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Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure
| Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure | |
|---|---|
| |
| Developer(s) | Vicarious Visions |
| Publisher | Universal Interactive Konami (Japan) |
| Release date(s) |  February 25, 2002  March 15, 2002  July 18, 2002 |
| Genre(s) | Platformer |
| Console(s) | Game Boy Advance |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Media | Cartridge |
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Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure, also known as Crash Bandicoot XS (a shortening of "extra small") in Europe, is a platform game released for the Game Boy Advance in 2002. It was developed by Vicarious Visions and published by Universal Interactive in North America, Europe, and Australia and Konami in Japan. It is the first Crash Bandicoot game that was released for a handheld, excluding Tiger Electronics' 99x Games from the 1990s. Since its release, Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure has been included on some Crash Superpack carts.
Story
In a Space Station orbiting Earth, Uka Uka is mad at Dr. Cortex for constantly failing at his evil plans. Cortex begs for mercy and explains that he wasted years of trying to get rid of Crash Bandicoot. Cortex dismisses Crash as unimportant and chooses to pursue a new and different goal—conquering Earth. Cortex tells Uka Uka that his plan is to shrink the entire planet.
Once Cortex completes the Planetary Minimizer, he uses it to shrink Earth to the size of a grapefruit. Dr. Cortex televises himself, taunting the entire planet and proclaiming himself as their new ruler. Aku informs Crash and Coco about the event and tells them that the planet needs their help. Coco figures out that Cortex is using crystals as the power source for the Planet Minimizer. Coco tells Crash to find the crystals so that she can try and make a device that returns Earth to its original size. Aku wishes luck to Crash as he begins his adventure.
Crash accesses the levels from portals within the Warp Areas. He encounters three of Cortex's henchmen along the way, Dingodile, N. Gin, and Tiny Tiger. Crash eventually reaches the Space Station, where he encounters Cortex. He tries to shrink Crash with the Planetary Minimizer, but Crash tricks Cortex into firing the colored gems that stabilize the machine. This causes the Planetary Minimizer to malfunction.
There are two endings for game. If Crash has not collected every gem and relic, the Planetary Minimizer breaks down but is not entirely destroyed. Coco uses all 20 crystals to power her machine, and meanwhile, as Earth returns to its original size, Crash rides a motorcycle-like vehicle in space and re-enters Earth. Back at home, Aku warns Crash that Cortex is still an active threat because the machine is not completely destroyed. In the 100% ending, the Planetary Minimizer is destroyed entirely, and its unrestrained effects fuse Cortex and the previous bosses into a single monster named Mega-Mix. Crash runs down the space station's hallway while being chased by Mega-Mix. Like the unfinished ending, Crash escapes from the Space Station on a motorcycle-like vehicle and returns to Earth on time, when Coco uses her machine to reverse its effects. The Space Station explodes, but Cortex and the other bosses escape in an escape pod as the text "The End?!" is shown on-screen.
Gameplay
Every time the game starts up, it shows the company logos and then a skippable cutscene of the game's backstory. It ends with Cortex hinting at his plan to shrink Earth and its inhabitants. The rest of the cutscene is shown if the player starts a new file.
Development
The game stemmed from an agreement between Universal Interactive Studios and Konami in September 2000. This allowed them to respectively develop and publish a Crash Bandicoot game for next-generation consoles, including the Game Boy Advance, and ended the Crash Bandicoot franchise's exclusivity to Sony consoles.[1]
Reception
Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure received generally favorable reviews from critics. The game was praised for its graphics and overall design, but critics noted the game having a lack of innovation.
| Reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| Reviewer, Publication | Score | Comment |
| Craig Harris, IGN | 9/10 | "There's no doubt that Universal Interactive gave Vicarious Visions a lengthy development cycle for Crash Bandicoot's first outing beyond a Sony game system -- the design on the Game Boy Advance is amazingly tight with solid controls and level design. And because the game offers different styles of gameplay throughout the adventure, The Big Adventure is a GBA game that doesn't get old quickly...and the inclusion of the Time Trial challenges and hidden gems makes the game even more challenging for players who are up to it. Crash Bandicoot's handheld debut is much recommended, and I can't wait to see what's next for this marsupial in future GBA installments...there's a lot more for this fuzzball to do on the portable." |
| Giancarlo Varanini, GameSpot | 7.4/10 | "Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure is a worthy addition to the series. For the most part, the controls are solid, and the graphics--while lacking a little variety--are done very well on the Game Boy Advance hardware. But ultimately, The Huge Adventure is a fairly basic platformer that doesn't really have some of the innovation of other Game Boy Advance platformers. Still, if you're willing to give Crash a try, its 20 levels as well as its time attack and gem-collecting modes should give you a solid gaming experience." |
| Scott Osborne, GameSpy | 86/100 | "Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure won't wow you with anything really new, but if you want a traditional platformer done right, this is definitely one to play." |
| Aggregators | ||
| Compiler | Platform / Score | |
| Metacritic | 78 | |
References
- ↑ Bandicoot Crashes the Game Boy Advance. IGN. Published September 22, 2000.
