Johnny vs. Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex

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designs and i'm sure a bunch of other content creators will be doing something similar to this in the coming months so wi-fi fade you heard me going into the orange marsupials past before during his upbringing and when that upbringing got remade a couple years back those along with a bunch of other games made me a fan of the playstation which is obviously still going strong today but after my time with the playstation and as i was knee-deep into my time with the playstation 2 i began to veer away from crash bandicoot platformers in general as i already went into the playstation 2 video and it wasn't because naughty dog was no longer developing the games i didn't really care about that sort of thing if i even knew if it happened in the first place no my interest was just on other titles i wanted to own games like final fantasy 10 and such and such that's not to say i didn't give the next game a shot i absolutely loved my time of crash bandicoot 2 and crash bandicoot 3 so when wrath of cortex was released i made it a priority to rent it for a weekend and then i played a bit of it and then i stopped though i'm sure there were other factors involved in my limited play times seriously the load times in the first release were so obnoxiously awful that i think my patients just flat out broke and this is the same dude that put up with those 10 minute battle transitions when my first ps2 was dying i'm sure my rental period of this game was about 50 loading screens it's one of the more infamous aspects of the first one of the game but thankfully a non-issue now re-releases of the game such as the greatest hits version on the ps2 contain much shorter load times on the gamecube and xbox releases they're almost non-existent and just so you know i'm playing the xbox version for this review at the end of this video if you're thinking of playing wrath of cortex in any capacity avoid the original ps2 release like the plague this is actually the first time i'm actually finishing this game the first time i'm really just diving in to the next generation of crash bandicoot after the ps1 stuff it's all uncharted territory i have no idea what to expect not a clue whatsoever so when all said and done could i recommend wrath of cortex reading into the development of this game was pretty interesting even though naughty dog moved on to work on the jack and daxter series mark cerny who helped develop the first three games was poised to design crash's playstation 2 debut originally titled crash bandicoot worlds the idea was to make a free roaming crash bandicoot title far removed from the linear tunnels that were hallmarked designed on the original trilogy and with universal interactive studios brokering a deal with companies like konami this was also going to be the first time crash went multi-platform not unlike what a certain blue hedgehog was doing at the time with less console death alas relations would get rocky between universal sony and mark cerny and the free roman crash bandicoot game would be scrapped in favor of a more traditional structure with traveller's tails being placed in charge and given only 12 months to make the new game from scratch and when you're only given 12 months to develop a new game on new hardware you know there's going to be some cut corners and rather cortex is clearly the end result of this kind of [ __ ] even as i'm loading the game for the first time something fell off the traveler's tails mascot i mean i remember when this dude had a nice smile on his face and here he's all like yeah don't judge i need the money the title screen bearing of different subtitles wasn't that far removed from crash 3 hell even the music was pretty similar almost note for note and then i finally started playing the game and what the hell happened to gore-tex all the other villains for that matter it's cool the game was running at 60 frames per second but what happened to the character animations the presentation at 720p you can even see the gaps in vertices around cortex's eyebrows on the hero side of things well okay crash looks okay on the xbox version he even has some added fur textures you don't get in the ps2 and gamecube release but oh coco oh oh coco man i thought these characters are losing themselves in crash bash and now it's like if those same models were just moved out for the next gen okay that was a that was a few rough minutes there so as for the plot ukuku is seen scolding cortex and his lackeys for doing a miserable job in the whole villain department cortex however insists that he has a plan and that's to try the whole banacoot soldier experiment from the first game again resulting in crunch bandicoot crash if he ate an air pump basically but to complete his plan and give crunch that extra edge he needs an additional power source with ooka ooka suggesting that they tap into the power of these ancient evils from yesterday the elementals they're just more masked with very villain of the weak personalities got some notable voice actors though tom wilson mark hamill jess harnell and even arleigh irmi i bet you're the kind of guy that would [ __ ] a person in the ass and not even have the goddamn common courtesy to give him a reach around awakens the elementals from their long slumber prompting aku aku to send crash and coco across the world to collect crystals and stop cortex when completing a secret weapon and taking over the world the story is about on par with the other games but the lackluster presentation everything feels a little half baked the elementals what a bunch of homogeneous goons with little presents they're established early on and then they're nothing but boss fodder and almost disappear completely by the end of the game you know one of my favorite things about crash 3 was when the villains would show up before lowell starts to start trash talking you now these guys still do that in some capacity but nowhere near on the same level leave my levels alone damn that's all he had to say huh okay then i don't know these guys even have names what's that what's that oh they do what are they usually rocco pyro lo lolo what would make more sense if it was blow low he's wind-based and what's this one wawa oh my right hand is shaking wrath of cortex triggering my compulsions like an [ __ ] i like the idea of