Crash Twinsanity

aka: Crash Bandicoot 5: Crash & Cortex no Yabou, Crash Bandicoot: Twinsanity, Crash Bandicoot: Unlimited
Moby ID: 16120

Xbox version

Two unfortunate faults

The Good
The music is memorable, and fits the game. The cutscenes are also look professional, and are well-scripted as well. Definitely above most other platformers in humor.

The gameplay is classic Crash, with a few additional characters.

The graphics finally look appropriate for the hardware. I was disappointed with the appearance of Wrath of Cortex, but this game looks noticeably better.

It's welcome to have a bit more freedom to move around the levels. Crash is no longer restricted to a single ribbon of a level; instead, there are actual side paths and open areas.

The Bad
First, the cutscenes are unskippable. Yeah, the humor is good, but when you're watching the same cutscene for the 6th time, it turns grating. Of course, there's a cutscene before every boss, and before most difficult sections.

Second, there is no hub world and no way to return to a level except through a few shortcuts. This is very bad for a collectathon game. While you don't gain new abilities, and can theoretically clear each level out in one go, there's always that one gem that you just can't get. In most games, you would be able to ignore it, and return later once you have more skill at the game. In this game, that involves you finding an appropriate shortcut, and then playing through all the levels between the gem, and where you were again. This includes beating all the bosses, and watching all the (unskippable) cutscenes.

The Bottom Line
It's at least reasonably good, but between the unskippable cutscenes, and the lack of a hub, I can't really recommend it; personally, I turned it off halfway through, and put it back on the shelf. I was tired of beating the same bosses, and watching the same cutscenes over and over again.

by qwertyuiop (49956) on June 22, 2009

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