Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced

Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced is the second game to feature Crash Bandicoot on the Game Boy Advance.

Storyline
Uka Uka calls upon the assistance of Dr N. Tropy. He in turn recommends the services of N. Trance. Using a teleporter, he plans to transport Crash, Crunch, and Coco to a star base somewhere in space. However, Aku Aku prevents the teleportation from completing, and Crash is saved. However, the evil side is left with Fake Crash: a result of the incomplete transformation. Coco and Crunch are hypnotized and turned against Crash. Crash now has to save his friends and defeat N. Trance.

Additions

 * Similar to Crash's jetboard in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, and to Coco's jetski in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, Crash rides on wakeboards (revealed in Lagoony Tunes when Aku Aku talks).
 * Instead of the usual warp room level selection, this game includes a map of various platforms in space. On the platforms are buttons which act as gateways to various levels.
 * Coco flies in space while avoiding a falling fireball. A meter is shown to show how close the fireball is. There is also a health meter to show Coco's remaining health percentage.
 * Crash rides on a magic carpet in all Arabian levels except Prints of Persia and 101 Arabian Kites.
 * Crunch is now playable in two levels: Barrel Roll and Rocks Can Roll.
 * There are new types of crates, the magic carpet crate, freeze crate, and the copter crate.
 * There are two new super powers, the super slide and the rocket jump.

Link Game
For the first time in a Crash platformer, N-Tranced also features multiplayer competitive gameplay. In order to play, both players require a cartridge of the game.

Atlasphere
Two players battle in the game's Atlasphere mode. Choose between the battle modes Domination, Bumpers or King of the Hill on a variation of maps. Depending on the players' progress in one player mode, Crash, Crunch, Coco, Fake Crash, N-Trance and N. Tropy are all selectable characters.

Level Race
Two players can choose to race in any of the on-foot levels unlocked in the one player story. Curiously both players play as Crash and the level data for both players is separate (a necessity for both to progress through certain gimmicks such as the vehicle crates).

Huge Adventure/XS Link
In addition, the game can be linked to Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure via GBA link cable to unlock extra content. Through this option, Dingodile, N. Gin, Tiny, Neo Cortex and Megamix can be unlocked as extra playable characters in Atlasphere mode.

Naughty Dog References
As seen in the previous game, this entry in the series goes on giving the GBA most of the features and environments seen in the Naughty Dog trilogy. First of all, instead of using a Warp Room, "N-Tranced" makes use of a "Warp Zone" structured like a map, in which every single portal is entered using the same animation seen in Crash 3 - except the lack of any sight of the level outside it. Then, the only element hailing from Crash 2 is the usage of the jungle levels' background music in the atlasphere stages as well as in the very first stage, Island Intro, which concept was already seen in Crash 2 - though it was called just "Intro" and, instead of its heir, wasn't replayable. Also unlike the "Intro" of Crash 2, the Island Intro level is required, and contains a crystal, gem, and relic, whereas Crash 2's level could be exited from through the pause screen and skipped.

Also, the Egyptian tomb (like Tomb Time) and Arabia stages (like Hang'em High) are based off levels from Warped, as well as their own background music, while the volcano island ambiance hails from a non-ND game (despite its music being remixed from the prehistoric levels in Warped). The water levels offer the same tropical sea setting seen in Warped levels such as Makin' Waves, but here Crash does some water-skiing while being tied to an off-screen motorboat and chased by a shark; therefore, these stages act as the "escape" ones. The motorboat may be driven by Coco, but since two water stages out of three are part of the storyline in which Coco is still under hypnosis, this hypothesis is to be scrapped. In a McDonalds game machine based on these levels, Cortex is driving the boat in what is a shocking development. The flying levels of the prequel, mixing the jetpack itself with fights against blimps, are now substituted by another kind of escapes, in which Coco, wearing an astronaut suit and tied up to a hovering "space life belt" of sorts, has to manage to escape a giant - and unseen since being offscreen too - fireball (despite the first stage in this series being called "Run from the Sun") while fighting between meteorites as well as &quot;Lab Astronauts&quot;. The "atlasphere" concept, instead, hails from the same non-ND game said above.

N. Trance himself (or even the eponymous game) may be considered as a nice way to allow Fake Crash's, Crunch's and N. Tropy's handheld debuts, as well as Coco's debut as a boss in the whole series.

The pause menu reprises the one from the prequel in terms of structure, but is totally different in terms of appearance. The "C" symbol now features Coco's face in order to match the one seen in Warped, as well as Crunch's face. Now Crash's face is on the bottom of the emblem while Coco's stands on its top. The pause menu is now almost completely golden. The pause menu is also the only place in the game to view a level's number, as this is no longer shown in the warp zone, like it was in previous games.

