Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure
Encyclopedia
Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure, released in the PAL region
PAL region
The PAL region is a television publication territory which covers most of Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Western Europe...

 as Crash Bandicoot XS and in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 as Crash Bandicoot Advance, is a platform game
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...

 published by Universal Interactive Studios
Vivendi Games
Vivendi Games, formerly known as Vivendi Universal Games, was the holdings company for Sierra Entertainment and Blizzard Entertainment. Vivendi Games was founded as Vivendi Universal Games after Vivendi bought Universal Studios in the early 2000s...

 (Konami
Konami
is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...

 in Japan) and developed by Vicarious Visions
Vicarious Visions
Vicarious Visions is an American video game developer founded by the high school brothers Karthik and Guha Bala in 1990, which developed some PC and Game Boy Color games in late 90's and 2000. They later developed Terminus, which won two Independent Games Festival Awards in 1999...

 for the Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...

. It was released in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 on February 25, 2002, and in the PAL region on March 15, 2002.

Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure is the seventh installment in the Crash Bandicoot video game series and the first Crash Bandicoot game to be released on a handheld console. The game's story centers on a plot to shrink the Earth by the main antagonist, Doctor Neo Cortex
Doctor Neo Cortex
Doctor Neo Periwinkle Cortex, often referred to as "Doctor Cortex" or simply "Cortex", is a video game character and the main antagonist of the Crash Bandicoot series of video games. His name is a play on the term neocortex, an area of the brain...

, through the use of a gigantic weapon named the "Planetary Minimizer". The protagonist of the story, Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot (character)
Crash Bandicoot, or simply Crash, is a video game character and the primary protagonist of the Crash Bandicoot series of video games. Introduced in the 1996 video game Crash Bandicoot, Crash is an Eastern Barred Bandicoot that was genetically enhanced by the series antagonist Doctor Neo Cortex and...

, must gather Crystals in order to power a device that will return the Earth to its proper size, defeating Doctor Cortex and his minions along the way.

The game stemmed from an agreement between Universal Interactive Studios and Konami that enabled them to produce and publish (respectively) a Crash Bandicoot game for next-generation handheld game systems, ending the franchise's exclusivity to Sony-produced consoles. 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's lack of innovation.

Gameplay

Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure is a platform game
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...

 in which the player controls Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot (character)
Crash Bandicoot, or simply Crash, is a video game character and the primary protagonist of the Crash Bandicoot series of video games. Introduced in the 1996 video game Crash Bandicoot, Crash is an Eastern Barred Bandicoot that was genetically enhanced by the series antagonist Doctor Neo Cortex and...

, who must gather 20 Crystals and reverse the shrinkage of the Earth at the hands of Doctor Neo Cortex
Doctor Neo Cortex
Doctor Neo Periwinkle Cortex, often referred to as "Doctor Cortex" or simply "Cortex", is a video game character and the main antagonist of the Crash Bandicoot series of video games. His name is a play on the term neocortex, an area of the brain...

, the main antagonist of the story. Much of the game takes place in a series of hubs, from which Crash can teleport to various areas of the Earth. Initially, only the first of four hubs is available for play. Each hub features five levels and a boss level. The goal in each level is to find and obtain a hidden Crystal. After completing all five levels in a hub, the boss level must be completed, in which Crash must defeat the boss character guarding the area. By defeating the boss, a new hub will be accessible for play. When all 20 Crystals are collected and the Earth has been enlarged to its proper size, the game is won.

Besides Crystals, Gems and Colored Gems can be collected for extra accomplishment. Gems are rewarded to the player if all of the crates in a level are broken open or if a secret area is completed. Colored Gems are found in special levels and lead to hidden areas. "Relics" can be won by re-entering a level where the Crystal has already been retrieved. To obtain a Relic, the player must initiate the "Time Trial" mode and race through a level in the pre-designated time displayed before entering a level. To begin a Time Trial run, the player must enter a level and activate the floating stopwatch near the beginning of the level to activate the timer; if the stopwatch is not touched, the level is played regularly. The player must then race through the level as quickly as possible. Scattered throughout the level are yellow crates with the numbers 1, 2 or 3 on them. When these crates are broken, the timer is frozen for the number of seconds designated by the box. Sapphire, Gold and Platinum Relics can be won depending on the player's final time.

At the beginning of the game, Crash has the ability to jump to navigate ledges, spin in a tornado-like fashion to break open crates and defeat enemies, deliver a body slam to break open tough objects and can either slide across the ground or crouch and crawl to get past low areas. Crash can expand on these abilities by defeating boss characters, often resulting in more powerful attacks or increased jumping and running prowess. Crash starts the game with five lives. Crash loses a life when he is struck by an enemy attack or suffers any other type of damage. More lives can be earned by instructing Crash to collect 100 "Wumpa Fruits" or break open a special crate to collect a life. Crash can be shielded from enemy attack by collecting an Aku Aku mask. Collecting three of these masks allows temporary invulnerability from all minor dangers.

