While it may not be as good as the PS1 classics, The Wrath of Cortex is a fine step on the PlayStation 2.
The game starts with Crash and his sister Coco, along with their mask-like fatherly figure named Aku Aku, enjoying a nice summer day, when all of a sudden, Uka Uka, Aku Aku's evil brother, set the four evil elemental masks free. When Aku Aku transported to see his brother, he got the news that Dr. Neo Cortex, Crash's nemesis, is seeking revenge, due to his past endevors in Crash Bandicoot: Warped, and has created a new weapon. Mainly a mechanical Bandicoot sent to destroy Crash. Cortex calls him "Crunch". It's up to Crash and his sister Coco to finish Dr. Cortex for good, and put his muscle Bandicoot friend out of commision.
Then you get to the game. There are 5 platforms containing 5 levels and a boss. There are 25 levels for you to complete, and 5 bosses for each platform. You will face all 4 elementals then Dr. Cortex in the final platform. The first boss is with the Earth elemental mask. The second being the Ice elemental. Then the Fire elemental, and last but not least, the Weather elemental (air, thunder, whatever). In a level, you have to make it from point A to point B by spinning through enemies, collecting Wumpa Fruits, breaking crates of any kind, and grabbing the crystal at the last section of the level. When you break all of the crates (including the Nitro crates), you are rewarded a crystal clear gem. You can find out how many crates are there in the level by pressing the Triangle button, which displays how many Wumpa Fruits you have collected total, how many crates out of how many there are that you opened, and how many lives remaining. There are also 5 color gems you can obtain, but you must complete certain tasks in order to get to that section of the level, and they are hard to get, unless if you are used to doing challenges. When you have already completed a level, you can re-enter it and start a time trial. You are rewarded a relic if you get to point B at a certain time. There are 3 colors of a relic (sapphire: 3rd/silver: 2nd/gold: 1st) you can obtain depending on how fast you finish the level. To make it easier for you, you can break the yellow crates that have a number on them. Those stop the clock for how many seconds the crate displays (ex: Crate displaying a 3 on the side = 3 second time stop), which can be useful. How you complete the stage at a certain time is up to you. You won't lose any lives when you fail the time trial.
The boss fights are pretty simple when you get an experiment going. You know the drill, avoid the enemies attacks, and strike at the right time. After a boss fight, you will recieve a power-up. Those you will have to find out once you progress, or will be explained in the manual.
Now here's the game review:
The graphics are next-gen Crash Bandicoot style. They are colorful, lush, some of the character design could be better than what they should be. However, Crash's design is pretty much the best I've seen in a Crash game. The graphics in this game are pretty good, considering that this is a game made in 2001, compared to the graphics in God of War, but that's another story.
The sound is pure Crash. The Crash Bandicoot theme is still in there, along with other tunes that are quite fitting on each level. There are a couple well known voices in the game such as the Fire elemental mask voiced by Mark Hamill. However, the original character voices are still there, and that's just fine with me.
The gameplay is the same as the original PlayStation Crash games. Get to point A to point B. Simple s***, right? Yes. The problem is that the level design is still the same old, same old. At least they could give us a challenge. However, the gameplay in general is classic Crash Bandicoot. The loading times are just pitiful, but since the game is on a CD format, it takes some time for it to load up a level. At least it's better than that piece of crap "Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly". So, it's OK, but the game could reduce the loading time, just to make it better.
The game is short, but if you want to get everything, it'll take you about 8 hours worth of game time. Getting all 25 crystals will probably take you about 3 hours tops, if you are a professional game player. Overall, the game isn't really that bad. In my opinion, it was a great try for Vivendi Universal and Konami to bring the Crash Bandicoot series onto the PlayStation 2 console. If you are a hardcore Crash Bandicoot fan, this game is worth a buy. If not, it's definitely worth a rent.