The bonus platforms now lead Crash to the bonus round by floating instead of just teleporting him there.

Another correction is made whenever Crash dies by falling into a chasm: in the prequel he would just become an angel/ghost, while now (reflecting the second and third games in the series) he throws up his shoes.

Colored gems are still featured, but in an entirely different way. In each Egyptian level a red "gem shard" (1/4 of an usual colored gem) is hidden; likewise, the Volcano stages hide blue gem shards as well as green gem shards are hidden within Arabian levels. When N.Trance is defeated, the last section of the map (a wooden bridge set in outer space) is accessible. This portion acts as N.Tropy's hideout, and instead of the portals, the last 3 levels are accessed through the now recreated gems (though the way the "warping" animation is seen suggests the stages are in fact the gems themselves). Getting all four gem shards of any color unlocks one of these levels. Each of these really hard levels has the relative colored gem to be found, as well as the normal gem and the relic. After each colored gem is achieved, the portal to N. Tropy, disguised as a gear, is accessible. In these levels, the colored gems act similar to how crystals act in most levels. In order to access time trial mode, Crash must get the colored gem from the level first, and all three colored gems unlock the boss for that area.

The fight against N. Tropy is a mostly faithful recreation of the battle fought in Warped, but made in a significantly longer and harder way. N. Tropy fights Crash in an arena structured just like its Warped counterpart, only set in Arabia. Tropy has a total of three hit points, but once defeated, he recovers and causes the battle to start over in an Egyptian tomb arena with smaller platforms, now attacking at a faster rate. As soon as he loses all of his health again, he restarts the battle one last time by setting it in the volcano environment. This time the player can defeat him once for all, but if they die, the battle has to restart for real, as a whole.

Music
As it was in the case of the game's predecessor (and as partially said above), this game's soundtrack references most of Naughty Dog's work on the series. First of all, "Island Intro" as well as the Atlasphere stages use the background music of the jungle levels seen in Crash 2 as their own, only re-arranged in a way even different than the one heard in The Huge Adventure. The Arabian stages and Egyptian tomb stages, being taken from Warped, have also music similar to their original counterparts but adapted to the GBA and therefore been shortened and in MIDI format.

The volcano environment hails from Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, but the volcano levels (except for Island Intro) make use of the background music of Warped's prehistoric levels, while the water levels use a background music somewhat similar to the one heard in Warped's sea stages such as Makin' Waves.

Interestingly, Fake Crash's boss fight uses a rearrangement of the background music of Warped's Rings of Power (level accessed through the thirtieth button, only found in the secret world and entered by having 25 relics).

N. Tropy uses a rearrangement of his own background music instead.

All stages retain their one player music themes in multiplayer, though oddly the Atlasphere multiplayer mode lacks background music.

Soundtrack disc
Certain releases of the game also included a soundtrack CD featuring slightly enhanced arrangements of most of the game's music:


 * Track 1: Main Theme
 * Track 2: Warp Room
 * Track 3: Volcano
 * Track 4: Arabia
 * Track 5: Motorcycle
 * Track 6: Space Station
 * Track 7: Atlasphere
 * Track 8: Egypt

Curiously the Track 5 (a rearrangement of the racing levels' theme in Warped) is not featured in the actual game, suggesting it belongs to an unused area or sequence. Track 7 is also not used in N-Tranced, instead a rearrangement of the background theme for the futuristic levels in The Huge Adventure.

Evil Crunch
Shoot at Crunch while avoiding nitro crates. Crunch has a shield that he'll use until he suddenly hits a nitro, causing him to lower it for a minute. This gives Crash a chance to do damage to him. This level is on a carpet. He has a total of three life points.

Evil Coco
(Listed as "Evil Coco" but not to be confused with the real Evil Coco, an unused character from Crash Twinsanity) -Avoid Coco's attacks and lava while Crash fights in a volcanic area. This level is on the copter. She has a total of three life points.

Fake Crash
This boss battle may be considerably short (lasting only 11 seconds at the very least), depending on the player's skills. In the Egyptian tomb, Crash faces his goofy doppelganger as anyone would imagine the fight: Fake Crash mirrors (literally) every single move made by Crash. Spinning doesn't damage Fake Crash (But Crash himself), but serves as the only way to switch the sides. There are the spear traps typical of this environment, set in a mirrored way but not working as such (that is, alternatively). Keeping these facts in mind is key for any player aiming to the faker's defeat. He has a total of four life points.