crunch bandicoot he's basically what would have happened to crash if cortex's experiment didn't fail the first time an interesting dichotomy i just wish they did something more with him i don't know maybe focus a little more on his resentment and relying on the elementals to enhance his power that's quickly dropped and why am i wasting my time thinking about what could have been it really isn't that deep and it turns out crunch was just being brainwashed by cortex the whole time by the end of the game crunch joins crash and coco is part of the team a by the numbers plot in a game that might as well be the very definition of by the numbers i mean holy [ __ ] i know the development team was crunched for time but clearly the mindset here was the guys and gals behind the scenes thinking okay so what did people like about crash bandicoot 3 well let's just do that again and if we can we throw in a few different spins on a couple of elements to liven it up but let's not get too crazy because we only have so much time rather cortex is a lesser crash bandicoot 3 that's the best way i can put it to save a bunch of your time but no man i need to get a little more thorough here because [ __ ] me so okay the game gets going and already i'm starting to get a little worried the first level is a snow level that's a little odd but that's no big deal i mean snow going crash 2 was that game's second level wait a minute a death route already man this game is already putting my platforming skills to the test normally these concepts are introduced in like the second or third world but all right wrath of cortex is trying to shake it up a bit like i said earlier this is the first time crash was going 60 frames per second but i'm not sure if it was just the extra frames of animation but crash felt slower his jumps floatier his slide jump i mean can they even be called the slide jump just sort of does this thing with his arm he gets the hype but it looks so off now that's my subtitle for this game crash bandicoot everything is off crash doesn't even do the crash dance or any dance for that matter after finishing the stage there's this random ass disco number during the credits and okay i might be missing a joke here but what is this so i went into the presentation earlier but it doesn't stop with the cut scenes even in-game elements were weaker what the hell happened to the gems and crystals these things had such a tantalizing look in the older games that made you just want to go and grab these things immediately shiny objects i got to get them i don't know what was going on here but the collectible look at these things i guess i can sort of understand trying to make the magical stones more transparent but i [ __ ] you not these looked so unremarkable that at one point in a later level i missed the crystal because i straight up just didn't see that [ __ ] i've never had that happen to me in the earlier games because they were way more obvious like i really just ran past that thing oh man well all the bosses have you face against crunch wearing a different elemental mask on paper that sounds kind of lame and repetitive but these battles aren't that bad they're visually distinct enough and i felt they each challenged me in a different enough way to warrant the recycling and liking crash 3 you get a permanent power up when you finish a boss to increase your mobility most returning from crash 3 except for the super belly flop because who the hell cared about the super belly flop but it's not like it's replacement was any better you get to sneak across the top of nitro crates and ability i used a grand total of once and once i got the tornado spin it became obsolete so quickly i mean why slowly sneak across what you can just long jump over so i'm guessing the development team had a real [ __ ] hard on for the motorcycle in crash 3 the idea of placing crash in different vehicles and gimmicks all together because that is most of this game's level design now crash bandicoot games always had their share of different gameplay styles and even though i recall saying in the crash 3 review that i really couldn't care how many there were as long as they were consistent to crash's core design and control well enough even i have to say rather cortex went overboard there's so many vehicle levels in this game of different varieties and it's only a couple of times where the level is just nothing but classic linear hallways okay well it's still linear hallways you're still breaking boxes and collecting crystals but you're forced into a new gameplay element all the [ __ ] time here and i'm wondering oh jesus what's the control scheme for this or what's the control scheme for this or this or this or this and it doesn't help that some of these gimmicks are the [ __ ] pits man the water levels for starters if they were going to mimic crash 3 i wish they just stuck with the scuba diving stuff because this submarine this it's so unwieldy movement is incredibly stiff turning alone feels like a fight against your controller your hitbox is gargantuan making it easy to die and these levels of the cheap shot you would see mines that come out of nowhere because you can't see them coming given how the level design is too broad to fit the floor and ceiling inside the same screen at the same time this car this [ __ ] car who thought this was a good idea the motorcycle wasn't everyone's cup of tea i myself wasn't that big on it i get it but i would take 300 motorcycle levels and deal with this one car level and yeah there's only one of these attributing to the game's dartboard approach of padding out game design it is so loose in handling it turns so wide and you have to start the whole race over if you fall into a pit which wasn't the case in crash 3 and trying to get the gem is a sight to behold there's just no way you're getting the crystal and the gem at the same time with these controls win the race first grab the crystal then slowly pump the gas throughout the whole [ __ ] stage and pray you don't miss a single box because you can't turn the vehicle around the plane levels starts off okay basically the same as crash three but then you got this one where your only means of attack is this gun you can only shoot when you're locked onto a target and that itself takes a couple of seconds and he can only fire one charge shot at a time meanwhile you are constantly getting gunned down by enemies with