Names: Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
Kurasshu Bandikū 2: Korutekkusu no Gyakushū!
Platforms: Playstation / PSP downloadGenre: 3D Action Adventure PlatformerDeveloper: Naughty
DogPublisher: Sony computer entertainment
Music: Mutato MuzikaRelease dates:
31/08/1996
9/10/1996
6/12/1996
Store:
4/12/2006
Age Ratings:
(ESRB):
K-A (ELSPA):
3+ (CERO):
A
Click Covers to enlarge
Covers
Click Scans to enlarge
Manual Scans
The Story
After Crash and Cortex's
final battle in Crash bandicoot 1, Cortex is sent flying fast towards
earth. He lands in a
dark cavern and
instantly lights a match, inside he discovers the master crystal.
"crystals,
of course..." states Cortex. His match burns out and then takes the crystal to
Cortex's New assistant, Doctor N. Gin.
N.gin
examines and scans the crystal and informs Cortex that he needs 25
crystals to power up his new version of the Cortex Vortex. "But Dr.
Cortex, to reach full power, we need not only your master crystal, but
also the remaining twenty-five slave crystals on the surface. How do you
expect to retrieve them when we don't have any earth bound occupants
left?"
Cortex comes
up with a plan and decides to trick Crash Bandicoot into thinking that
Cortex is using the crystals to destroy a "evil force that threatens to
destroy the world." Meanwhile, on earth, Coco's (crash's new sister)
laptop has ran out of power and she sends Crash to bring back a spare
battery. "My battery is fried. Make yourself useful, big brother, and
bring an extra battery for me." Crash then heads on his way and then gets
transported into a warp room. Cortex then puts his plan into action.
About The Game
Crash
Bandicoot 2: Cortex strikes Back is the 2nd game in the crash
series and successor of
Crash Bandicoot.
It was released in 1997 world wide, on the Playstation 1. Crash 2 was
created and developed by
Naughty Dog
and Published by
Sony computer entertainment.
In 2008, it was re-released on the Playstation store (so you can play the
game on the PS3 and PSP). This game also won an award in Japan for selling
more than 800,000 thousand copies of
the game.
Crash Bandicoot 2 improves on the original game in almost all aspects.
Levels, characters, gameplay, items - the lot. It builds on the previous
game's strengths and weaknesses and is mostly thought of being the
better game out of the two.We
first see the action by Cortex falling towards earth after Crash and
Cortex's final battle in the previous game. Cortex lands in a dark cavern
and instantly lights a match where he discovers the master crystal. N.gin
then informs Cortex that he needs 25 crystals to power up his new version
of the Cortex Vortex. He then sends for Crash using a warping system and
the game begins...When
Crash reappears, he is warped into a circular room. Crash 2 introduces the
Warp Room, which is the equivalent to the map System in Crash 1. The game
consists of
25 normal levels, 2 secret levels, 5 bosses and loads of secret warp
warps. Their is a total of 6 warp rooms, with 5 normal levels and a boss
to warp room. Instead of being forced to play the levels in order, (like
the first game) you can choose any of the 5 levels to complete. Now lets
talk about the levels themselves...Crash
Bandicoot 2 has loads of levels to play through, but unfortunately they
suffer the same problem as the first game - they are basically paths which
you go and run through. But, on the other hand, these levels have more
themes and a lot varied compared to the first game. The game's themes
include: Jungle (6 levels), Snow (3 levels), Swamp (3 levels) , Chase
Levels (3 levels), riding Polar
(3 levels), Space Station (2 levels) and using a
jetpack
(2 levels). The music for the levels are greatly improved, which the guys at
Mutato Muzika
have made the themes more complex, and more enjoyable to listen too,
compared to the simple tracks in the original.
Another reason why these levels are more enjoyable are the items that you
collect. In Crash 1, you simply completed a level to move on and collected a
clear gem when you broke all the crates. Now, through there are more items
to collect and more crates to smash! Every normal level in the game now has
a purple crystal which are needed to progress to future warp rooms. The gems
have made a come back, but now you can find 2 gems as well as 1, depending
on the level. You collect the normal gems in two ways: by destroying all the
crates or by completing a new feature called a death route. Coloured gems
are also won by completing tasks, but only come in 5 colours this time: red,
blue, green, purple and yellow.
