Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back is a 1997 platform video game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. It is a sequel to Crash Bandicoot.

Plot
Crash Bandicoot sends Doctor Neo Cortex falling from his airship into a cavern filled with glowing crystals. Convinced that they hold tremendous power, he takes one and gets back onto his laboratory. One year later, Cortex and his new assistant Dr. N. Gin rebuild an upgraded, crystal-powered Cortex Vortex in outer space; N. Gin says that they need 25 more crystals to reach the Vortex's maximum capacity and they do not have any of their operatives left on Earth. Cortex then devises a plot to manipulate Crash into retrieving the crystals for him.

Why It Strikes Back

 * 1) Great graphics that are a big improvement over the original with a lot more detailed environments and character models thanks to a higher polygon count.
 * 2) The controls are improved, taking advantage of the analog sticks and Crash no longer feels weighty.
 * 3) Along with the improved controls are new abilities. These include body slam, slide, crouch, crawl, high jump, and long jump.
 * 4) Unlike the original, where levels are played in a specific order, this game introduces the Warp Room, which is the hub world that allows the player to play one of the five levels present in the room in any order. To complete a level, the player has to fetch the crystal and reach the end of the level. When all 5 crystals have been collected, the player can move to the next warp room. There are five main warp rooms, twenty-five main levels, five boss arenas, a sixth secret warp room with three secret entrances and two extra levels.
 * 5) Each warp room has its own theme. Where the original mainly had two themes, jungle and laboratory, this game has themes of arctic, jungle, mountain, sewers, and space.
 * 6) No longer do you have to acquire gems or do bonus stages to save. You can save in the hub room whenever you want.
 * 7) No longer do you have to break every box without dying to acquire a gem, instead you just have to break every box in the level in a single go.
 * 8) There are more secret routes to find, some are used to find gems.
 * 9) * Secret Warp Room: To access this Warp Room, Crash must locate and stand on suspicious-looking platforms or areas in five normal levels. Each one that is found will add a teleporter into one of the five entrances in the sixth Warp Room, which are otherwise empty. These entrances serve as entrances to alternative starting points to three standard levels. The entrance portals serve as the only methods of leaving the Secret Warp Room, as the center of the room itself does not have an elevator platform like the other five Warp Rooms, though it includes a Load/Save area. Once a secret entrance is found, the player must re-locate any secret warps in a standard level to play a secret path/level again. The secret levels exit from the portal of their entrance level rather than back out of their own portal, this is so players won't stay stuck in the Secret Warp Room if they have not yet discovered any of the three secret entrance portals.
 * 10) * Death Routes: The death routes are alternate routes in certain levels that can only be accessed by a special lift that has a crossbones symbol on it. Crash will only be able to access the lift with the crossbones by making it through a certain portion of the level without losing a life. If they die along the way before reaching the lift, then only an outline will appear in its place.
 * 11) The boss fights are a lot more creative this time since it requires more than just spinning or jumping on them. For example, N. Gin's boss fight has you throwing wumpa fruits at specific parts of his mech suit while avoiding rockets whether then attacking him directly.
 * 12) This game introduces the idea of Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (DDA), which is a system introduced in this game and was implemented in many later Crash Bandicoot platform games. This is designed to help players struggling with a certain level or section of a level. The idea was to make the game easier for players who were struggling, without making the game easier for better players who would like a more challenging game. Some examples include:
 * 13) * If the player dies repeatedly in a certain section of a level, then after about 5 or 6 deaths, Crash will be given an Aku Aku mask, and will continue to on subsequent deaths until reaching the next checkpoint. Also, there are certain ? crates in various levels that are programmed to become checkpoint crates after about 12 deaths.
 * 14) * In chase levels, if the player continually dies, the boulder or bear will start to move slower. Since Aku Aku is banned from those levels and it doesn't make sense to have a checkpoint in the middle of a chase, this was a different way of providing help in those levels.
 * 15) * The game remembers the deaths encountered in sections of the level during saving the game. If the player has had a lot of trouble in a certain section, the new checkpoints that appeared will remain there in the saved game.
 * 16) * If Crash skips a checkpoint, then the subsequent "help checkpoints" will be in their ? form.
 * 17) The hud now shows how many boxes you've broken in a level and when you reach the end of a level, the game will show how many boxes you broke out of the total in the level if you didn't break every box.
 * 18) Getting 100% will unlock a cutscene where N. Brio helps Crash and Coco destroy Cortex's space station.
 * 19) Good voice acting especially Clancy Brown as Cortex, who does a good job at making him feel like a cartoonish evil scientist.
 * 20) Four Words: The Japanese bonus video!

