Format: Advance
Genre: 2d platformer
Developer: Vicarious Visions
Publisher: Universal Interactive

How to you make a 2d crash that looks as 3d-ish as possible? Render low-quality versions of the 3d models as sprites, amply animate them, and make detailed, glossy looking levels! Crash succeeds at this, and is a fairly nice looking GBA game. The end result of too many 3d-rendered sprites however is a slightly grainy look, and the game's colors also aren't very vivid. Some of the special effects, such as the scrolling effect during the fighter plane and bear-chase scenes are smooth and a joy to watch. On the whole a job well done in re-creating the Crash look in 2d, although the game isn't as sharp or detailed as CotM or Sonic Advance.

The sound effects are spot-on, taken straight from the originals and sampled down a tad. All of the famous crash sounds are present, including my favorite, "Whoa!" when Crash meets an untimely fate. The basic jist of the music is faithful to the originals- all of the instrument samples were taken from the original soundtracks. Unfortunately, they are put to poor use, as most of the melodies are repetetive and flat-out obnoxious, not nearly as catchy as the Crash music we're used to.

The feel of the character movement is totally faithful to the original series. Most of the special moves are back as well, including the high and long jumps, slides, and double jumps. The feel of the character as you perform these moves is very faithful. Where the game falls short is in the map design. First off, to make the game appear more 3d-ish, the floor/platform tiles are slanted at a 3/4 angle, making it frustratingly tricky to judge how close to the edge you are, a judgment that needs to be accurate when making many of the game's long jumps. Also, most of the enemy and crate placement is flat-out cheap, and there are a fraction of the number of Aku Aku masks in this title as there were in the original series. The map design isn't awful or anything, and once memorized the levels are enjoyable, but expect a few pulled hairs while playing through initially.

Vicarious Visions clearly had one goal with this title: bring Crash to the second dimension and keep everything, the graphics, sound, and gameplay, as faithful as possible. At this they succeeded for the most part, and if the level design was a little less cheap, Crash would probably be the best platformer so far on the GBA. In reality, Crash is a fun title, and still might be the best platformer on Nintendo's high-tech handheld, but I give the slight edge to Sonic Advance for those honors.