PRODUCED BY: Vivendi Universal Games (NOTE: It´s a renaming of Ye Olde Universal Interactive Studios; some years later, the "Universal" was going to be omitted and the company was only going to be known as "Vivendi Games")
DEVELOPED BY: Traveller´s Tales
GENRE: Free-roaming action game
PLATFORMS: PlayStation 2 / XBox
YEAR OF RELEASE: 2004
Ah, yes... Three years after TT´s first game, they made another one after Vicarious Visions took off. (Actually, "Twinsanity" was made by a subsidiary of Traveller´s Tales, named Traveller´s Tales Oxford; TT Oxford recently closed.) Being the Crash game with most deleted content, it´s also one of the best. Why? Read to see.
STORY - 9
The story is
the classic case of "A menace even bigger than the main villain plans to
destroy all of existence before the villain can do so, so the regular villain
must team-up with the hero to destroy this force". Three years after the
events of The Wrath of Cortex, Dr. Cortex manages to escape from the ice
block that he was frozen in (unlock the secret ending of WoC to see that)
and arrives at N. Sanity Island. Crash´s younger sister Coco (now
a teenager) is happily playing on the frontyard of the Bandicoots´
house, but then Cortex freezes her with his ray gun. Then, Cortex disguises
himself as Coco and encounters Crash, who is digging holes in the sand.
Cortex says that "there is something weird going on in the bay". Believing
Cortex, Crash follows him, and then Cortex reveals himself. Then, Crash
fights with Cortex and a robot controlled by N. Gin, the Mecha-Bandicoot.
When defeated, the robot collapses and sends Crash and Cortex to a cave.
When they escape from the cave, they find a pair of mutated parrots (who
are later revealed to be from Dr. Cortex) named Victor and Moritz and known
collectively as the Evil Twins, who plan to destroy the Wumpa Islands and
get their revenge on Cortex for sending them to the Tenth Dimension, a
parallel universe where everything is opposite how it is here. Then, Crash
and Cortex must team up to destroy the parrots.
GAMEPLAY - 10!
As you possibly
read in the beginning of the Review, this is a free-roaming game, so say
goodbye to that old and cliché "follow the path" scheme of previous
Crash games. The race and party games excepted, Twinsanity is the only
one in the series that has a lot of playable characters. You can play as
Crash, Cortex, Crash and Cortex joined up, Nina Cortex (Neo's niece), and
the aforementioned Mecha-Bandicoot robot.
* Crash has the same abilities of previous games, but he has now the Super Body Slam and the Double Jump.
* Cortex is finally playable in a Crash platformer! He jumps terribly, but his raygun is very powerful. (To shoot, tap the "Square" button, and hold it to release a plasma ball.) The ammunition is limited, so always look for boxes that have the raygun drawn on them to grab more. If he is out of ammo, Cortex will run around and scream like a little girl. By pressing the "Circle" button while running, Cortex will trip, repelling enemies with his head.
* Sometimes Crash will drag Cortex around through a crystal, in a segment known as Crystal Crazy. While doing so, Crash will be able to spin him around to defeat enemies in a move called "Twin Spin", use him as a hammer in a move called "Twin Slam", or throw him around. This move, called "Twin Throw", is very useful, for Cortex can activate switches, grab things, and shoot enemies. There are also the segments Humiliskate (where Crash can use Cortex as a skateboard), Rollerbrawl (where you control Crash and Cortex while they're fighting), and Doc Amok (where Cortex is being chased by some danger and Crash must clear the path for him).
* Nina Cortex, Neo Cortex's bionic gothic niece, is only played in the level "Rooftop Rampage" and in the first part of the battle with the Evil Twins... It's a pity. Nina jumps slightly better than her uncle, spins just like Crash, and can climb walls using her bionic arms.
* During the battle with the Evil Twins, Crash is able to recover the Mecha-Bandicoot robot and use it to destroy the Twins' mech. The Mecha-Bandicoot only walks (duh!) and launches missiles by pressing the "Square" button. By holding it, he'll sneeze a plasma ball.
You don't need to break all the boxes in a level to find a gem anymore, as the gems are now very well hidden in each level. By finding a gem on a level, you'll unlock an extra in its respective gallery. To see the extras gallery, just press the L1 button in the "Pause" menu.
* GREEN GEM EXTRAS: See sketches for the game's enemies.
* CLEAR GEM EXTRAS: See the game's cutscenes.
* BLUE GEM EXTRAS: See the game's bosses' concept art.
* YELLOW GEM EXTRAS: See some deleted contents of the game.
* RED GEM EXTRAS: See the game's storyboard.
* PURPLE GEM EXTRAS: See the game's concept art.
* 100%: Unlocked when you fully complete the game, it features a funny video of Crash and Cortex in therapy. (The European version features a compilation of deleted or only made for fun Crash moves.)
* SPYRO TRAILER: A trailer promoting Spyro: A Hero's Tail.
MUSIC - 1000!!!
Ho ho! There
are no words to describe Twinsanity's music. It is made by an a cappella
band named Spiralmouth, a phrase that here means "Spiralmouth's members
only used their voices and nothing more to compose the soundtrack". It's
interesting to notice that some music is a cappella versions of classic
music. For example, the Doc Amok segments of the game (first part of "Totem
Hokum" and "Bandicoot Pursuit") have "Flight of the Bumblebee" as their
themem the third part of "Totem Hokum" has the famous "Blue Danube" waltz
as its theme; and, the "Hebrides Overture" can be heard in the Rusty Walrus
chase segment in "High-Seas Hijinks". To learn about Spiralmouth, visit
www.spiralmouth.net.
GRAPHICS - 10!
The graphics
are marvelous too! They look like very much like the Disney/Pixar movies
and are considered by reviewers as "a collyrium for the eyes". They are
very colorful and detailed, just like the characters.
FUN FACTOR! -
10!
The dialogue
is very funny, mainly when Moritz (one of the Evil Twins) speaks. Also,
if you collect all the gems in the game (there are no relics), you can
unlock a bonus video showing Crash and Cortex in therapy. (If you are European,
it will show Crash making several funny moves.) But, I have pity for all
the Europeans readings this Review: I´ve heard that the "Twinsanity"
European version is even glitchier than the American one. Poor you!
FINAL NOTE - 9.5
The game is a
refreshment, needed a long time ago. The only bad points of it are the
glitches (as I´ve said, they are more abundant in the European version)
and that it´s extremely short. Also, it would be nice if TT used
at least half of the deleted contents, for example, the "Vice-Versa Reverser
Device" mentioned by Victor at some point. They also had tons of provisory
names: "Evolution", "Fully Fluxed", "A Whole New Dimension" and "Unlimited".
But I think that, in the future, "Evolution" is going to get off of the
sketchboard and become of the most popular Crash games ever made.
BE PREPARED FOR MY NEXT REVIEW: Crash Boom Bang!
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