Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back Review

The first Crash was a technical stunt with a save system that treated the player like an enemy. The sequel keeps the stunt and drops the hostility. Progress now saves at every level, the hub warps you straight to whatever you failed last, and the moveset finally has answers, since the slide, the belly flop and the slide jump turn a one button character into something with real expression. Level design is where the year of work shows.

The polar bear rides, the jetpack sections and the underground crystal runs each get exactly as long as they stay interesting and no longer, and the boxes are laid out so that a perfect clear is a route problem rather than a search. Naughty Dog was still squeezing more polygons out of a PlayStation than anyone thought it held, and the character animation carries genuine comic timing. The story is a Saturday morning excuse plot and the boss fights are the weakest stretch, three of the five being simple pattern learning. As pure movement it is close to perfect.