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.

Aku Aku now acts as a father figure to Crash and Coco and is suddenly being portrayed as a full character rather than an in-game item. This is a bit jarring but I guess we have to roll with it.

The story of Crash 3 starts off exactly where the 'true' ending of Crash 2 left us; Cortex's ship has been destroyed by N. Brio's laser beam and the debris caused by the explosion falls to Earth. While Crash, Coco and Aku Aku are relaxing at their home on N. Sanity Island, the debris crashes into a temple which houses an evil entity who turns out to be the brother of Aku Aku named Uka Uka (see what they did there?).

Uka Uka regroups with Cortex and it turns out that throughout the events of the previous games Cortex has been secretly working for Uka Uka this entire time. Cortex is given one last chance to get the gems and crystals (which contain the power to take over the world) and together with N. Tropy (another brand new villain), they create a Time Twister device which will allow them to travel through time and recover the gems and crystals without interference from Crash.

Back on N. Sanity Island, Aku Aku briefs Crash and the gang on who Uka Uka is and what his plan will be (because Aku Aku somehow knows this information). Crash, Coco and Aku Aku then infiltrate the Time Twister and a race through time begins to see who can get the gems and crystals first.

There's a ton of hidden details in the background of the the opening cutscene, such as N. Tropy's silhouette looming in the distance of the Time Twister and a picture of Tawna (a character from the first game) on a shelf in Crash's house.

I have to say, although the story isn't bad, it certainly isn't as good as the plot in Crash 2. The story here is more similar to that of the first game in the way that we are given an objective at the start of the game and no further development happens throughout your adventure, whereas in Crash 2 there was background development going on, like choosing whether to trust Cortex who is seemingly trying to save the world or siding with N. Brio who is telling us Cortex is going to betray us.

Crash 3 also suddenly introduces Aku Aku as a fully fleshed out character which is a bit weird seeing as in Crash 1 and 2 he was simply an item that allowed you to take more hits. Now though, he's acting like a father figure to Crash and Coco (even going as far as to call them 'children') and this is suddenly thrown at us with no explanation.

As I said, the story isn't the worst I've ever seen and it introduces us to the heroes and villains perfectly well, it's just obvious that they didn't try quite as hard with developing the characters more in this game and that's slightly disappointing. It's also a shame that N. Brio isn't featured in this game at all, it would have been interesting to see N. Brio join up with Crash and see the interaction between him and Cortex during their encounters or perhaps N. Brio could have been a secret final boss after turning out that he had his own evil agenda all along.

By achieving 100% completion you unlock the true ending to the game where Cortex, Uka Uka and N. Tropy are trapped in a time vortex and turned into babies.

Following the same structure as the previous game, Crash 3 starts off in a Warp Room area, which is actually a lot easier to navigate this time around. Rather than having to go up and down floors using an elevator like in Crash 2, you can now access every level in the game by running down five paths which split off into five levels. It's a small revision, but one which tightens the navigation up and makes the experience feel smoother and more connected.

Crash 3 features the same platforming levels which were in Crash 2 and 1, but this time with much more varied and interesting themes. Rather than going for the fairly obvious grass, snow and space levels we now have medieval, prehistoric, Arabian, Egyptian and futuristic themes which all stand apart form each other visually and mechanically unlike some themes from the previous two games.

An example of mechanical variety in the different themes would be the traps and timing sections in the Egyptian levels where you'll need to avoid spotlights which activate arrow traps or standing on a switch to make a platform appear and then having to time a jump to get through a door which can crush you. Then in the prehistoric levels we have boulder chase sequences (which make a return from the previous games) but the twist is that the boulders are now angry dinosaurs who intend on trampling you to death. These level gimmicks stop the game from becoming tedious and even levels which share a theme often introduce new things into the mix to make similar looking levels feel different.

For the first time in the series you get to play as Crash's sister Coco who makes appearances in certain vehicle based levels.

