Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy - 2: Cortex Strikes Back

Crash Bandicoot 1 – 2: Cortex Strikes Back – Warped! – 4: It’s About Time (Part 1?) – (Part 2?)

Welcome back to this year’s anniversary reviews! Today, we’re moving to the next game in the collection!

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

Uh oh. He's got a lightbulb moment, and that means
nothing good.

This story begins immediately after Crash 1. Neo Cortex was tossed from his zeppelin and is falling to the islands below. He survives the crash (pun intended) and finds that he has landed in an underground cave where he finds a crystal glowing a faint purple. He gets a new idea…

Turtle armadillo, doesn't matter; you're in my way!

Cut to a year later. Crash Bandicoot and his brainy sister Coco are chilling on their island when Coco’s laptop runs out of juice. Just the usual problem for her, really. And even though she’s playable here, no way she’s going to get a new battery herself! Nah, bro’s gotta do it. Crash thus embarks on this quest. But midway through the first level, he steps on a teleporter and gets abducted. He appears on a space station owned by Cortex and his new assistant, Dr. N. Gin. He is greeted by a giant hologram of Cortex’s face.

"You better not pull out your yo-yo while I am expositing,
Crash! Are you... Hey! I said put that away!"

I see it over there! Yeah. That's the point.
They aren't hard to find. At all!

Cortex says that, although they have been enemies before, he and the Bandicoot need to team up against an even greater threat coming from space – soon the planets will align, and the resulting energy might destroy the Earth. Cortex has found the Master Crystal that can put a stop to this; however, it needs several more “slave” Crystals to have enough power to prevent the catastrophe. the diminutive scientist claims he will need the physically capable mammal to collect 25 Crystals scattered around the world. Cortex will provide the means of teleportation, and occasional commentary on our progress.

My precious!

Same deal as before: Go through levels and smash all the crates for a Gem. Every level includes a Crystal to collect, mandatory for plot progression, and those are very easy to find; they’re on your path, no need to search. Special Gems return as well – and the first one can be found in the very first level, too. For that one, you must finish the level after smashing no crates at all, which makes for a very different experience. Other Special Gems are hidden behind brand new requirements, or secret entrances to early stages, found in later ones.

After you find your first Gem, you get a message from N. Brio, who was originally an ally of Cortex but had a falling out with him. Brio claims that Cortex is using Crash for his evil scheme, and that the only true way to put a stop to all machinations is to collect all 42 Gems and destroy the space station. Only problem is, Brio delivers this exposition with his usual frantic, maniacal laughter, so, uh, he’s hard to believe. Guess we might give that a shot anyway!

Crash, Coco, and their New Moves

Quick, before the pillar falls!

New game means new features, of course. And the most common thing to do in a sequel is to introduce new moves for our characters! In this case, we have a new crouch button. If Crash (or his sister Coco) moves after crouching, they will crawl. However, if the button is pressed while they are moving, they will instead do a sliding dash. This can be used as an attack against unprotected enemies, and as a bonus, if you jump right after a slide, you will jump higher! And even higher if you spin in the air! Some early stages force you to figure this out through sections where the regular jump isn’t good enough to progress. Alternately, pressing the crouch button while in the air will make Crash or Coco do a body slam.

The bonus stages will put all of your new skills to the test.
As an example, those steel crates on the far right of the
screenshot? Only destructible with a body slam.

This game marked Coco’s true debut, but she wasn’t playable originally. She joins the adventure during the second set of stages, and you can switch between both Bandicoots whenever you want. Like in Crash 1, there are limits: Coco cannot fight bosses, and cannot play stages that involve riding animals. She’s otherwise just as capable as her bro and will endure the same deadly slapstick. Her imitating Crash’s dance after finding a Gem is adorable. The cutscenes will also flip back to Crash, since they often involve her. Coco hacks into Cortex’s holograms to contact her brother and tell him that something doesn’t feel right about the scientist’s claims!

If she could hack into this so easily, clearly her laptop works
well enough that getting a new battery wasn't THAT important!

You can even see him reach out with an arm to grab at
a crate juuust a little to the side. How helpful!

More new twists on gameplay. Crash had a whole year to learn to swim, but he couldn’t be assed; thankfully, water stages often include jet-skis that the Bandicoots can ride. Pressing any action button while on those will give them a speed boost, which is useful to avoid water vortexes, bombs. and mammal-eating plants.

The warthogs you’d ride are replaced by Polar, the baby polar bear which barks like a dog, because why not. The bear can jump further if you tap the forward button or key before jumping; otherwise, these stages play the same, just with new hazards, like ice on the road.

Must protect the baby polar bear at all costs.
Don't do it for Crash. Do it for the bebbe.

Boulder outrun stages return, also with new hazards – including some that can only be bypassed by Crash sliding underneath them. These now include speed pads, which will give your Bandicoot some distance with the boulder chasing them. On the third floor, the level’s boulder is replaced by Polar’s angry momma. We ride the baby bear again through this “boulder outrun” level, running towards the camera instead. Quite a surprise when you don’t expect it.

You know this game means business when the first time you
encounter Nitro crates, they are on ice, where you might
just hit them due to Crash slipping directly into them.

The Nitro Crates make their first appearance here. Unlike TNT, which takes three second to go kablooey, Nitros explode if you so much as brush past them. I remember those from mini-games in Crash Purple, so their inclusion wasn’t a surprise. They add a new dimension to the platforming, as obstacles you must avoid at all costs. Sometimes, they count towards the Crate total for a level; in which case, there will be a green exclamation mark steel box near the end that will instantly blow up the Nitro Crates before you leave.

