Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped | Review

Developer: Naughty Dog

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment & Universal Interactive Studios

Reviewed on: PlayStation

Available on: PlayStation

Released: October 31^st 1998

Before reading this review I recommend you check out my reviews of the previous games in the Crash series, starting with the original Crash Bandicoot and moving on to Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back. I'll also be making a video review of the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy soon after it's released, so keep an eye out on my blog and YouTube channel for that if you want more Crash related content.

For now though we're talking about Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, released a year after Crash 2, this was the second time Naughty Dog had done a yearly sequel to the original game and looking at the reception it got from game critics at the time, you can see that it's considered to be the best in the original series. Not only did critics fall in love with the game though but audiences clearly did too, so much so that Crash 3 became the eighth best selling PS1 game of all time.

Despite obviously being a big deal at the time it was released, does it still stand up today and how does it compare to the second game in the series? Well, read on and you'll find out what I think to those very important questions.

My Top 10 Highlights of E3 2017 | List

The E3 2017 press conferences have come and gone and we've been given lots of new information on previously announced games as well as plenty of brand new announcements too. Overall it's been a good E3 event, however certain press conferences left me feeling slightly underwhelmed and there was a lack of games that I expected to see but that weren't mentioned at all (The Last of Us: Part 2 and a new From Software 'Souls-like' game being two of them).

EA's conference is never normally anything I get excited for but this year they actually had more content to my taste than usual. Microsoft had a much better year than usual because of all the indie titles being announced (a few of their AAA games looked quite interesting too). Bethesda was quite disappointing, there was no new Elder Scrolls or Doom and very little new announcements that appealed to me. Devolver Digital's presence at E3 was refreshingly entertaining (acting as an over the top parody of the major conferences) and even featured a head explosion and the removal of limbs, but had no actual games that looked all that great which was a shame. Then there was the PC gaming show which is the only conference that bored me, simply because they had very little to announce but dragged it on over a long period of time. Then we had Sony who had an amazing conference last year, which perhaps made this year's a little bit underwhelming. This is probably because of them mainly showing content from games we already know exist. Nintendo shared the same fate as Sony, being underwhelming overall due to it's major releases being available at an unspecific time next year rather than being available soon.

Little Nightmares | Video Review

Developer: Tarsier Studios

Publisher: Bandai Namco

Reviewed on: PlayStation 4

Available on: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC

Released: 28^th April 2017

Cinematic platformers don't come by very often, so whenever one is released you can expect me to be trying it out. The newest addition to the genre is Little Nightmares, a game I've had my eye on for quite a while now and was looking forward to playing. You control 'Six'; a girl who explores a huge world, having to climb up bedside tables and use plates as makeshift ladders while also trying to avoid the many monsters who are out to kill her.

It's an interesting game which is worth playing if you enjoyed games such as LIMBO, Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty or INSIDE. It shares a similar tone to those games and is very often compared to them by people who are fans of this style.

Hugo 2 | Video Review

Developer: ITE Media

Publisher: ITE Media

Reviewed on: PlayStation

Available on: PlayStation

Released: April 27th 2000

Hugo 2 is a minigame compilation which features games from the Hugo TV show which was primarily broadcast in the 90's. The translation from TV game-show to console video game didn't go smoothly though and resulted in a sequel which is worse than the original game (which is also a minigame compilation).

Hugo 2 is a lesson in how not to create a game, it fails to be entertaining in almost every way and I consider it to be the worst game I've ever played (especially for a console game). The fact that it was released fairly late into the life-cycle of the PS1 makes it even more difficult to comprehend how this game was published as an official PlayStation game; and it's not even the last Hugo game to be featured in the PS1 library, there are four more after this one.