Speaking of variety, you won't just be playing through platforming levels in Crash 3. Crash 2 introduced more variety in in the form of vehicle sections with the polar bear and jet pack but Crash 3 ramps this up a notch by introducing five brand new vehicle themed levels. It's these sections of the game which causes people to become conflicted as to whether they prefer this game or the previous one. Fans of Crash 3 tend to be of the opinion that the vehicle sections add a ton of variety which keeps the game fresh but Crash 2 fans say that because there's so many vehicle levels it takes away from the core essence of the Crash Bandicoot formula which is all about platforming and breaking boxes to gain collectables. So, lets look at these divisive levels one by one to see which point of view has more merit.

First we have the underwater levels which take place from a 2D perspective. These levels are much slower paced than the platforming levels but offer a degree of variety because of the changed camera positioning and the fact that you now can freely move up and down (as well as left and right) which separates it from the 2D sections in the normal levels. The emphasis of these levels is still to break all the boxes and collect everything you see while avoiding enemies and obstacles, meaning that the core gameplay of Crash Bandicoot is still here. The levels also offer some variety by giving you an under water submersible vehicle which can shoot torpedoes to break coral, giving you access to hidden boxes. The catch is that if you get hit, the vehicle will break, therefore leaving you unable to fully complete the level with all the boxes. With there only being two of these levels in the whole game, I think they're great. They don't stray too far from what makes a Crash game a Crash game and they offer an interesting gimmick which is implemented really well into the level design.

In the European version of Crash 3, these wizard enemies take two hits to defeat and upon receiving their first blow they lose their clothes. I have no idea why this wasn't in the American version of the game, it's a incredibly charming touch that makes these enemies extra memorable.

Next we have the Oriental levels which let you play as Coco (Crash's sister) for the first time in the series. These levels are basically an extension of the warthog and polar bear levels found in the previous two games, but I would argue that these ones are a lot better than the ones found in Crash 1 and 2. The reason for this is that you're given a lot more control over how your character moves which means the developers could place enemies and obstacles more interestingly and make them more challenging. Rather than constantly running forward at full speed or giving you a short speed boost like in the previous games, you can now hold the square button to sprint, and keep it held as long as you want. This means you can take things slow by not holding the run button at all, or go through the level as quick as possible by never letting it go. There's still an emphasis on collecting boxes, which is actually cleverly implemented into the level design by forcing you to make quick decisions on whether to jump on top of bridges or go under them, based on where the boxes are positioned. These are probably my favourite of the vehicle levels and I don't think there's a valid argument that can be made to say that these take away from the essence of a Crash game (especially considering levels like this have been a part of the games since the first one).

Next we have a pirate themed level which again sees Coco as the playable character. These are some of the more interesting levels in the game because which allow you to fully control the camera around your character (which is a first for the Crash series). Naughty Dog actually had to create an entirely new game engine for these levels in order to make this degree of control possible and to create the water effects that are featured here. In these levels Coco will be riding a jet ski while avoiding enemies and collecting boxes; the main thing that separates these levels from the others is that they are much more openly designed (due to the free camera movement you now have). These levels actually feel slightly more like a Spyro the Dragon stage than a Crash Bandicoot level because of this. That isn't to say that you're given no direction though as the levels tend to still be quite linear (the sides of the levels are cordoned off with small buoys) but the paths are wide and feature multiple splits in the path for you to chose where you want to go. As with the previous vehicle levels, I don't feel like this strays too much from the game's core essence, I think these levels are great, keeping the platforming and collecting aspects of the game while offering a brand new style of gameplay to try out. The way the water moves in these levels is also really good, even in games created today it doesn't feel like water moves properly, but in Crash 3, small ripples in the water can actually affect how the jet ski moves and it feels like you're actually riding in the sea rather than it being too static and predictable.

What's that? 105%? Yep, in Crash 3 you can achieve 105% completion by finding two super secret hidden levels within two normal levels. I wonder if someone accidentally came across these on their own or whether the developers told people and it spread through that.