One
reason why the original game was such a hit was the way you collected and
breaked crates. These have been improved, as you now have the addition of
nitro crates, locked crates and also changes to existing crates. Once you complete the 5 levels in
a warp room, you have to defeat a boss to continue. In my opinion
the
game's bosses seem slightly easier to complete than the first
game. The Bosses include: Ripper Roo, The Komodo brothers, Tiny
Tiger, Dr N.Gin, and Cortex. This
leads me right onto Characters. In the first game, there were many characters
introduced into the series. Crash Bandicoot 2 follows the same pattern and
adds adds even more characters to the line up. There are 11 characters in
this game. The 6 new characters
Coco Bandicoot, Dr. N. Gin, Polar, Tiny, Tiger, Komodo Joe and
Komodo Moe. One
aspect about the original game that was weak was crash's moves and vehicles.
In plain, crash's moves were very basic and only the hog was the only
"vehicle". Crash Bandicoot 2 improves on this greatly which makes the game
play better than ever before. Crash himself now has loads of different and better moves in this game, and controlling
crash is a lot easier, mostly down to the new analogy controls. Crash can
run, walk, jump, spin, slide, crawl and body slam. The new vehicles that
Crash Gets to play with:
ride a polar bear, fly using a jet pack and ride the waves using a
jet-board. (which are used for many levels in the game)
Skip Intro:
To start a new game without the intro, choose the Load Game option and
hold down Right until Cortex's hologram appears.
Irritate Cortex: After you
start a new game and you go into the first level, do not collect a crystal
or quit from the pause menu. This makes Cortex angry with you and he says
three different comments.
Repeat bosses:
If you've already defeated a boss and for some strange reason you want to
play them again stand on the centre platform, then hold circle and
triangle and press up.
10 extra lives:
In the second warp room, there is a little pear called Polar. If you jump
on him enough times, 10 lives will appear after a while. Note: This only
works once per game save.
Collecting items:
if you have already collected a gem or a
crystal in a level, if you die on that level you will still have the item(s) collected.
Boss 1 - Ripper RooTo defeat this boss, you basically need
to know where to stay safe from the TNT's and Nitros so you do not get
blown up. So here's the sequence: bottom left, bottom right, bottom
middle, bottom right, middle left, bottom middle.
Boss 2 - The Komodo Bros.This boss is relativity easy, as all you
have to do is dodge Komodo joe when he spins around and then spin him when
he is feeling dizzy. Repeat this three times, while dodging Komodo Moe's
swords.
Boss 3 - Tiny TigerThis boss is similar in appearance to
Ripper Roo in Crash 1. Tiny will jump on each of the platforms to squash
you. Keep jumping to stay away from him, and then try and lure him onto a
flashing red platform, if successful, tiny will fall and lose one hit point.
Repeat three times.¯¯¯¯
Boss 5 - Doctor Neo CortexThis boss is all about speed. You need to spin cortex three times, before he
reaches the end of tunnel. The rocks and mines will not hurt you, but will
slow you down, so try and avoid them.
Boss 4 - N.Gin
For this boss,
you use wumpa fruit to cause damage to N.Gin's mech. At the start, shoot
wumpa fruit into the Mech's arms when they open up. For the next round, he
uses the shoulder missile launchers to shoot missiles at you from left to
right and vice versa, use the wumpa fruit to shoot the launchers. After
destroying one arm, one missile will move vertically. For the final stage of
the boss, N.gin will destroy the platforms you are on. Shoot a couple of
wumpa into the green gem part of the mech, and eventually it will be
destroyed.
The
secret 6th warp room is only accessed from a number of secret
warps throughout some levels in the game. Below are the locations of these
warps.
Secret Warp 1:
The first warp is located in level 7 Air Crash. Start the level until you
see Crash's jet-ski ride. You will then see some crates in the water, jump
onto the crates to reach the platform. (in the top right of the picture)
This will open up a warp to level 2 Snow go's death route, which you use to
obtain the Red Gem.
Secret Warp 2:
On the third warp room, in the level Bear Down, complete the level like
normal, but right at the end, backtrack over the water to find some ice
platforms. Use these to jump across onto the circle platform. This will open
up a warp to level 7's Air Crash, which you use to break all the crates and
detonate the green nitro crate, then you complete the level as normal to win
the clear gem.
Secret Warp 3:
The third warp is in level 15 on the third warp room – Un-Bearable. Complete
the level like normal but right at the end, backtrack though the level by
slide jumping over the gap (X+R1) then travel back to find polar. This
unlocks a new level called Totally Bear.
Secret Warp 4:
The forth warp is in level 16 on the forth warp room – Hangin’ Out. About
half way through the level, you drop down to a water section without any
eels. Backtrack to find a gap in the floor – go down it and this will lead
you down a kind-of death route. Continue down here, (avoid the enemies by
holding O or R1) and at the end of the level you will unlock another new
level called Totally fly.