Characters

Eight returning characters from previous Crash titles star in Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure. The protagonist of the game, Crash Bandicoot, is an anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...

 bandicoot
Bandicoot
Bandicoots are a group of about 20 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial marsupial omnivores in the order Peramelemorphia.- Etymology :...

 who must reverse the shrinkage of the Earth caused by the main antagonist Doctor Neo Cortex. Crash's genius sister, Coco Bandicoot, is the creator of the machine necessary to reverse the effects of Cortex's "Planetary Minimizer". Aiding Crash is Aku Aku, an ancient wooden mask who can temporarily protect Crash from harm. The main antagonist of the series, Doctor Neo Cortex, is a mad scientist
Mad scientist
A mad scientist is a stock character of popular fiction, specifically science fiction. The mad scientist may be villainous or antagonistic, benign or neutral, and whether insane, eccentric, or simply bumbling, mad scientists often work with fictional technology in order to forward their schemes, if...

 who shrinks the Earth down to the size of a grapefruit with his new "Planetary Minimizer". Overseeing Cortex's plot is Uka Uka, the evil twin brother of Aku Aku. Cortex's minions consist of Tiny Tiger, a hulking muscle-bound beast, Dingodile, a flamethrower
Flamethrower
A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long controllable stream of fire.Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure propane and...

-wielding dingo
Dingo
The Australian Dingo or Warrigal is a free-roaming wild dog unique to the continent of Australia, mainly found in the outback. Its original ancestors are thought to have arrived with humans from southeast Asia thousands of years ago, when dogs were still relatively undomesticated and closer to...

-crocodile
Crocodile
A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...

 hybrid and Doctor N. Gin, Cortex's cyborg
Cyborg
A cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial parts. The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. D. S...

 right-hand man.

Story

In a space station orbiting the Earth, Uka Uka is upset with Doctor Neo Cortex
Doctor Neo Cortex
Doctor Neo Periwinkle Cortex, often referred to as "Doctor Cortex" or simply "Cortex", is a video game character and the main antagonist of the Crash Bandicoot series of video games. His name is a play on the term neocortex, an area of the brain...

 for failing him once again, but Cortex promises a plan that will bring the Earth's inhabitants down to size. Cortex then introduces his Planetary Minimizer, which he immediately uses to shrink the Earth down to the size of a grapefruit
Grapefruit
The grapefruit , is a subtropical citrus tree known for its sour fruit, an 18th-century hybrid first bred in Barbados. When found, it was named the "forbidden fruit"; it has also been misidentified with the pomelo or shaddock , one of the parents of this hybrid, the other being sweet orange The...

. The situation is brought to Aku Aku's attention when Cortex taunts the now-microscopic people of Earth. When Aku Aku informs Crash of the Earth's predicament, Coco assumes that Cortex is using the Crystals to power his shrinking machine, and requests that Crash find the same kind of Crystals in various locations around the world, which she will use to build a device that will reverse the effects of Cortex's Minimizer.

After Crash fends off Dingodile, Doctor N. Gin and Tiny Tiger, Cortex decides to deal with Crash himself by firing the Planetary Minimizer at him. Unfortunately for him, Crash tricks him into shrinking the colored Gems (the red, yellow, and green Gems, but not the blue Gem). Crash escapes with running shoes and Coco restores the Earth to its original size, but Aku Aku is concerned because the Earth can be reshrunk since the Minimizer has not been destroyed. Crash then finds all the remaining Gems and Relics. (The Relics must be gold or platinum to fight Cortex again.) After finding everything, Crash returns and fights Cortex again, re-shrinking the colored Gems that stabilize the Minimizer, causing it to malfunction. The unrestrained effects of the Minimizer fuse Cortex and the previous bosses together, creating a monster known as Mega-Mix, who chases Crash down the space station's hallway in an attempt to kill him. Fortunately, Crash escapes back to the Earth just in time for Coco to use the Crystals that he has gathered to return the Earth back to normal again. The Earth is returned to its original size, while the space station above Earth explodes with Cortex and the others in it.

Development

On September 21, 2000, Konami and Universal Studios announced that they had entered an agreement that would enable Konami to publish a Crash Bandicoot game for next-generation game systems
History of video game consoles (sixth generation)
The sixth-generation era refers to the computer and video games, video game consoles, and video game handhelds available at the turn of the 21st century. Platforms of the sixth generation include the Sega Dreamcast, Sony PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, and Microsoft Xbox...

, with Universal Interactive handling the production of the games. The Game Boy Color
Game Boy Color
The is Nintendo's successor to the 8-bit Game Boy handheld game console, and was released on October 21, 1998 in Japan, November 19, 1998 in North America, November 23, 1998 in Europe and November 27, 1998 in the United Kingdom. It features a color screen and is slightly thicker and taller than...

 was originally included alongside the Game Boy Advance in the deal. The agreement served to break the Crash Bandicoot franchise's exclusivity to Sony-produced consoles and effectively made Crash Bandicoot a mascot character for Universal rather than Sony. That December, Vicarious Visions approached Universal and showed off some of their technology on the Game Boy Advance. Fairly impressed with their work, Universal asked Vicarious Visions to submit a concept. Liking the submitted concept, Universal commissioned a prototype; the prototype resembled a handheld version of the PlayStation Crash Bandicoot games. Vicarious Visions was then given developmental duties for the Game Boy Advance Crash Bandicoot game.