Next we have the motorbike levels and these are the first of the vehicle sections where I feel like it drifts too far from the essence of a Crash game and the fact that there are a total of four of these can make it so they become a chore if you aren't a fan of them. I personally don't mind these levels, but there are several things I think the developers should have done differently when designing them. The first issue is that these levels can be very irritating when trying to get the boxes (which, upon collecting all of them, will award you with a gem), this is down to the fact that you can't reverse or turn around, so if you go past a box you have to start the level again; not only this but you can be bumped into by one of your opponents and miss a box that way too rather than it being entirely your fault. Another issue is that in order to get the crystal in these levels you need to win the race you're taking part in against the computer opponents, this is fine, but in order to get the relic items you need to take part in a time trial (I'll talk about these more later) and complete the level as fast as possible. The problem is that you're doing the exact same thing in these levels to get both the relic and the crystal and this makes it feel repetitive. Unlike the previous vehicle levels, the focus of these motorbike sections isn't about platforming or collecting things, it's simply about doing everything as quickly as possible (and because of this it makes getting the boxes feel really tedious because you have to move so slowly, which these levels clearly aren't designed for).

I feel like these levels should have worked by you getting the gem for coming in third place or higher, the crystal should have been a collectable found somewhere on the track in the actual level and the time trial should be activated from the start (rather than having to get the crystal first like in the other levels). This way you stand a much greater change of being able to get all three of the collectables without having to play through the level three times (or more). By doing this the levels wouldn't have felt as repetitive because you wouldn't be doing them over and over and the pace would be kept fast like it's intended to be.

Crash 3 has quite a few 'quality of life' revisions that make the experience you have while playing much smoother than previous games. One of these changes is the bouncy boxes only requiring five jumps to break them rather than in Crash 1 and 2 where it took ten jumps.

Finally we have the worst vehicle levels in the entire game and the only ones that I feel should have been taken out entirely and replaced with more traditional platforming levels. These levels that I speak of are those that take place in a plane. As with the jet ski levels you can rotate the camera around your character fully, but here it feels much less impressive down to the fact that these levels are boring and tedious. Rather than the objective being to collect things and reach the end of the level, you need to shoot down blimps and bomber jets to get teleported out of the level and gain the crystal. However, the plane you're piloting moves excruciatingly slowly and all of the things you need to shoot down are placed extremely far apart. The environments in these levels all look barren and uninteresting too which is disappointing when the rest of the game looks incredible. Unlike the motorbike levels which are good but flawed, these levels are just plain bad, I would rather have seen another Oriental level and underwater level (of which there are only two of each) in place of these.

I don't think there is a right or wrong answer as to whether the vehicle levels enhance or take away from the essence of a Crash game, however, my own opinion is that the majority of the vehicle levels in Crash 3 are great and I enjoy the different gameplay styles featured in the game. The only two which are bad (or in need of tweaking) are the motorbike and plane levels and it's unfortunate that the motorbike levels take up quite a large portion of the game because if this wasn't the case I don't feel like they would be as much of a problem as they are. The plane levels are just outright bad though and are the only levels in the entire game I don't enjoy.

Crash 3 brings more changes to the table besides more vehicle sections though and one of the most welcome things it's introduced are much better boss battles. One of the worst aspects about Crash 2 was the extremely dull and uninspired boss encounters and I'm happy to say that Crash 3 has completely fixed this. Tiny Tiger returns as the first boss which is fairly easy, you need to avoid his stomping attacks and then dodge the pack of lions that come after you and then Tiny will go back to stomping you but become slightly more difficult to avoid by doing an extra stomp after every hit you get on him. Dingodile is a new addition to the Crash enemy roster and became a reoccurring character in several Crash games after this. This is an awesome boss fight where you need to avoid his flame thrower attacks (which are actually quite unpredictable) and let him create a path for you to get close to him and attack, however you also need to make sure you can get back to safety after attacking him because he'll explode after every hit. Other than that he'll also shoot fireballs into the sky which rain down on you and you'll need to avoid them by looking at shadows on the ground. N. Tropy is the third boss who shoots projectiles at you which you'll need to duck under or jump over, after doing that he'll create a series of platforms you'll need to jump across in order to attack him. Then there's N. Gin who you fight while playing as Coco while she controls a space ship in the orbit of the moon. This is a strange boss because it almost becomes a shooting game, but it's fun and very tense when he fires lots of rockets and other projectiles at you and it actually involves quite a lot of tactical thinking in terms of choosing what part of his ship to attack first. Not only that but he then has a second form where he transforms his robot into a space ship and blasts off into the air with you in pursuit.

