Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex (PS2)

Product Information

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Well, the graphics are pretty nice, although personally I prefer the graphics in Crash 2 and 3, and the sound effects are good if unoriginal.Due to the console's inferior hardware, this version was not going to be a direct port, but it was going to be as similar to the other versions as possible, and it was being developed by Sensory Sweep. After Universal fell out with Cerny and Sony, Traveller's Tales was forced to alter the game from a free-roaming title to a standard Crash title. McElfish felt that the music was "consistently fresh and memorable" and the voice-overs were believable, but the sound effects were bland. At 35-40 seconds per level, these are unacceptably long, allowing me to take a nap whilst waiting for the level to load! Goldstein was relieved by the reduction of slowdown and stuttering in the Xbox version and lauded the visuals as having the best use of colour on the system, but dismissed the enemy design as bland.

The game's voice actors were cast and directed by Margaret Tang with dialog editing from Rik Schaffer. Lafferty described the audio as "fun, with a solid soundtrack and over-acted vocal characterizations". Mark Hamill's presence in the voice cast was noticed, with Alupului, despite not being a Star Wars fan, feeling sorrow for Hamill having been "relegated to doing voice work for mediocre video games". The game was cancelled due to layoffs at Radical on February 11, 2010, and was abandoned in favor of Prototype 2.Star Dingo described the music as "cool" and "rhythm-happy" and the celebrity voice-overs for the villains as "droll", but said the sound effects were uninspired. The game under Cerny's direction was to be a free-roaming title with puzzle elements that would see Crash travelling between different planets. Traveller's Tales had to begin development of the game from scratch and were given only twelve months to complete the game. The game was in development for 9 to 10 months before the studio was told by the publisher that it was going to be cancelled, as Mario Kart DS was scheduled to come out around the same time.

It is published by Activision, Sierra Entertainment, Vivendi Universal Games, Konami, Universal Interactive Studios, King, and Sony Computer Entertainment, with entries developed by Polarbit, Toys for Bob, Beenox, Radical Entertainment, Vicarious Visions, Traveller's Tales, Eurocom, King and Naughty Dog. Crash Landed was being accompanied by a directly related spin-off, a racing game with the likely provisory name of Crash Team Racing (not to be confused with the 1999 game), that was being developed concurrently by High Impact Games. But that could have been endured if The Wrath of Cortex had been an original and ground breaking title.Details about the game's progress and development are scarce, although Cerny has revealed that the game was to feature open, free-roaming environments, as opposed to the linear structure Crash Bandicoot was known for at the time.

If you're unfamiliar with editing our wikis, this simple How-to Wiki guide shows you how to get started. Critical reception of the game was mixed, with many reviewers opining that the game recycled elements from its PlayStation predecessors with minimal innovation. Five new characters in the series make their appearance in The Wrath of Cortex, of which the most important is Dr. Gallant also criticized the sound mixing, and complained of a "loud, unidentifiable thunking noise" throughout the first vehicle-based level in the GameCube version. Following Mind Over Mutant, Radical Entertainment started working on their next game, which was titled during various stages as either Crash Landed or I Am Crash Bandicoot.

The majority of the characters and vehicles in the game were built and textured by Nicola Daly [31] and animated by Jeremy Pardon. Rather than add variety, Coco detracts from the only real selling point of the game -- Crash Bandicoot".