PRODUCED BY: Universal Interactive Studios
DEVELOPED BY: Vicarious Visions
GENRE: Action / Adventure
PLATFORM: Game Boy Advance
YEAR OF RELEASE: 2002
Although "The Huge Adventure" came back to the classic platformer scheme of the Crash series and was released one year after "The Wrath of Cortex", this game is not part of the main "Crash" series (composed of "Crash Bandicoot", "Crash Bandicoot 2", "Crash Bandicoot 3", "Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex", "Crash Twinsanity" and "Crash of the Titans"). It passes in an alternate universe of the series. This "spinoff" was going to be succeeded by "Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced" and have a crossover with the dragon Spyro, "Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto´s Rampage" ("Crash Bandicoot Fusion" in Europe; in the Spyro universe, he made a crossover with Crash named "Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy" and, as you´ve guessed, it´s called "Spyro Fusion" in Europe). But, coming back to the subject, this was the first Crash game to have a different title in Europe; there it´s called "Crash Bandicoot XS", as a reference to the clothing size "Extra small" (abbreviated as "XS"). But by now you readers must be tired of this long explanation, so I´ll stop talking and let rhe Review speak for itself!
STORY - 8
I don´t know if this
is new or not, but it´s that old plan of "shrinking the planet";
in a space station floating above the Earth, Uka Uka is extremely angry
with Dr. Neo Cortex for failing him too many times. Then, Cortex has the
idea of a new gadget, named "The Planetary Minimizer", that can shrink
the Earth to the size of a grapefruit. Then, they turn on the machine and...
shrink the planet. Learning about Cortex´s plan when he starts taunting
the mini-people from Earth, Coco and Aku Aku have the idea of building
a machine that is going to reverse the effects of the Planetary Minimizer.
It is powered by Crystals, and once more, Crash must gather Crystals, gems,
and relics to save the world from Cortex.
GAMEPLAY - 7
As aforementioned, Crash
must gather Crystals, gems, and relics (divided into sapphire, gold, and
platinum as they always are) and, after defeating a boss, you are going
to win a Super-Power: unlike in "Warped", there are only four SP in "The
Huge Adventure" / "XS" (the Fruit Bazooka is gone). Those bosses are Tiny
Tiger, Dingodile, Dr. Cortex, and N. Gin. (If you collect all the jewels
in the game, you´ll unlock an ending where the Planetary Minimizer
malfunctions and hits all of those bosses and they get mixed, forming a
horrid monster named Mega-Mix; he has Dr. Cortex´s right side of
the head, N. Gin´s left side of the head, Tiny Tiger´s torso
and arms, and Dingodile´s legs and tail.) There are levels where
Crash must ride Polar (the polar bear cub) while running from a yeti, and
ones where you must ride Crash´s jetpack (from "Crash 2"). There
is also in the ending the Hoverbike, a space version of the "Crash 3" motorcycle.
But, to be a little frank, the most thrilling part of the game is the running
from Mega-Mix. IT ROCKS!!!
GRAPHICS - 8.5
The graphics of the game
(just like the characters' models) were made by a very interesting technique:
to make the game look like a little like the ol´ 3D, Vicarious Visions
ripped the animation frames they needed from the Naughty Dog models, what
made the game look like a "Crash for the SNES". It´s good, but it
brought some small problems. For example: in the final cutscene, Aku Aku
is missing his goatee and one of his feathers; Dingodile wears swim trousers
in this game due to the battle circumstances, but when he´s hit by
the Planetary Minimizer, he appears with his "Crash 3" pants. Curious...
MUSIC - 7
As you should've guessed,
it´s composed of remakes of "Crash 3" music. However, there are also
techno remixes from "The Wrath of Cortex", which can be very curious too.
FUN FACTOR! - 9.5
The game is very similar
to the ones from the Naughty Dog era, and it´s what we were desperately
needing. Coo´!
FINAL NOTE - 8.5
A good point of the game
is that it looks like that it was developed by Naughty Dog due to the resemblance
and the look of it. But it should have more innovations in it, and can
be very boring. However, it still is a very good game, mainly because of
the Naughty Dog references.
BE PREPARED FOR MY NEXT
REVIEW:
Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced
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