
Brio's levels are chock-full of extra lives, while players will find two keys in Cortex's stages.

Cortex heads and be sent to their respective bonus levels. Later in the game, Crash can also collect Dr. Here Crash can load up on fruit, voodoo masks and lives-and you can save your game if you reach the end of the level. For instance, collect three Tawna heads and Crash will be sent to her bonus level. Collect three of these and Crash will cruise to one of the game's three types of bonus rounds.
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Most crates are full of fruit that the bandicoot can collect for extra lives, while others contain voodoo masks that make Crash invincible if he collects three of them.īut a few crates house bonus-level heads. The key to reaching these rounds lies in the crates that Crash can bust open as he hauls butt through the game. Gamers are guaranteed to reach 26 levels when they play through Crash Bandicoot, but chances are they'll stumble across a slew of bonus rounds. Besides the jungle locales, he'll also wander inside and outside of ancient ruins and storm his nemesis' castle. Later levels mix both side- and forward-scrolling perspectives, with Crash dashing left or right for a while, then plunging straight into the jungle or a cavernous ruin.Ĭrash's adventure takes him to three islands, all containing a total of more than 30 stages. The visual quality of these levels doesn't degrade just because the player perspective has changed they're rendered in the same crisp 3-D graphics that make the game so spectacular. Still other levels are played in the traditional side-scroller fashion, with Crash running and jumping his way over gaps and past traps that lie along his path. Jumping across chasms becomes especially difficult, since you can't see their far sides. These backward-scrolling levels are extra tough because you can't see the obstacles that lie in front of Crash until they're nearly under his feet. For instance, several Indiana Jones-inspired stages have Crash running in front of huge rolling boulders that pursue the hero. Other levels reverse the player's perspective and send Crash cruising in your direction, toward the television screen. Crash's falls into the stream are rewarded with realistic splashes, and the waterfalls that Crash must occasionally scramble over look straight from a postcard. These water-logged levels are perhaps the game's most visually stunning stages. One badly aimed leap will land Crash in the drink, all wet and all dead. The only route Crash can follow downstream is across slippery logs and onto moving lily pads. But the water levels' real challenge lies in guiding the bandicoot through the wet-and-wild obstacles. Here the bandicoot must deal with hungry fish and even hungrier plant life. Not all of the game's levels-and traps-are landlocked some stages send Crash careening along a rock- and log-strewn stream. Giant stone rollers lumber onto the road in front of Crash during his on-foot adventures, and Crash can only cross some chasms by vaulting onto support columns that drop from under the hero's feet if he wastes too much time planning his next leap.

Crash will also have to avoid spiked posts, barbecue pits and shield-wielding villagers that cross his pig's path.īut the hog-riding levels aren't the only ones laden with traps. Some chasms are too wide to clear in one jump, but big bongo drums lie before these pits and give the pig a boost of leaping power. The squealing sow only has two speeds-fast and faster-and Crash must clutch to the critter and steer him around and over traps and pits. Later in the game, the bandicoot will climb aboard his trusty wild boar and haul butt through the greenery. Not all the animals are against Crash, however. Crash must contend with rogue skunks, bandicoot eating plants, bloodthirsty bats, vicious villagers and other terrors of the jungle. Most levels have Crash making a mad dash through the jungle, which is packed from tree to shining tree with bottomless pits and angry animals. And Crash has more than his fair share of obstacles to avoid during his quest to rescue his girlfriend. The majority of the game is played in a third-person perspective, with you looking over the furry head of the pouched-reared protagonist as he zips head-on through each stage. It offers forward-scrolling stages, sidescrolling stages-even two stages that tax Crash's beast-riding skills! Although Crash's attacks are pretty standard stuff (he leaps on and spins into enemies) the game is packed with a variety of levels, many requiring a different type of play style. It has gameplay guts to go with its visual glory. But does Crash Bandicoot play like a cinema? No.
