March 1, 2002 - Once upon a time, Sony Computer Entertainment America gave its established bandicoot "mascot" the ol' heave-ho. With Universal Interactive handling all aspects of Crash Bandicoot's career now, he's broadening his horizons on other systems. And the first non-PlayStation adventure is finally available...for Game Boy Advance gamers. Though the GBA system is definitely no PS2, the development team responsible for this marsupial's first portable title built a game design that looks, plays and feels as closely to the console games as the hardware can handle, making Crash Bandicoot: The Big Adventure one of the best platformers on the system.

Features

• More than 20 levels
• Six different environments
• Battery save (four slots)
• Link cable support to trade save files
• Only for Game Boy Advance

The game's broken down into four worlds, each with five different levels and a boss round. The game has four distinct gameplay styles. The main design is the standard side-scrolling platformer, featuring Crash's spindash attack, head-stomping jump, as well as a slide kick and a bellyflop attack. Some of these levels take place underwater where you're challenged to maneuver through the aqua-hazards like the vicious sharks and expanding blowfish. Peppered throughout these levels are Yeti chase sequences that mirror the levels popularized in the PlayStation, utilizing a clever programming cheat to offer the impression of 3D on the Game Boy Advance system...if you've played Iridion 3D on the GBA, you'll recognize the technique. Finally, Crash will also take to the air in a shooting sequence that's similar to a watered down game of After Burner. Boss battles are a modification of any of these gameplay modes, but they feature enormous character sprites with incredible detail...they're really neat to discover.

Though it's possible to blast through the standard adventure in about five hours or so, the developers designed the game to encourage a more leisure pace...you won't get the absolute ultimate ending without completing each of the levels to their fullest. Which means, you'll need to explore every inch of a level, crack open every crate, find the BONUS areas and shatter all those crates...in order to snag that level's hidden gem. Each level's got one. Not only that, but each level's also got a Best Time to beat -- once you've defeated an area, you can re-enter it and attempt the Time Trial challenge. Get to the exit in a time that beats the set clock time, you'll snag the level's Ankh icon. Only when you've done this for every one of the game's 20 levels will you gain access to the final boss level and, finally, the absolute end sequence. And that, my friends, could take you weeks to do. Talk about bang for your buck. The game even supports the link cable, but only to trade save data between two Crash Bandicoot cartridge. It doesn't seem very clear why anyone would take advantage of this...but maybe Universal and Vicarious have plans for this option beyond what we can see.

Crash Bandicoot has always been a series that pushed the gaming hardware as far as it can go, and this is definitely the case for the GBA design. Vicarious Visions, the development house responsible for other GBA hits such as Tony Hawk and Spider-Man, pulled out all the stops for the first portable Crash game. Though the game had to be restricted on the less-powerful Game Boy Advance hardware compared to the 3D engines of past PlayStation designs, The Big Adventure still impresses with incredibly fluid rendered animations of character and enemy sprites, lush organic and industrial backgrounds, and amazingly clear sound and music. Cartridge space is a limited thing, so don't expect an extremely elaborate intro sequence...the ROM's been used for more important things, like Crash and Co.'s thousands of frames of animation. And believe it...the quality and fluidity of the motions for each character in the game really adds something to the gaming experience. The controls and gameplay are equally impressive, as there are very few instances of cheap hits and annoying level designs that tend to plague the average GBA platformer...though the flight sequences could use a tweak or two in the collision detection department. Even so, this game is excellent fun...Crash definitely gets the royal treatment on the Game Boy Advance.

Though the game looks, sounds and plays great, it's not without its faults, few as they are. The biggest issue in the game is its lack of an auto-save feature...it never prompts you to save your game during play. I've personally lost a good couple of hours or so of progress simply because I powered off the system without hitting the Start button to save the current game to the SRAM inside the cartridge. If the game hammered the point about continuously saving the game during play, this would never have happened...so keep this in mind when playing through The Big Adventure. Save often.

Closing Comments
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.

IGN Ratings for Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure (GBA)

Rating	Description
out of 10	click here for ratings guide
8.0	Presentation The game looks, sounds, plays and feels like a console version of Crash, but on the handheld. The presentation isn't quite as elaborate as the console versions due to technical limitations, though.
10	Graphics Absolutely brilliant use of rendered sprites and backgrounds to produce the look of Crash. Smooth, exaggerated animations make the game come alive on the small screen.
10	Sound Crystal clear sound effects have been pulled from the Crash audio library...and the Shin'en folk have reproduced the established Crash style of music on the GBA's hardware...outstanding.
8.0	Gameplay Crash on the handheld has extremely tight controls and changing styles of gameplay...though the sidescrolling levels don't really change in look from the Jungle, Snow, and Industrial themes.
9.0	Lasting Appeal Though the main game can be completed in five hours or so, the challenge of finding all crates and beating the best time in each level bumps up the replay value...which is rare for a platformer.
9.0 Outstanding	OVERALL (out of 10 / not an average)

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