no such limitation and then this space level with coco what the [ __ ] the blueprints were already there they just had to do that again if they were so hell-bent on copying the other games but crash droids is legit one of the worst levels in the game if not for the lesser design but the sheer level of jank i don't know if it's if it's the enemies running into me from behind maybe a rogue asteroid but you can just [ __ ] die here for no goddamn reason like there what the hell killed me this happened like three to four times really though there's jank everywhere crash bandicoot wrath of jank and that's damn appropriate the hit detection on these crusher pistons the amount of times i slipped off the edge of a platform either because i couldn't read my position appropriately or when i'm trying to use the def tornado spin to get some extra distance i suddenly don't have a drop shadow to aim myself to safety when the game tells me i touch the nitro box one i clearly did not the one or two times you're back in jetpack controls from crash 2 with controls that are just as awkward for the record this mech here ripped right out of the second aliens movie that brings shame to that mech your justice fragile's regular crash with this thing equipped jumping is a crap shoot you can do a running jump just fine but jumping from a standstill has all this damn wind up it looks and feels so damn weird and your only means of attack is the fruit bazooka which given its slow-ass rate of fire and awkward aiming makes attacking in general a chore or breaking out of reach box is the equivalent of getting a fist jammed up your ass i know my language has been pretty colorful describing all this [ __ ] but this game pissed me off like i don't get it i don't understand what they were thinking if they were so keen on just replicating what people liked before why does this seem like they went out of their way to make it not work why the need for so many goddamn vehicles why skimp on the presentation why did they get rid of the aku aqua invincibility theme and why doesn't that increase my movement speed like before oh my god why is climbing on ceiling grates so much slower than in crash two and three this is borderline painful and you know there are some ideas that work some that i don't mind that much the rollerball levels these are okay controls pretty tight like the constant vibration on the controller it's a little depressing seeing all the previous crash films relegated to these lifeless stage hazards but i guess this too is part of cortex's wrath this game also has a few levels star and coco who instead of riding animals or jet skis or exploding in space for no reason is running down hallways like her brother that said she is nowhere near as capable as crash she's essentially crash one crash to put it simply doesn't really have that many extra abilities and her attack is this this little kick here it works so that's all that matters but there isn't much to her level so there isn't much to screw up sometimes it gets bad but for the most part her stages are subdued relatively speaking and they're easy to digest until you get moments like this where what what is this angle i can't turn the camera i can't see where i'm landing good god needless to say i didn't quite enjoy my time with this one and you bet your ass i didn't bother going after time relax in the light this time i got a couple of them a few golds one platinum by complete [ __ ] accident if i can flex real quickly over [ __ ] nobody really cares about i'm sorry the very thought of replaying some of these stages in one life is a form of mental torture i'm sure of it i'll give the game this though i did notice how they trimmed down the back tracking i mean they could have slimmed down the ass little boxes needed to get the box gems but getting all the collectibles with exception to the secret level is only available after getting enough time relics doesn't really require a whole bunch of revisits all the color gems in this game are obtained in the death routes and their only stipulations is making it to the platform without dying assuming you're always going for these as soon as possible you shouldn't have to revisit previous stages much if at all for that rather cortex legitimately improved in the previous formula so credit where credit is due but considering everything else it got wrong that doesn't mean that much in the end does it again it's all crash 3 but lesser nowhere near as tightly designed and despite being on better hardware it somehow looks worse than its playstation 1 counterparts in my opinion i'm willing to bet that developmental crunch was a big factor in this game being as half-hearted as it was and you know crunch sucks not that crush the other crunch oh maybe i don't know but the end result is what ultimately matters and i can't in good conscious recommend wrath of cortex it's not a terrible platformer there are things i like about it but that could be because it reminds me of happy times with the earlier games but man this is easily one of the worst classic crash games i've played and i don't feel so bad ignoring it after all these years well you know the original trilogy still exists and now there's even better versions of those games available today but for next time we're gonna be heading into what i think people consider to be the last of the original crash bandicoot lineup but this is before he like went into the tattoo parlor and out of all the crash games out there holy [ __ ] crash twin sanity is one of the most requested games i've been asked to review in the series gotta say curious as to why i've never played this one before either so is it good bad somewhere in between hope it's not because those tend to be really boring to write reviews for but we shall see you next time as always thank you all for watching stay safe wash your hands wear a mask if you decide to go outside have yourselves a fantastic night and take care do [Applause] bye

Channel: SomecallmeJohnny

Views: 380,070

Keywords: Somecallmejohnny, Somecallmejohnny Video, Somecallmejohnny Review, Johnny vs, Video Game Review, Somecallmejohnny Crash, Somecallmejohnny Crash Bandicoot, Somecallmejohnny Crash 4, Johnny vs. Crash, Johnny vs. Crash Bandicoot 4, Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 4

Id: 4A4WUdvBt8k

Length: 16min 38sec (998 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 07 2020