An Improvement On The 1st
One of the major improvements in Crash 2 is the saving system. Now, you can walk around to the saving wall and save any old time. In Crash 1 you had to make it through a Tawna or Cortex bonus round without dying and then you had to make it through the rest of the level you were playing without dying a game over. That's too much of a task for something as important as saving. Although beating Cortex bonus rounds aren't the general way of saving, it's also an extremely difficult task and the Cortex rounds only appear on some of the most difficult levels. In Crash 2, you get to the bonus rounds by riding on ? platforms. Also, in Crash 1 there weren't any crystals. There were, however, gems. To earn a gem, you had to go through an entire level without dying and break all the boxes, including the TNT crates but excluding the iron crates. This is a rediculous rule. Thankfully, it has been omitted from Crash 2. But, in order to replace that rule, it has been made a lot harder to break all of the boxes. There are also a larger variety of boxes to deal with. Something that has changed for the worst is the way you have to collect colored gems. In Crash 1, you earned colored gems by getting a perfect score on 6 of the levels in the game. I like it this way. At least then you don't have to find all these secret areas and do all these special things.
However, now there's a special trick where, in some levels, you can find warps to secret levels. I like the whole finding keys from special bonus rounds and then you get a secret level. Otherwise, you never know even if there are secret levels or not. Also, there's a new pet in this game named Polar. Oh yes, it is a lot of fun. Sometimes, in Crash 1, you could find secret areas that could only be accessed by walking on an invisible bridge. In fact, there's a level called "Jaws of Darkness" that has a Cortex round. The 3rd token however, you can't find withough walk off the edge of something. You'll see though that things appear whenever you step on them. This has also been changed for the better.
Fighting bosses is a great trick. You have to do 5 levels and then ride this platform up into the boss. But, unless you know the cheats, you won't be able to fight the boss. I also liked Crash 1's bosses better. Due to her over-rated sex appeal, Tawna was omitted from the series. i don't liek that very much. it would have been nice if they'd just toned it down a little and then kept her going. She didn't make another appearence till Crash Team Racing. Arguably, that makes the 1st game completely pointless.
The only other thing I can say is that there's a great deal more different kinds of gameplay. You get to ride a polar bear (named Polar) and fly a rocket. Also introduced are levels where you have to make your way through a dark area by firefly light. These levels are pointless and way too difficult. I did like the whole running from a boulder (and later on a bear), and surfing on a jet board.
In the most simply put way I can say it Crash 2 is better in some ways, and Crash 1 is better in some ways. I recommend getting them both if you can find them.