N. Trance
This fight has two rounds.


 * First round - Avoid N.Trance as he leaps to one end of the screen, then avoid his claw as he shoots it at the place you're standing. Jump over the claw and either spin or land on his head to make N.Trance bring the claw back to him. Do this four times to get to the second round. This is in an Egyptian styled level.

He has a total of 9 life points.
 * Second round - N. Trance's head turns into a rocket and he floats around the screen. Crash needs to spin him to keep him from attacking. Fake Crash pours lava on N. Trance once he gets under a cliff, causing him damage (it causes Crash damage if the player flies under the cliff). N .Trance attacks with one out of four types of beams when he's left alone for a while. The glow around him depends on the type he'll use. This part is a copter level. This is a volcanic island themed level.

N. Tropy
(First, get all blue, green and red gem shards, beat all the extra levels and then Crash can face N. Tropy) This fight has three rounds.


 * First round - He'll attack down then up twice. Then after he moves to the other platform, a few gems will appear. Jump on them to the platform N. Tropy is on, then spin or jump on him. Repeat this two more times. Once he is defeated the first time. he'll add two more of his usual attacks. This is an Arabic styled level.


 * Second round - Exactly the same as the first round, but he'll attack down, up twice, then down again. Hit him, he'll then attack down, up twice, down twice, up twice again, and down. Hit him once more, he'll then attack: down, up twice, down twice, up twice, down twice, up twice, and then down once more. Hit him, then Crash will fade to the next round. Crash must avoid every attack. This is a Egyptian styled level.

He has a total of 9 life points.
 * Third round - He'll attack down, up twice, then down. Jump over the gems and then attack him. He'll attack down, up, down twice, up, down twice again, then up. Once hit, he'll then attack in this order: down twice, up twice, down, up, down twice, up, down, up, down. Crash must avoid every attack. This is a volcanic island themed level.

Power-ups and related glitches
Despite there are 5 bosses instead of the prequel's 4 (and, oddly, 21 crystals - neither 20 nor 25), there are still only 4 power-ups and the Fruit Bazooka from Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped is still absent.

However, the Super Charged Body Slam, as well as Double Jump, are available from the very beginning of the game; the first two power-ups, gained by defeating the first two bosses (being the brainwashed Crunch and Coco respectively), are the Super Slide (a faster and more powerful slide, executed by pressing R while holding L and while standing still) as well as the Rocket Jump (maybe referencing the "Moon Jump" seen in most platform games through cheat devices - this one being an extra-high-but-not-long jump executed by jumping while standing still and holding L). By defeating N.Tropy the player isn't awarded by any powerup at all.

Besides, the "power-up ? panels" appear in both "Island Intro" and "Globe Trottin'", as in-game tutorials while outside of Time Trial mode.

Sadly, this wide range of moves available to Crash, united to the low number of buttons of the GBA (compared to those of the PS1, that is), automatically led to the overlapping of controls and to a glitch which, if the player press R right before landing, results in a (often unwelcome) slide.

Trivia

 * Save for the game's multiplayer mode and for a line of Uka Uka's, this is the very first game in the series to not have Cortex as one of the villains. Despite this, he does appear at the game over screen if the player chooses no.
 * N. Tropy's hit points are nine altogether, therefore he shares the second place with N. Trance in this game and N. Brio in Crash Bandicoot as the one with most of them. Despite this, N. Brio is still the one with most hit points shown on screen at once.
 * Crunch says, after being defeated and returned to normal, he was "brainwashed again": an allusion on how he was originally was on the evil side during the events of Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex.
 * During the game's ending, Uka Uka stares from cold space and swears that he will not rely on underlings next time, implying that he'll work alone in the next game. However, as N-Tranced had no sequel, this is long forgotten.
 * Despite being an established character, Fake Crash is given a new origin story and is treated like a brand new character.
 * This is the last game to have Coco in her overalls.
 * This is the first game where Crash fights Coco.
 * This is the first game Crunch assists the bandicoots. It is also the first he is playable in some form, and the only case of being so in a platformer title.
 * This is also the first platformer in the series to utilise multiplayer options.
 * The Vicarious Visions logo can be seen on the walls in the Egyptian levels.
 * Despite having more levels than in Huge Adventure, N-Tranced only contains 1,791 crates.
 * The game's manual claims the game's link ability with The Huge Adventure also unlocks new levels (likely those from the aforementioned game) though this was not made available in the final game.
 * Crunch and Coco use their "evil" headshot icons in the Atlasphere menu, though their game models and map icons use their normal forms.
 * This is the first Crash Bandicoot game where the Time Relics are not needed to unlock the alternate ending.