Month Overview: August

Games finished in August:
 Darksiders 2                                                                        9.0
 Crash Bandicoot                                                                  6.0
 Mario Kart 7                                                                        8.0
 Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back                               9.0
 Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped                                                 9.0
 Crash Team Racing                                                              8.0
 Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex                                 8.0
 Crash Nitro Racing                                                               6.5
 Crash Twinsanity                                                                  6.5
 Crash Tag Team Racing                                                        6.0
 Crash of the Titans                                                                7.0

 I played through most of the Crash home-console games in one month. In one month! And classes started this month(Which is why I didn't have much to study or stuff). I DID IT. It was a great month, tons of great games and tons of good games, I don't really have anything to complain about.

 Game of August:

 A worthy sequel to one of my favorite games of the last generation, Darksiders 2 added a ton of new(and borrowed) features, and for the most part, they work really well and spice up the gameplay. I kinda like the older game's setting a little bit better, but that's just a matter of personal preference.

Runner-up:

 To think that Crash 2 used to be my least liked Crash game back in the day! To be fair, I never really gave it a chance. Crash 2's greatness took me by surprise, it's sooooo good, fixes everything Crash 1 did wrong and fleshes out the formula pretty neatly. It is another antropomorphic animal platform game, but it does its own thing, and does it so well. SO WELL.

Review #147: Crash of the Titans

 And thus ends the Crashtravaganza.

 After Traveller's Tales pseudo rebooted the franchise with Twinsanity, there was only one way left to go.... reboot it again. Seriously.

 It's hard to pinpoint when it takes place, if it even takes place in the previous timeline, but the basic outline is that Crash and the rest of the bandicoots are enjoying another day in their care-free life when Cortex and Nina arrive in a machine and steal Coco away. The story tries to be funny, but it never manages to be Twinsanity-funny, but it does have its moments. Another thing to keep in mind is that this is a hard reboot. Crash now has a life bar, Wumpa Fruit now simply restore Crash's health, crates as you know them are gone, gems and crystals are gone and every single character has change both physically and personality-wise, this is not the Crash you know and love in any shape, way or form.

 Oh boy, has gameplay changed. The game no longer features a HUB or anything like that, and instead became a linear, stage-based platformer. There are no real secrets hidden on alternate paths or anything like that, the bonus areas are laid out pretty much in the open, as are the collectible voo-doo dolls and the Mojo. Oh, yes, Mojo, instead of Wumpa fruit, you can now find Mojo stashed behind objects, laying in plain sight or dropped when enemies are defeated, and collecting a certain amount of Mojo will unlock new combos(Yes.) or abilities. Crash now runs on a life bar, so he can take much more hits than before, and just his luck as the game now has a lot of focus on combat. There's also a multiplayer mode that places the second player on the role of "Carbon Crash", a white Crash that can, basically, do everything Crash can do. Pretty cool.

 When it comes to fighting enemies, Crash can, initially, land a 3-hit punch combo, a Strong kick attack that breaks the enemy's guard, double jump, block and sidestep. This is most definitely not the Crash that you used to know. The combat is fairly functional, it lacks depth, but it's quite decent and Crash will earn new abilities throughout the game, like the classic Spin attack, that initially leaves him dizzy after a while. Regardless, some of the combat sections can feel a bit long in the tooth, even though the combat works well, it can grow old really fast when not spread out. As for the platfoming, it works really well, and while there aren't any challenging platforming sections, it works pretty well and the environments through which you jump around are fairly good-looking.

 Then we have the Titans, bigger enemies that Crash can ride. There's about 15 different Titans, with different skills, attacks and combos, which means there's definitely some that you will like more than others, but you'll never get to keep one for long. In order to ride a Titan, you must first hit them until you stun them(Gauged by  6 green stars that appear over them when you hit them), and once they are dazed you can press the circle button to ride them, or if you leave them dazed for too long, they'll die. There's a rather small issue with this, when you are left with Crash on-foot against more than one titan, it becomes frustratingly impossible to deal with them. Y'see, Titans will pursue you at the same time, and while you hit one of them, the other will hit you. Sure, you can block the attack, but while you are blocking, the Stun gauge on the other Titan will decrease, leaving you at an impasse that will most often than not end with your death. At least when you respawn, whatever you had killed remains dead and you can now try to get the attention of only one of the Titans and stun him.