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Because of the semi-3D nature of the game, it can be hard to judge if you're going to make a jump to another platform when making jumps away from the camera.
 * 2) The game is only 4-5 hours long, even shorter if you know where to find the secrets.
 * 3) The plot is pointless since we already know what's actually going to happen because of the title.
 * 4) Plot Hole: The intro shows Cortex falling after Crash defeats him, which is not what happened in the true ending of Crash Bandicoot since there, he never even fought Cortex.
 * 5) Cortex's boss fight is disappointing since instead of actually fighting him, you chase him in a jet pack sequence while avoiding asteroids until you get close enough to spin attack him.
 * 6) Coco, who is supposed to be Crash's sister, was never introduced in the previous game and seemingly comes out of nowhere since they never explain where she came from. However, this was fixed in Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time.

Game Tips

 * 1) The five entrances to the secret Warp Room are:
 * 2) *In "Air Crash": Right after the first Checkpoint, instead of jumping into the jet ski, use the crates floating on the water to reach a small square platform. This entrance leads to the Death Route of "Snow Go" where the Red Gem can be found. It is possible to grab the Red gem without going through the Death Route, but it's rather difficult to do so.
 * 3) *In "Bear Down": At the end of the level, when Polar throws Crash you'll notice a small ice island in the middle of the lake. Reach it by using the smaller ice platforms, but be careful because those sink. This entrance leads to a secret section of "Air Crash" to grab more crates which you need to get the gem.
 * 4) *In "Un-Bearable": At the end of the level, after Polar throws Crash, you can make it to the other side of the pit. After that keep backtracking until you reach Polar. This entrance leads to "Totally Bear".
 * 5) *In "Hangin' Out": When you grab the Crystal right next a checkpoint late in the level, you can walk backwards to find a small hole, jumping into it leads to a small path, the secret exit is at the end of it. Instead of going to the secret path right away however, make it to the end of the level, grab the gem, and lose a life to respawn right next to the secret path. This entrance leads to "Totally Fly".
 * 6) *In "Diggin' It": Near the end of the level you'll notice a Piranha Plant standing on a small green platform surrounded by a bottomless pit, body slam it. Just like "Hangin' Out", you can grab the gem before taking the secret exit. This entrance leads to a secret section of Level 13 to grab more crates which you need to get the gem.
 * 7) In "Un-Bearable", after the giant Polar Bear falls off a bottomless pit you'll notice some of the wooden planks didn't break. Jump into that bottomless pit to find a hidden path with more crates. In that Death Route there are two 1-Up crates that never stop giving 1-ups, exploit that to easily reach 99 Lives.
 * 8) In "Piston It Away", there's a death route, but before grabbing it you need to make it to the end of the level then backtrack to it in order to get that level's gem. Don't break the Checkpoint near an Aku-Aku crate close to that Death Route platform when you first reach it, instead break it after doing the backtracking.

Reception
Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back received generally positive reviews from critics. By December 2007, Cortex Strikes Back had sold 3.78 million units in the United States and 1.3 million in Japan. This makes it one of the best-selling PlayStation video games of all time. The game's success resulted in its re-release for the Sony Greatest Hits lineup on August 30, 1998 and for the Platinum Range in 1999. The game replaced Crash Bandicoot as the highest-selling non-Japanese title in Japan, selling over 800,000 copies by April 1998.