powerful Elemental Lord to kill our hero. Thus, Crash is thrown into a series of levels themed around Earth, Wind, Fire and Water, and must avoid contact with Cortex's many cronies while collecting bonuses and using whatever comes to hand in order to reach the end of the level.

Amongst the new additions to the PlayStation 2 game is Crash's all-new tiptoe move, while the series' use of vehicles has also been hugely expanded with Crash gaining access to gyrocopters, jeeps and a scooter. Players can also now control Crash's friends, with Coco also stepping into the limelight during the course of the game.

Customer Reviews

Don't listen to the moans!
OK, so you have to wait a short while for each section of the game to load...but it's worth the wait. This game is so much fun and sooo addictive! Visually, a feast for the eyes and the game control is so precise that you have to be pretty accurate...which adds to the challenge. Be prepared to lose hours as it's impossible to put down.

Great fun
This is another brilliant one of crash bandicoot series, but this time there's more different things you can use in the missions. The games brilliant graphics makes you believe you are playing it real life. Crash himself looks brilliant aswell as Coco and all the other enemies. The audio is mainly the same as the others but just sounds and incy bit better. The gameplay is the best and most fun thing about the game. Roll in a ball, go on a scooter as Coco and more. Over 25 missions and 5 bosses. You must collect the crystls and all the gems which arnt easy. The bosses area real test. Despite it takes a year to load, a brilliant game and one i reccommend to you.

Good graphics, but.....
If you liked Crash 1/2/3 then this is a good game, because it has the same gameplay, and spot-on graphics, BUT this series is very tired and the loading times are HORRENDOUS, it literally takes about 30 seconds to load into a level, 30 seconds to load out of a level - this may not sound much, but compare it to something like SmackDown3 which has like 1 second load times, and you can figure out how bad Crash5 is.