 The game is downright gorgeous, environments are beautiful and characters look great. The camera is so pushed away that the only times you'll get a good look at Crash is during cut-scenes, but whether you like the redesign or not, the fact that the model looks great is undeniable. As for the stages, they are fairly creative, and going through them is fairly enjoyable, the stages set on the Giant Tree being a good example of how good stages in the game can look. Music... tries to imitate the style of the older Crash games, but it never manages to reach their level, personally, I think the Twinsanity-styled music would've suited better. Voice acting is another strong point, while a lot of the jokes fall flat on their face, the deliveries are strong.

 A lot of people probably wrote off the game as soon as they saw the redesigns, I know I did, and the few videos I had seen seemed lame, but after playing the game first-hand I can say that it's a very good game. You know it did something right when my biggest gripe with the game is that it doesn't feel like a Crash game.
 7.0 out of 10.

Now Playing: Crash of the Titans

 A new hop. Seriously.

 Since this is the last Crash game I own(Planning on getting mind over mutant later), this marks the end of my Crashventure. So, what can I say? The gameplay is decent, good even, but, BUT, it doesn't feel like a Crash game. Crates are basically gone, now you have a lifebar, the gameplay departs heavily from other games.... but it's not a bad game.

 So yeah, fun, but doesn't feel like a Crash game, which may or may not automatically make up your mind about it.

Review #146: Crash Tag Team Racing

 Fun, in all the ways that don't matter!

 Crash Team Racing was fun. Crash Nitro Racing was Ok, it tried to imitate CTR, but lost its spark. And now we have Crash Tag Team Racing which is nothing like the other two, a pretty risky move, but it's not all bad.

 The story this time is about a deed to a theme park. Seriously. For some reason, Crash and Cortex really want to earn that deed, so they will race across five "theme" lands around the park to earn Power Crystals and ultimately, earn the deed. Sadly, the roster has been reduced to 8 characters, with two new characters, and the other six(Crash, Coco, Crunch, Cortex, Nina and N. Gin) have been drastically changed, personality wise. N. Gin seems to have father issues, is now a sadomasochist and is a closet homosexual, Crunch became a Mr. T parody and Coco, the "smart" one is now dumber. Story shouldn't matter in a game like this, but it's rather jarring seeing these new portrayals, Twinsanity's Cortex worked because it was a more exaggerated version of Cortex, these are completely new characterizations.

 Everything you knew about Crash racers? Throw it out the window. Firstly, the hub worlds have been changed for on-foot segments. These are very simple(Crash only has the Jump, Spin and Slam) and easy, but movement feels very floaty, everything is veeeery floaty, initially it looks terrible, but eventually you get used to it and it becomes quite alright, if somewhat fun. As you go through the game, you'll have to do more and more platforming to get to the gates that unlock each race, but it's very easy, and conveniently, once you unlock a track, you can pick it from any gate. This overworld also has the rest of the racers standing around, and you can talk to them to trigger missions(They are simply "Get me X amount of coins, get me X amount of power crystals, find me X item in Y zone") and unlock Karts, stronger weapons and costumes. I actually prefer this unlocking method to the "play each track a ton of times" in previous Crash racers, but that's just me.

 As for the on-wheels gameplay, it's been extremely simplified, to the point that it no longer offers the depth previous games offered. Power Sliding is now done by tapping break before a curve, the longer you hold the break, the more "Boost gauge" you earn, fill the gauge and you get a free turbo. As for the racing itself, it lacks punch, it feels dull. The weapons you can pick during the race lack any kind of personality, you throw... exploding monkeys? Chickens? Half the time I didn't even know what the hell I was throwing. The tracks themselves are very generic, they lack soul, they lack personality, they could've been lifted from any other mascot racer, they don't even reference the Crash series in the slightest. Not cool.