N. Tropy is the mastermind behind the Time Twister and defeating him causes the time portal to open that leads to the true ending of the game.

The last boss is with Cortex and Uka Uka and involves you not only dodging Cortex's laser blasts and mines, but also avoiding the fight happening between Aku Aku and Uka Uka. This last fight actually feels quite epic and stands in stark contrast with Crash 2's last boss. My one negative thought with the bosses is that there should have been a different final boss for when you have collected all the gems. What actually happens though is you just do the same Cortex fight again which is quite boring and a bit of a let down after you've gone through so much effort to collect everything in the game. As I said earlier, a fight with N. Brio at the end of the game would have been amazing to see here and would have given the game a bit of a twist to make it feel worthwhile completing.

Despite that one small issue, the bosses in Crash 3 are some of the most fun 3D platformer boss battles I've ever seen. It shows that Naughty Dog still had a ton of ideas on how to improve Crash and that they were listening to the critique of the second game. Another way Crash 3 improves on the bosses is that they no longer only appear in their boss fights, they taunt you as you play through the game by appearing in short cutscenes that play when you have completed a certain number of levels. This is great as it makes you anticipate their fights and builds up their characters rather than just being a blank slate for you to fight like in Crash 2.

The boss cutscenes also display some impressive animations for a PS1 game. The varied expressions they have and the lip syncing here is fantastic and makes these particular Crash enemies extremely memorable. 

Crash 3 also introduces powers which you gain by defeating the bosses throughout the game. The first of these new abilities is the super body slam but this is easily the least useful of the bunch. It's used only a couple of times throughout the entire game and even when it is implemented into the design of a level it's only used to do something mundane like break a box that is slightly too far away to break by other means. The double jump is a welcome addition, this simply allows Crash to jump higher to reach boxes or platforms that he otherwise couldn't and to correct yourself in midair if you misjudge a jump. The super spin is a more interesting move because it can be used to make attacking enemies easier (acting as an extended spin attack), or it can be used to glide through the air for a short period of time, allowing you to cross previously inaccessible areas and make normal jumps easier. The bazooka is a good idea but is poorly implemented into the design of the levels; like the super body slam there's only a couple of uses for it in the game and I feel like this had the potential to be put to much better use. It's not a good offensive move either because of having to stop dead in your tracks and stand still to use it, it would be much easier to either jump around an enemy or attack it by other means rather than using this. Finally, after defeating Cortex, you gain the dash ability which comes in useful for the brand new time trial sections.

A new relic collectable has been introduced into Crash 3 and to get these you have to complete a level as quickly as possible. You are then awarded either a sapphire, gold or platinum relic based on how well you did. This gives the game a lot more replay value by giving you the task of completing levels in a different way to what you normally would, however the emphasis on collecting is still there in the time trials by giving you time boxes which will freeze the clock for a number of seconds if you break them. Some people could see this as padding the game out but I personally love this aspect of Crash 3. The relics also open up a new secret area of the Warp Room which features three new levels and two alternative entrances to older levels which allows you to get secret gems, so doing the time trials isn't just something to do as an after thought, it's required to get the full experience of the game.

The inclusion of the platinum relics make Crash 3 the hardest of the original Crash trilogy to truly 100% (getting the 100% statistic in the game actually only requires you get all of the gold relics). Some of these levels require you to get an absolutely perfect run which can be extremely difficult and is a true test of how good you are at the game.