Hunting Gems and Crystals

I do enjoy the looser progression for this entry. Sure, you must beat all five levels on each floor, and then a boss; but you can choose the order in which you play them. Found yourself in a level that’s too frustrating? Skip to the next! You’ll have to come back, but you have the option to keep it for later.

Coco, you should leave your laptop in the teleporter room!

As I was playing through Crash 2, I had two realizations. The first was that the game felt easier. And I’m not sure if it’s the game itself that’s easier, or, since I played Crash 1 beforehand, the difficulty was no longer a surprise. In places I would argue that the game is, actually, a little harder due to sections requiring specific sequences of actions (among others, the slide + long jump is necessary to cross several later-game chasms). But the shock has passed, if you see what I mean.

The second was that the collectibles were easy to obtain this time. The Crystals are this by design; they’re in your way. Levels can contain one or two Gems; there’s the classic one that involves breaking all the crates, and then there’s a second one at the end of a secret or difficult area. There’s a total of 42 Gems to look for; that number includes the special, colored ones. Those also felt simpler to get since we don’t have to deal with the extra difficulty of finishing levels without dying.

This one was just in a secret area. Which the loading
screen tells the player about.

That said, I think the reason the Special Gems are so easy to obtain is for the same reason Crash 1 felt massively improved for me: The hints during loading screens. Cortex Strikes Back has far more secrets to uncover, and the hints make sure to tell you. If the loading stage has a Death Route (an extra-tough path, which can only be accessed if you haven’t died in its level yet), you will be told. You will often be spoiled the secret challenge required to obtain the Special Gem. Sometimes, you will even be told about secret exits and entrances, since there is a whole bonus area to uncover, unlock and complete, with some of these portals taking Crash back to areas in previous stages that couldn't be accessed any other way.

Does knowing some secrets in advance make the game easy? No. It just removes one headache. Even if you know the level’s secret, you’ve still got to trigger it, whichever way it happens. The extra challenges are just the cherry on the sundae.

Lasers, and other burning hot pipes. Danger everywhere!

In fact, I felt the bump up in difficulty over the last two floors. It was no longer a surprise that these levels could get brutal – so maybe I had more patience for them, because I knew what to expect. Even then, the final levels had new mechanics, like two levels where Crash equips a jetpack and flies through a dangerous hallway; the jump and slide buttons are substituted to make him move forward and backwards instead. Bit late in the last fifth to be introducing a whole new type of gameplay, but oh well.

Easy? Suspiciously so for a final boss. After all, it is
getting the TRUE ending that's the hard part.

When we have 25 Crystals, Cortex asks Crash to bring them over. The transmission is interrupted by Coco, who explains the villain’s real plan, and why we cannot let him have the Crystals. Following this, Crash equips a jetpack (for the third time only) and chases Cortex in what is a… rather anticlimactic and easy final boss, I should say. Just gotta hunt him down and spin at him three times; the only trouble is doing so before he reaches the end goal. I heard this fight was made easier for the remaster, so maybe that’s what happened.

After this victory, Crash and Coco are seen chilling on the beach, with the girl wondering about Cortex’s space station that’s still up there… As it turns out, this game has two endings, and you can only get the best one if you follow N. Brio’s request and find all 42 Gems. Good friggin’ luck. No word on a new battery for Coco, either.

Final words

Among other things that were added: The ability to hang
from a steel ceiling and move around. This, too, can trip
up a careless player.

I am two games into this anniversary review, and I already feel like my brain has been rewired by the difficulty of these platformers. I can tell that I’m tolerating a lot more the little quirks this kind of platformer brings. Despite my adaptation, the difficulty is still notable, but moments that feel downrigth unfair are quite rare. It helps that this version of Crash 2: Cortex Strikes Back benefits from the same leniency as the other games in this remaster; getting a bonus pity Aku Aku hitpoint, or some crates changing to become checkpoints, when you’re struggling too much.

This might be time to panic.

The added moves are fully taken advantage of, and are drilled into your head early on. So many areas would be impossible to complete without the slide, or the boosted jump that it can grant Crash or Coco. I appreciate that the game has more varied challenges for the player, especially when it comes to collecting new Gems, be they special or not; though I am VERY glad the N. Sane Trilogy provides hints on every loading screen. Hell, gameplay has more variety than before with, just to mention a few, the jet-skis, the jetpacks, and the bear-riding. The addition of Nitro crates makes for a new challenge… Oh, you learn to fear and hate those things. Some boss fights even switch up gameplay further, with the N. Gin battle having Crash throw Wumpa fruits at the scientist’s mecha.

The two fights against N. Gin in this trilogy are certainly
among the most unique fights it has to offer.

Also, for what it’s worth, I think this game has the most interesting story of the trilogy. We know Cortex is full of it, but we need to follow his plan to even play; meanwhile, Brio doesn’t look the least bit trustworthy, his motives may be dubious, and it is technically his forces that we are fighting since he wants to stop us from getting the Crystals, but he is correct that Cortex has to be stopped!

Crash 2 does exactly what you expect a good sequel to do, especially when it comes to video games. Just enough new stuff to keep things fresh, all while displaying more confident, more balanced level design, and a desire to take a couple more risks. I imagine that’s how this game felt, back on PS1, anyway. With all this said, I am ready to jump into Crash Bandicoot: Warped!… Next week!