Work experience lad Tom Marshall gives his views on the latest adventure starring the crazy marsupial.
Crash Bandicoot has always been a simple platform game with the new ideas coming out in spin-off games such as Crash Nitro Kart and Crash Bash but TwinSanity brings a fresh new idea into the traditional styled game.
The main new idea in this game is the co-operation between Crash and Cortex, but this is not all that new - as games like Sonic Heroes have team based methods behind them as well. What is new though is that you do not like your partner, this means that Crash can use Cortex to help him progress through the levels but at Cortex's expense.
Another fantastic design of the game is the 3 playable characters which are Crash, Cortex and Nina Cortex. This is the first appearance of Cortex's niece and she is another fantastic character introduced into the already large cast of villains. The control you have over Crash is very similar to that of Wrath of Cortex you can still do the classics such as spin, double jump, skid and the belly flop. But you now get the added team moves which consist of throwing Cortex, the twin spin, smashing Cortex into the floor to break different boxes, "hummiliskate" (which involves Crash using Cortex as a skateboard), and roller ball.
Part of the fun with the past Crash games was the interesting villains that you come up against and this game is no different, even though you are now no longer fighting against Cortex. You are now fighting with Cortex against evil alien twins that have vowed to get revenge on Cortex, imprison Crash and destroy his home island. Crash and Cortex may be fighting for the same cause but they do not always agree and this is often spectacularly funny and entertaining.
The game in comparison to the other Crash games is the hardest so far, with it getting tough quite quickly. Some gamers may find this disappointing as they like to walk through the game and complete it within 2 days of having it, but others such as myself may see this as a welcome challenge which makes the game much more interesting.
The way that Crash has got from level to level was always in my opinion a superb feature of the game, all the way from the original where you were traveling around an island, to Wrath of Cortex, where you were in a space station which warped you to different locations around the universe. TwinSanity, however, is not at this standard. Initially you must walk around the islands looking for the next level which is not at all obvious and very time consuming and frustrating if you cannot find the level you are looking for. Later in the game you do use Cortex's "psychetron machine" to travel between dimensions and this is a far more efficient way of traveling to the next level, after all it is the level that's we want to be playing and not looking for them.
Crash Bandicoot: TwinSanity is a very good addition to the Crash Bandicoot series with some very funny fresh new ideas and a brilliant story line to go with it. If the games in the series continue to progress as much as TwinSanity has from Wrath of Cortex then Crash Bandicoot games will be around for a long time.
Tom Marshall