Secret Warp 5:
The fifth warp is in level 17 on the forth warp room – Diggin’ it. Continue
the level as normal until you find a plant on top of a green platform. Belly
flop the plant and you will unlock the Road to ruin warp. Use this to
collect all the crates for the level.
The Blue GemLevel 1 - Turtle Woods
To collect the blue gem, you simply have to go through the level and
not break any crates. Be
careful in the part with the 4 by 2 crate block. In the NTSC version of the game, it is harder so be careful.
The blue gem will appear at the end of the level in place of the
normal gem.
The Red GemLevel 6 -
Snow Go
If you use the secret warp 1,
then you just complete the death route. (1) You then just drop down the gap
and collect the red gem. (2) NOTE: if you have three AKU AKU's do not drop
down to collect the gem as you will not get the gem due to a glitch in
the game.
The Green GemLevel 10 - The Eel DealIn the level, you
need to go though it until you come to split in the path. Take the
right-hand path and go through the wall at the back of the room with is full
of nitro's. There you will find a secret level which you will find the green
gem at the end of it.
The Yellow GemLevel 11 - Plant FoodYou must go race
though the level before the time runs out and at the end the yellow gem will
appear. Do not destroy any checkpoints otherwise the timer will not return
if you die.
The
Purple GemLevel 20 - Bee-having
In Bee-having, go through the level until you see a
stack of Nitros. Then go on top of the Nitro's and you do not go bang!
(1) Go on top of the Nitro's and you will be transported to a secret level.
Complete it and you will have the purple gem.
After
collecting all 25 crystals, Cortex has secretly been building a
laser which coco tells crash will turn earth's inhabients into
cortex's mindless slaves. Crash then goes after cortex and defeats
him and cortex shouts to crash that: "you haven't seen the last of
me, crash bandicoot!"
When crash returns to the warp room, N.Brio
contacts crash and states that since he has collected all 42 gems,
he can use them to shoot a laser to destroy cortex's space station -
the cortex vortex. Crash and Coco visit the machine and then crash
destroys the machine!
My Review
Graphics 92% - The Graphics are a huge leap
forward from Crash
Bandicoot 1. The guys at Naughty Dog did a really nice job of making Crash and the levels
look nice and colourful. Like Crash Bandicoot 1, they isn't many
graphical glitches and I think the game has excellent
graphics for a Playstation one game.
Sound 89% - As with
Crash 1, (and crash 3 and CTR) Mutato
Muzika have done a great job with the soundtrack. The music tracks
were quite simple in the first game, but now all the tracks
have a lot more depth to them and are a lot more fun to listen too.
Gameplay 93% - With Crash 1 setting the stakes pretty
high, I am happy to report that the gameplay has been improved
enormously. Crash has a lot more moves in this game, and also has
more vehicles too. With more levels and more items too than its
predecessor, Crash 2 is enormous fun!
Lifespan 95% - With the inclusion of crystals, coloured
gem paths and secret warps - plus 27 levels, the game will take you
ages to complete.
So the much improved sequel to Crash 1 and mostly considered to
be the most fun game in the series. This game simply is great fun
and I would highly recommend it. Just do yourselves a favour and
click one of them links to the right to buy it!
Final Score: 94%
Buy this game
>> About the game, manual scans and hints and tips images are copyright
crashb648 2008 <<
a
The 648 network
written content is copyrighted by Crashb648 2008, unless stated
otherwise. This website is a unofficial fan site and has no association
with any of the shows and games featured. This site takes no
responsibility for the fan sites to which this site is linked too. Top Gear
is owned by the
BBC, Crash Bandicoot is owned by
Sierra, Knight Rider is owned by
NBC and Spyro the Dragon is owned by
Sierra. The current design was created
September
2008. Page last updated:
Wednesday, 10 September 2008 14:49
Release dates:
9/10/1996 
Crash
Bandicoot 2: Cortex strikes Back is the 2nd game in the crash
series and successor of
One
aspect about the original game that was weak was crash's moves and vehicles.
In plain, crash's moves were very basic and only the hog was the only
"vehicle". Crash Bandicoot 2 improves on this greatly which makes the game
play better than ever before. Crash himself now has loads of different and better moves in this game, and controlling
crash is a lot easier, mostly down to the new analogy controls. Crash can
run, walk, jump, spin, slide, crawl and body slam. The new vehicles that
Crash Gets to play with:
ride a polar bear, fly using a jet pack and ride the waves using a
jet-board. (which are used for many levels in the game) 
The Green Gem
The
Purple Gem