 It's not all bad, the game introduces the new "Clashing" mechanic, by pressing triangle and approaching another racer, you can clash into them, if they don't reject the clash. Clashing makes one racer man a turret and the other man the car(You can swap seats) and each racer comes with their own gun(Though the gunner can switch between both his gun and his partner's). Whoever gets to man the turret gets the best deal, since gunning down racers feels very satisfying and it's all around fun. You can also gun down incoming projectiles, and when you pick up weapons they now turn into overpowered weapons of mass destruction that can destroy multiple karts in one shot, which encourages clashing between racers. Oh, and you can screw your partner, whoever unclashes first gets a boost of speed and leaves his partner behind, so you can steal the first place for yourself, and in one particular occasion, we got two second places and no first place. These mechanics make Battles very fun, and races between clashed karts are much more fun than simple races, if only because it makes the game actually fun, so you'd better think of this game as a combat racer, instead of a mascot racer.

 As for the types of races, besides battle, you get Fastest Lap, pretty self explanatory, Crashinator in which you must hit as many objects as you can before the time runs out, Rolling Thunder, a one-lap race in which you start clashed with unlimited ammo and must destroy as many karts as you can, and then there's Run and Gun, which is just like Crashinator except that now you are manning a turret. There's also a Stunt mode which has you using both analogs while on air to turn and roll to earn points, but it doesn't work very well.

 Graphics are alright, but the problem lies on how generic and soulless everything looks. It's not a bad looking game, just a very uninspired one. Music on the other hand is fantastic since it's in the same vein as Twinsanity's. Voice acting is also really good, but your mileage may vary depending on how much you like the new personalities characters have. Still, during races characters tend to run their mouths way to often which can become a bit annoying.

 The thing about Crash Tag Team Racing is that it lacks the depth previous games had. It lacks personality. And the racing itself is so-so. Clashing does somewhat manage to pull the game forward, but one decent mechanic can't make up for the racing itself, which should've been the focus of the game.
 6.0 out of 10.

Now Playing: Crash Tag Team Racing

 The Crashventure continues...

 Almost 8:00 AM, I'm dead tired, so I'll make it short and sweet. Firstly, no, I haven't abandoned Devil Summoner, heck, some days ago I cleared two chapters. Two! But I feel like I can finish this one before the month ends EVEN if I go out tomorrow(Today?)'s night, so why not?

 As for the game itself... it has interesting ideas, poorly executed. The on-foot overworld feels so off, and these are the guys that developed the next two Crash games? I'm scared!. The racing is alrightish, Clashing is alrightish, but where it really shines is in Battle Mode. The tracks lack soul, they are so generic, might as well been lifted from any other mascot racer. Seriously. The character roster also suffered massive cuts, but at least we get unique karts.

 Single Player: Probably the Crash Racer I enjoyed the most, but as for the racing itself... the one I'm enjoying the least. Now off to bed I go.

Review #145: Crash Twinsanity

 Crash's beginning of the end.

 Over 6 Crash games, which followed two kinds of formulas: The platforming one and the racing one, so for this entry Traveller's Tales chose to somewhat reboot Crash, and thus Twinsanity was born.

 Three years after The Wrath of Cortex, N. Cortex returns and plots vengeance against the bandicoot... except that two seemingly alien parakeets quickly come into the picture, and now Cortex, Crash, Aku-Aku and Uka-Uka must team up in order to stop this new threat. The script is easily the game's strongest asset, unlike the last game, the story is hilarious. Cortex is now a more exaggerated version of his previous self, and he steals the show(Partly due to the fact that Crash is a mute, and most of his humor comes from actions, while Cortex gets both to speak and act). The rest of Crash's enemies have gotten make overs, and for the most part, they look pretty good, even if some only get a few seconds of screen time.

 Gameplay received an almost complete overhaul, instead of getting a hub World from which you chose which stage to tackle, you are now left in some more open ended areas, with all stages seamlessly connected with each other. There's a total of 16 stages, divided in 4 different "Areas", and each of the sixteen stages has 6 hidden gems, however, you no longer need to destroy all creates, now you need just find them, and usually solve a puzzle to get it. Honestly, I liked this new approach, and if the rest of the game worked properly, it would've made for a fun experience, if only...