Another aspect of Crash 3 that improves on Crash 2 is the way in which backtracking is handled. In Crash 2 there are quite a few levels which leave you unsure as to what you need to do in order to get all of the boxes in the level, sometimes there will be boxes on alternate paths, sometimes you'll need a coloured gem to get them and sometimes an alternate path will place you further into the main level after completing it and not allow you to backtrack to get the boxes you've missed. It can become complicated and very confusing and I feel like a lot of these issues could have been fixed very easily.

Crash 3 does make some of the same mistakes, for example you will need to have coloured gems (which activate platforms that take you into alternate paths) in order to get all the boxes in some levels. But these problems occur a lot less than they did in Crash 2 and when you need to backtrack to get more boxes, it's more clearly signposted (like in the level Deep Trouble where you come up against a wall of metal boxes with one box outline which lets you know you'll need to come back to this point after getting a box switch to turn the outline solid). However there are some levels which are frustrating for not making it obvious that you can't get all of the boxes in your first run through a level which leads to you breaking everything and getting to the end only to have missed a ton of collectables in a secret area. The worst example of this is in the level Future Frenzy which has a secret entrance (unlocked by accessing the secret area of the Warp Room with twenty relics); in this secret area there are boxes which you wouldn't know existed going through the level normally but not only that; at the end of the secret area it will place you half way through the normal level, meaning you have to backtrack to the start and then go through the level normally through everything you've just done backwards. Why couldn't the exit to the secret area just have taken you to the start of the level? It's unfair, annoying and a waste of time. What makes this worse is that the second future level, Gone Tomorrow, makes it so the exit to the alternate path takes you back to the start of the level (which is where you need to be after having hit a switch box which makes box outlines solid); so if they could put this into this level, why not put it into all of the levels where you need to backtrack?

Crash 3 still has the issue with backtracking where the camera doesn't zoom out or move backwards enough to see clearly while running towards the screen, yet Naughty Dog insisted on implementing backtracking into the level design. This can result in running into pits or enemies simply because you can't see them and it quite simply isn't fair to expect the player to work against the mechanics of the game like that.

This is one of the only examples in the entire game where the super belly flop move comes in useful. If you position yourself properly you'll be able to break all three of these boxes in one slam whereas without the power you wouldn't be able to break the middle box.

Luckily, Future Frenzy is the only level in the game where you have to backtrack to this degree and it's nowhere near as annoying as Cold Hard Crash from Crash 2, but it still doesn't excuse the fact that it's an incredibly irritating problem that they still haven't fixed in Crash 3.

The only new problem that Crash 3 introduces (that wasn't in the previous games) is the lack of mechanical variety in the normal enemies. Crash has more offensive moves than he ever has in any other Crash game, and yet these moves aren't implemented into the enemy design at all. What I mean by this is that in Crash 2 there were enemies which could only be defeated by using either the spin attack, jumping on them or by sliding into them and this made you think about what type of enemy you were against before attacking them. In Crash 3 though, almost every enemy in the game can be beat by using any of Crash's attacks (the only examples of this not being the case is the mummies surrounded by spikes, the people hiding behind shields and the two headed enemies) and this can make the combat feel slightly more basic than it did in Crash 2.

Aside from the lack of mechanical variety in the enemies (at least in terms of Crash's attacks), the questionable inclusion of the plane and motorbike levels and the more basic and bare-bones story, I think Crash 3 improves on every aspect of Crash 2. It has more variety, it's themes are much more diverse, it brings new things to the table in the form of time trials, new vehicles and powers and it has much better boss battles.

Certain levels handle backtracking well, like Deep Trouble, where you're given a hint that you'll need to return here. But more importantly, the reason this level isn't annoying to backtrack in is because it's 2D, meaning that the camera is actually suited to going backwards as well as forwards.

Crash 3's graphics are some of the best you can find on the PS1, not only does everything look incredible but there's an attention to detail found here with things like insects flying around, lava bubbling, Crash's idle animations and all sorts of background details that make the world come to life. Everything is extremely colourful and the game pops out of the screen with it's intelligent use of colour schemes and it's stylistic choices.

