After leaving Naughty Dog, the funny marsupial was freed from Sony's shackles and became multi-platform. The studios wanted to reach as large an audience as possible, transferring Cresche's adventures to different consoles. Stationary consoles have already been marked by Crash Bandicoot: the Wrath of Cortex and now the line was behind the portable consoles. In 2002, the GameBoy Advance released Crash Bandicoot: the Huge Adventure. The release received generally positive feedback. Critics praised the Vicarious Visions craftsmanship for colorful graphics and cheerful gameplay, however, they criticized the developers for lack of ingenuity - many elements were thoughtlessly pulled out of the past parts. However, the owners of the Nintendo handheld were pleased to have received such a gift. What was the first time that the bandit's portable adventure had prepared for us? It's about time we figured it out.
Plot
The story begins with Uka-Uka once again telling Neo Cortex that he could not cope with Kresh Bandikut. It is noteworthy that the environment is very similar to the introductory video from Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped. A cunning scientist invents weapons that can reduce planets. Without long thinking, he uses it on Earth. He picks up the planet and laughs demonically, anticipating an easy victory. Well, our magnificent trinity, of course, learns about the atrocities of Cortex and hurries to resist him.
The story is given in the form of static pictures with the text of the dialogues. It's boring to look at, because it kills all the dynamics, but you can understand it - the GameBoy Advance is a weak platform. Anyway, the script here is as simple as two kopecks. On the other hand, shouldn't you be so critical of history if it was the gameplay that always came first in the bandit's adventures?
Gameplay
The game process in Crash Bandicoot: the Huge Adventure is based on the foundation of classic parts. The main task of agile marsupial is to collect purple crystals on a couple of dozens of levels. Besides, Kresh is still a very fragile hero - a clash with any opponent can end up with the death of a protagonist, unless there is a totem mask of Aku-Aku next to him. These masks are taken from wooden boxes, chaotically scattered around the perimeter of the location. In order to free Aku-Aku you just need to break the box. If you have broken two of these boxes, the mask will change color, symbolizing the increasing power. Well, if you are lucky enough to break three boxes of Aku-Aku, the cheerful African drumming rhythm will play against the background, and Kresh will be temporarily invulnerable. In addition to boxes with a mask game offers a dozen other species. The most common - the usual wooden boxes, inside which there is a favorite delicacy of marsupial. There are also more fortified boxes, which store ten vamp fruits. However, you can get them only if you jump on the box from above. In this case, the box is not destroyed at once, but acts as a spring, and it can be used to climb into hard-to-reach places. There is also a special box that keeps your progress at the level and serves as a kind of checkpoint. However, not all boxes are useful. There are also some that are better avoided. For example, a red box labeled "TNT". If Kresh jumps on this one, a countdown mechanism of three seconds will start. Well, if you destroy the box with a whirlwind, it will explode instantly. Finally, there are green boxes that say "Nitro" in the game. You have to be very careful with them, because any contact with such a box is fatal. It is noteworthy that in Crash Bandicoot: the Huge Adventure there are also invisible boxes. That is, instead of boxes you see only a frame, but you cannot destroy them. To show them, you need to find an iron box with an exclamation point nearby and hit it properly, after which the magic will dissipate and the box will become a normal piece of iron. "Why should we read all this? - You're right to ask. And then, that besides obligatory crystals, on each level there is also a special grey stone which can be earned only if you managed to break all boxes at level, including dangerous. "But how do you destroy them? - You will ask again. At the end of these levels there is usually an iron green box with an exclamation point. By hitting it, you destroy all the explosive boxes at the level.
As you can see, the new game from Vicarious Visions doesn't offer anything we haven't seen in the past. And that's an obvious drawback. Apparently, being afraid to spoil the series with innovations that do not fit into the concept of the series, the developers decided not to invent the bike, but to take the already working mechanism and make a couple of purely cosmetic changes.
Speaking of cosmetics. In Crash Bandicoot: the Huge Adventure there are very few design ideas and a whole darkness of borrowed from past games. There are levels with underwater world where Crèche with fins and scuba diving explore the seabed. There are levels with escape from the big polar bear on top of the Polar bear - only the bear that follows Kresh has become anthropomorphic for some reason. There are levels of sewerage where Kresh moves by holding onto the pipes. Finally, the central world itself, from where access to all levels is painfully reminiscent of the third part of the Naughty Dog. All this, of course, will upset the fans of marsupial, but it is quite possible to attract new adherents, who did not catch the era of the first Playstation. The good thing is not the whole game consists of borrowings. There is, for example, a level where the camera takes a view from behind, and we see the back of a bandit who flies over the clouds on a jetspack and collects boxes hung on balloons. There are even full-fledged levels in space! However, most of the levels, if they don't repeat the classic levels one-to-one, then they certainly consist of a compilation of different ideas. For example, there is a prehistoric level with an ass, but the enemies encountered on the way of Kreisch are very similar to the lizards from the levels with ruins in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back.
Just as in the third part, the Vicarious Visions craftsmanship divides the central world into several rooms, each containing five levels that you are free to go through in any order. However, in order to meet the boss, you will need to go through them all. After the battle with the boss, you will have access to the next room, which contains five more levels. And so on until the very end. The scheme is not new, but still pleases with its freedom and variability. Summing up, Crash Bandicoot: the Huge Adventure will precisely disappoint admirers, but quite probably the beginners will like it.
Music and sound
Music in Crash Bandicoot: Huge Adventure is simply not worth your attention. No, the music itself is good - it has in its arsenal the darkness of memorable melodies and excellent rhythmics. The point is that almost the whole soundtrack is a compilation of tracks from Naughty Dog games. Either the authors tried to save on the composer, or they were caught off guard by creative impotence - it's hard to understand. One thing is clear - no one will listen to it separately, especially since the arrangement is not good due to technical limitations of the console. Moreover, a number of tracks are just shuffled among themselves, apparently to make plagiarism seem less obvious. For example, the music that plays during the battle with Dingodale is taken from the battle with N. Gin in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back. And when you fight N. Gene, for some reason the track from the battle with the tiger Tiny from the same second part sounds. And finally, during the battle with Tiny, the track from the battle with Dingodile from Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped sounds in the background. It's very confusing, because I'm used to associating a particular track with a particular character, for example. After all, the boss's theme should reflect his character, his individuality. And because of such a mishmash all this is lost. With the final boss, Mega-Mix, who appears in the series for the first time did not bother at all - he just got the same theme that sounds in the battle with Cortex. I personally took such decisions as a personal insult and an attempt to leave at the expense of others' talent. Stealing is bad.
Sound is also pulled out of the past too. It's not annoying, but it leaves little impression.
Afterword
Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure is a game that tricks a player. It could be honestly positioned as a classic rameck in 2D, but the developers persistently talk about its completeness. Thus their lie is visible to the naked eye. You don't have to be a genius detective to notice the resemblance of the new part to the games from Naughty Dog - here everything lies on the surface. The soundtrack almost completely copies wonderful compositions from the second and third parts of the classical era. The levels are not new either. Some of the design ideas are fully borrowed, and some others are combined with each other. At the same time, the game offers a completely new story, not in any way echoing the past. Crash Bandicoot: the Huge Adventure is a sad and depressing sight. However, if we abstract from the past games, against which the current release instantly fades, the game is not so bad. Of course, with the transition to two dimensions, the bandit lost his charm, but the gameplay is still fascinating, and the levels want to pass again and again. The game has all chances to be liked by the undemanding user, for whom the Crash Bandicoot series has never been associated with Naughty Dog. For all the others, the Vicarious Visions handicraft will seem like a pathetic parody of the unattainable, luxurious original.