Quote:Oh that's good! I thought that everyone amongst the fan base agreed that, like Spyro, all the games after the original trilogy were crap. But, not exactly crap, just not good games. Like you said, just "meh". (How interesting is it that Spyro and Crash share such a similar history? It's uncanny).
I used to think like that then I challenged myself to play Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, and since then I've had a greater appreciation. My guess for the decline in quality was because publishers and developers wanted to ride the gimmicks of both series' 3rd game, or rather mini-games and giving players more to do besides run and jump. I'd almost argue that Year of the Dragon and Warped! are the reasons why platformers saw massive decline after the PS2, because everyone was tired of seeing every game copy those two. No games epitomise both our points better than Crash: Purple and Spyro: Orange. I quite like both in respects, but I think that's the crescendo of cack.
I suppose the hatedom for games such as A Hero's Tail, Twinsanity and WoC (which admittedly I'd perpetuated) comes from people getting really emotionally attached to the developers. I don't think I'd ever paid so much attention to who made my games quite as much as I did Insomniac and Naughty Dog. Now that time's passed, people get cravings and explore new things. Not to mention the changes of attitude that comes with age, and exposure to more opinions outside of the playground.
Quote:There were some aspects of WoC that I didn't exactly enjoy, mainly a lot of the boss battles and non platforming levels, but I actually think that most of the game is solid and faithful to the Crash formula. I loved how some of the levels included a minecart/submarine/mecha/jet pack as well as the platforming ... i think that gave the game a lot of variety, and innovation! And I actually love how some of the levels end on a chase. The ball levels are cool too. ;p
Out of the five bosses I think I only enjoyed two; the Air Elemental one and the final fight with Crunch Bandicoot, an antagonist future devs insist is a cool character. Some of the non-platforming stuff was cool. I enjoyed the mine carts when I got used to the controls, and the jeep chase and race were neat.... but you can have too much of a good thing, provided you enjoyed them (some of the submarine levels were just flat out unfair). And it wasn't so much that as too little of another good thing, which was platforming. My biggest peeve was the lack of platforming, overshadowed by the "me too" trend of copying Warped! which didn't seem to end. A shame too because a lot of the levels were really well designed, and I liked how the game took us to locales we'd only really touched upon in the 3rd game. Caddicarus raises a great point about how the levels are too wide, and the opposite is what makes CB1/2's level design so great - it's densely packed and uses its small spaces to create greater detail.
Quote:The controls weren't the best, but they were certainly better than Twinsanity's horrible jumps and physics.
And Gold Rush and Crash and Burn are some of my favourite Crash levels ever, okay?? cx
I won't dispute that!
BTW, if you want to listen to my lovely voice while giving an opinion on the game, you can watch
my review of Wrath of Cortex here.