The game was tentatively titled Crash Bandicoot Advance and went through the titles Crash Bandicoot X/S and Crash Bandicoot: The Big Adventure before arriving at its final name. The game was developed over the course of nine months from conception to completion. The team working on the game expanded to as much as seven programmers at the height of the game's development. The graphics and animation for the game were created in Maya. Some of the original animation and textures
Texture mapping
Texture mapping is a method for adding detail, surface texture , or color to a computer-generated graphic or 3D model. Its application to 3D graphics was pioneered by Dr Edwin Catmull in his Ph.D. thesis of 1974.-Texture mapping:...

 from Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped were repurposed and used as a basis for the Game Boy Advance game. The sprite
Sprite (computer graphics)
In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene...

 for the Crash Bandicoot character features between 1000 and 1500 frames of animation. The audio for the game was supplied by Shin'en Multimedia, with Manfred Linzner creating the sound effects and Todd Masten composing the music. Shin'en Multimedia was assisted by Universal Sound Studios while creating the game's audio. The game uses a static random access memory
Static random access memory
Static random-access memory is a type of semiconductor memory where the word static indicates that, unlike dynamic RAM , it does not need to be periodically refreshed, as SRAM uses bistable latching circuitry to store each bit...

 battery, allowing the player to save their progress. The game was designed with battery saving in mind from the beginning of production, as keeping track of all the data would prove extremely cumbersome with a password
Password
A password is a secret word or string of characters that is used for authentication, to prove identity or gain access to a resource . The password should be kept secret from those not allowed access....

 system.

Reception

Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure received generally favorable reviews from critics. Louis Bedigian of GameZone
GameZone
GameZone is an American multiplatform video game website. GameZone's daily coverage includes reviews, previews, news, hints & cheats, and editorials. Additionally, GameZone offers downloads, a child-targeted website and in association with GameStop, hosts GZGameShop, an online retailer...

, praising many of the game's elements, concluded that the game was not overshadowed by the series' previous successful titles and offered a new experience. IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...

's Craig Harris commented positively on the "solid controls and level design" and said that the game's overall design on the Game Boy Advance was "amazingly tight". Andrew Reiner of Game Informer
Game Informer
Game Informer is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. It was formed in August 1991, when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, free in all its retail locations...

, while critical of the short levels, praised the game for its graphical prowess. Four-Eyed Dragon of GamePro
GamePro
GamePro Media was a United States gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console , a computer, and/or a mobile device . GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and...

commended the game as "a superb-looking, straightforward platformer that no interested GBA gamer should miss." Scott Alan Marriott of Allgame
Allgame
Allgame is a commercial database of information about arcade games, video games and console manufacturers.Allgame is owned by All Media Guide, along with Allmusic and Allmovie....

 ("All Game Guide" at the time) and Scott Osborne of GameSpy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...

, while acknowledging the game's lack of innovation, stated that the translation of the graphics, gameplay and feel of the PlayStation Crash games onto the Game Boy Advance was executed well. However, Giancarlo Varanini of GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...

 cited the game's lack of innovation in a more negative manner. A Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...

reviewer noted that the game's challenges were generally more difficult and sometimes more frustrating than those of the Mario
Mario (series)
The video game series, alternatively called the series or simply the series, is a series of highly popular and critically acclaimed video games by Nintendo, featuring Nintendo's mascot Mario and, in many games, his brother Luigi. Gameplay in the series often centers around jumping on and...

games. Play Magazine
Play (US magazine)
Play was a U.S.-based magazine focused on video games, anime, manga, film, DVD, television, comics, music and media. Published by Fusion Publishing, Inc. since 2001, Play magazine also had a separate Internet presence on its website, Play Online...

s reviewer criticized the "straight-ahead" nature of the side-scrolling, but called it "a great, little game" otherwise. Electronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly is a bimonthly American video game magazine. It has been published by EGM Media, LLC. since relaunching in April of 2010. Its previous run, which ended in January 2009, was published by Ziff Davis...

remarked that "Crash for the GBA is what the PS2 game
Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex
Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex is a platform game video game published by Universal Interactive Studios and developed by Traveller's Tales for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Nintendo GameCube video game consoles. The PlayStation 2 version was released in North America on October 29, 2001, in...

 wanted to be."

External links

  • Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure at GameFAQs
    GameFAQs
    GameFAQs is a website that hosts FAQs and walkthroughs for video games. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff "CJayC" Veasey and was bought by CNET Networks in May 2003. It is currently owned by CBS Interactive. The site has a database of video game information, cheat codes, reviews, game saves,...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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