Crash Bandicoot XS (GBA)

...asked you do you like crash bandicoot? You would probably say yes. Personally I have loved every single crash game that’s been made, I have played most of them, and when I heard there was one coming out on the gameboy advance I was sceptical about it. I wasn’t sure if transferring a 3-d game to 2-d was a good idea. But I was proved wrong, it is an amazing game. Other games such as splinter cell failed to do this well, I hope other games will learn ...
...Story 8/10 (same as previous crash games)
The evil Dr. Cortex is back once again and wants to dominate the planet. This time he has shrunk the earth to the sixth of a peanut, Crash must adventure through 20 different levels in order to get 20 crystals which coco (Crash's sister) can use to reverse the spell, and put a stop to Cortex's evil scheme.

Graphics 10/10
This is the most graphically beautiful games on the GBA, ... more

If i asked you do you like crash bandicoot? You would probably say yes. Personally I have loved every single crash game that’s been made, I have played most of them, and when I heard there was one coming out on the gameboy advance I was sceptical about it. I wasn’t sure if transferring a 3-d game to 2-d was a good idea. But I was proved wrong, it is an amazing game. Other games such as splinter cell failed to do this well, I hope other games will learn from crash on how to transfer a game from the PS2 to gameboy. Anyway just so you know I bought this for £25.99 form http://uk.special.reserve.co.uk.

Story 8/10 (same as previous crash games)
The evil Dr. Cortex is back once again and wants to dominate the planet. This time he has shrunk the earth to the sixth of a peanut, Crash must adventure through 20 different levels in order to get 20 crystals which coco (Crash's sister) can use to reverse the spell, and put a stop to Cortex's evil scheme.

Graphics 10/10
This is the most graphically beautiful games on the GBA, hands down. The character animation is brilliant, but what really puts this game clearly ahead other game on the GBA is the gorgeous colour palette of the game. The enemies have been finely recreated, although many of which have been taken directly out of 'Warped' and 'Cortex Strikes Back' on the PSOne. That is the bad point about them, the graphic designs for Jungle, Ice, and Sewer levels have been yanked from Crash Warped, while the Underwater and Sky levels have been taken from Crash: cortex strikes back.

Sound 9/10
The sound is another quality feature of the game, Again some of the music and some of the sound effects seem to be ripped off from earlier games in the series, although it does seem nice to hear the CTR theme music in there. But it is an accomplishment to hear the small speakers playing the same music as a PSOne.

Gameplay 9/10
The great crash gameplay is still there, you can play for hours without getting bored. This is probably the best feature in the game, and best of all you don’t need passwords, you can save the game. This makes it very easy to save your game quickly. If you have a link cable, you can trade saved games with your friends. The bad thing (or some people might like this) is that Crash is killed in one hit, unless you have an Agu statue protecting you. There is a crystal in each level. After collecting a level's crystal, a time challenge is available by grabbing the clock at the beginning of the level. This is a hard part of the game, there are a number of different boxes in time challenge mode, which freezing the clock for periods of time. If you manage to beat the first time challenge, a second time challenge is unlocked which is even harder than the first..

Overall this is an easy game to pick up and play, while there are some challenging aspects of the game, you could still easily complete the game (levels not 100%) quite quickly. If you were after the 100%, it would take a long time and a lot of patience, as you would have to repeat levels over and over again.

Buy or rent?
I would recommend that you buy. People who have played other versions of Crash can jump right in without any learning curve, while it's still easy enough for new generation of gamers.
 

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