Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex

PlayStation 2 version

The PlayStation 2 Greatest Hits version has quicker load times than the original release.

References to the game

The game didn't sell as well as Universal expected: Eventually the company would reference this in Crash Twinsanity when Dr Cortex confronts a hoard of angry penguins and says "It's been a difficult couple of years Wrath of Cortex didn't sell as well as we'd hope and....Fish?" This is followed by one of the penguins firing a laser gun at Cortex.

Development

The game was originally to be designed by Mark Cerny, who had designed all the previous Crash games and intended the game to be a free-roaming title similar to Crash Twinsanity. However, after handing development of the game over to Traveller's Tales and granting Konami the right to publish the game in Japan, the developers were given only a year to complete the game, resulting in the design change to a standard Crash game.

Voice Cast

The game has a lineup of celebrity voice talent, including Mark Hamill, the voice of Luke Skywalker from Star Wars, and Clancy Brown, the voice of Mr Krabs from SpongeBob.

Comedic Elements

The game, whilst not strictly having a comedic narrative, does feature some comedic elements; for example, the character Uka Uka, who is nearly always seen screaming at Dr Cortex and never talks "normally". This is emphasised almost immediately as the first cutscene for the game begins with him yelling "Imbeciles! Fools! Nincompoops! Can't you idiots do anything right?!" at Cortex and his henchman.

Konami

All versions of the game were published by Konami in Japan and Universal Interactive elsewhere. The PlayStation 2 version erroneously displays the Konami logo both in-game and on the cover in regions outside of Japan. This was fixed in the Xbox and GameCube versions.

Regional differences

The game has a different title theme in the Japanese version, which uses a light-hearted, lyrical song; this can be compared to all other versions of the game, which use the warp room song.

Loading Screen

The game has a different loading screen on different versions; the GameCube version had the word "LOADING" on a plain black background, the Xbox version has Crash falling through a green, 3D space and the PS2 version has Crash falling through a purple space whilst facing the camera.

Awards

• 4Players
  • 2002 – #2 Best Xbox Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)

Information also contributed by Chris Chidester