 Here's the thing, in this game you'll be playing as Crash, Cortex, Crash and Cortex and a rather short, but enjoyable, stage with Nina Cortex. Crash plays just like he did in previous games, without the bonus abilities he'd earn from bosses. Cortex trades Crash's spins for a gun, and loses the double jump. When Crash and Cortex team up, you play primarily as Crash, and can spin around Cortex or use him as a hammer, plus, throw him away to have him hit switches or attack faraway enemies. As for Nina, she doesn't have a double jump, but she can spin attack, and gets a hand that doubles as a grappling hook.

 So far, so good, but the more you play, the more the game starts to frustrate. The largest problem, by far, is the fact that Crash doesn't project a shadow over crates. The game will demand a ton of jumps over crates floating over bottomless pits, but there's no way to tell where you are going to fall. Even worse, most of the hidden gems are locate over floating crates platforms, which will cost you a ton of lives if you aren't lucky. Something slightly less aggravating, is that they changed the bouncing physics, bouncing off crates doesn't feel as good and doesn't give you as much air time as before to plan your fall, coupled with the lack of shadows quickly grows vexing. Another issue are the "pushing" controls, in order to push something you must run against it and then continue to run, stop running and Crash stops pushing. It's as dumb, impractical and imprecise as it sounds, this makes the level in which Cortex spends his time trapped in a barrel incredibly hard, for all the wrong reasons. Oh, and once Cortex got stuck during an automated scene(He travels from pipe to pipe) forcing me to kill myself. At least you don't lose a life when Cortex falls, but you must restart back from the last checkpoint. Speaking of checkpoints, they are poorly spread out, and makes you wonder why they let you save your game anywhere if it will only save up to the last "hard" checkpoint(These are golden crates instead of the usual "C" crates). These two flaws, the lack of shadows over crates and the terrible pushing mechanics, are impossible to ignore, you'll be doing a lot of these actions during the game, which is why they affect the game so much.

  The game can be quite fun when it's not frustrating. The very last stage features a ton of very tight platforming sections(Over platforms on which Crash does project his shadow!), these are the most challenging sections of the game(which isn't saying much), but they were very well designed and were fun to get through, if only the rest of the game was this fun. Oh, and after this fantastic section... you are greeted with a pushing puzzle which quickly reminds you of how bad the game can get. And that's another issue, when the game is at its finest, the first stages, Nina's stage and the last stage, it's really good, but when it's not, it's pretty dull and frustrating. The game offers plenty of interesting ideas, like when Cortex is running away from enemies and Crash must open up a path for him, or when they fight over a crystal and you must move them together as if they were a sphere, but the game conspires against itself. Another issue is that you can't skip most cut-scenes, if you die during a boss, you will have to watch the entire pre-battle cutscene again.

 On a happier note, the game looks beautiful. The character redesigns are fairly good, the cutscenes are funny and well made, in-game models animate fairly well and look really good, and the environments are colorful and appealing. Soundtrack is very quirky and unlike anything else you've heard in a Crash game, and in my opinion, it's fantastic, but I'm sure it's gonna be hit or miss between different players. Voice acting is absolutely perfect, particularly Cortex, although the fact that N.Brio didn't get a voice actor is painfully obvious, he doesn't even moan during his transformation.

 Crash Twinsanity makes me kinda sad. There's so much untapped potential, so many good ideas, which I admit felt were gimmicky when I read about them, but after playing with them in the context of the game, they are fairly decent, but for every good thing the game does, it has a couple of catastrophic flaws that make it needlessly frustrating. It also started off so good, the first world is very entertaining, but as it goes along, it gets worse and worse...
 6.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Crash Twinsanity

 Surprisingly good.

 Look at the cover. Whenever I wasn't staring at the terribleness that they tried to pass as a cover, I was reading about controlling them together and those hijinks, and thinking to myself: "This game looks terrible, and plans to ride on a terrible, terrible idea". I just cleared the first four stages, and holy smokes, I'm liking it a lot. Sure, it has some flaws, like unskippable cutscenes, or Crash not having a shadow over crates(Which makes platforming over crates a real nightmare!), oh, and the physics have changed so you have to get used to that, but despite all that... it's really good. For starters, unlike the last game, it's really funny. It looks gorgeous, and the soundtrack is phenomenal(Although it's probably gonna be hit or miss), controls work well, and the gameplay is fun.

 All in all, a pleasant surprise, I'm looking forwards to this one.