The controls are extremely tight and responsive, nothing feels delayed or clunky at all, if you fall down a pit or get hit by an enemy it'll be your fault and not because of a mistake that the game makes with the way it's controlled. The only exceptions to this rule being the backtracking sections where the camera lets the game down slightly and in the Arabian levels where Crash sometimes doesn't grab the monkey bars when moving quickly (which is a pain when you're doing the time trials).

Another way in which Crash 3 improves on Crash 2, in my opinion at least, is the music. That isn't to say that the music is by any means bad in Crash 2 (in fact it's really good) but the music in Crash 3 is so memorable and fits the tone of the game so perfectly that it takes it to another level. Every single song in Crash 3 is burnt onto my brain and I could hum along to every theme from every level from memory alone. The general sound design is on the same high level as it was in Crash 2, the satisfying noises that breaking boxes, collecting Wumpa Fruit and grabbing the gems, crystals and relics make are all still here and that's not to mention the quality all of the different sounds all the enemies make (and the atmospheric sound in the levels on top of that). This is a perfection when it comes to sound design in a platformer game.

Most enemies in Crash 3 can be attacked and defeated using any of Crash's offensive moves. This is a shame because Crash 2 featured a ton of enemies which could only be defeated by using one specific attack which made the combat feel more varied. These UFO enemies are one of the only ones which need to be jumped on and can't be defeated by other means.

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped is one of the finest platformers of all time. Because of the small adjustments Crash 3 makes to the standard Crash formula, I personally think that Crash 3 is the best game in the original trilogy. I used to always think I preferred the second game because of it's larger emphasis on basic platforming, and while I still think that's a valid argument to have (and there are other reasons to think the second game is better too), I just think that Crash 3 is the smoother overall experience. It also brings new mechanics to the table in the form of more fleshed out vehicles and the genius inclusion of time trials which gives it a very slight edge over it's predecessor. That isn't to say it's without fault though, the story is lacking, the inclusion of the plane levels let the game down quite a bit and the backtracking problem (which has been an issue since the very first Crash game) is still here; but it's very easy to ignore these issues because of how great the rest of the game is, it really is a joy to play from beginning to end.

I find myself wishing that Naughty Dog had given one last attempt at creating a Crash Bandicoot platformer. Using everything they had learned from the third game, I feel like the forth could have been something truly amazing, however, after the third game Naughty Dog instead created Crash Team Racing which I'm sure I'll get around to reviewing soon enough.

With the second game in the series being so good (even playing it today) and the third game being slightly better (at least in my opinion), it makes me concerned that the remake of the Crash trilogy won't be enough of an upgrade to warrant existing. However, I remain optimistic that the team at Vicarious Visions will do a good job and bring the Crash Bandicoot series to the attention of younger gamers who have never played the older games. I'm particularly looking forward to playing the remake of the first Crash Bandicoot because that one is the most flawed which means the remake stands a better chance of being a more obvious upgrade.

As with Crash 2, Crash 3 has hardly dated at all, it still has amazing graphics, tight and responsive controls, some great level design and variety, catchy and memorable music and is an amazing game. If by any chance you haven't played Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped and you're a fan of platformers, collect-a-thons or the newer Crash games, I can't recommend this game enough to you and if you've already have played it, why not play it again to get in the mood for the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy?

Pros:
- A fantastic amount of mechanical and visual variety with all the styles of gameplay and all the level themes presented.
- Expansion and improvement on the standard Crash formula by introducing more vehicles, time trials and powers.
- The visuals, controls and sound design are some of the absolute best on the PS1 (and are still impressive when compared to similar games made today).
- The bosses are much improved from the first two games and actually offer a degree of challenge.
- Most of the new vehicle levels are very fun and keep the spirit of what makes a Crash Bandicoot game at their core.

Cons:
- The story is a little bit too basic, especially when compared to the second game in the series.
- Backtracking is still an issue despite having had two games to correct it.
- The plane levels are tedious and boring and the motorbike levels are flawed (but still fun).
- You still can't tell if getting all of the boxes in the level is worth it or not due to not knowing if there will be inaccessible boxes on alternate or hidden paths which can result in a lot of wasted time.