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Crash Bandicoot was released for the Playstation in 1996. It seemed as if this would be Sony's answer to Mario. At the time of its release, commercials for this game showed Crash, outside of Nintendo's headquarters, mocking them. Anyway, the game is a platformer, much like the Mario and Sonic games.

The story is odd, but works well enough for this sort of game. Dr. Neo Cortex genetically alters Crash to make him the way he is. Then, he decides Crash is "unworthy" and kicks him out of the castle and off the island. Crash wants to get back to the castle to save the she-bandicoot named Tawna. Pretty standard save the princess type story, like many platform games.

The controls are, quite frankly, not good. They are very slippery and it is very hard to judge jumping distances. They are quite responsive though. When you press the jump button, you know you are going to jump, just not quite how far, or how well you will land.

The gameplay starts off well enough, but quickly shows its negative side. The level design is mixed. The side scrolling stages are fine (for the most part), but the stages where Crash is facing the camera are awful. You run at the screen and have to jump over pits and/or avoid enemies/items you cannot see. The other major issue with all of the levels in the game are the controls. Sloppy control can work in a platformer, but this game requires precision. You must land on exactly the right spot and with the poor control, this is not always the easiest thing to do.

What makes things worse is the save system. The save system is the worst I have ever seen in a game and I've been gaming since 1987. The only way to save is by getting special items that are available on roughly every 3 or so stages. You must collect 3 of these items on a stage and you'll get to do a bonus stage. When you get to the end of the bonus stage, you can save. The thing is, Crash can die in these bonus stages and honestly, it is not always obvious what to do in the bonus stages. Writing this, it doesn't sound as bad as it is in practice. If you don't believe me, try it yourself.

Overall, this not a hard game, but frustrating due to the control/precision issues. The game is not bad and is actually quite fun at times, but the bad control in combination with the horrible save system makes for a frustrating game.

Learn more about this author, Daniel Alden.
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