Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure

Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure, or Crash: XS in Europe, 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 through the use of a gigantic weapon named the "Planetary Minimizer". The protagonist of the story, Crash Bandicoot, must gather Crystals in order to power a device that will return Earth to its proper size, defeating Doctor Cortex and his minions along the way. The levels are based on Crash Bandicoot 2 and Crash Bandicoot 3 (but completely 2D).

Gameplay
Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure is a platform game in which the player controls Crash Bandicoot, who must gather 20 Crystals and reverse the shrinkage of the Earth at the hands of Doctor Neo Cortex, 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 plus one boss level. The goal in each level is to find and obtain the Crystal hidden in the area. 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. 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. Besides Crystals, Gems and Colored Gems can be collected for 100% completion. Gems are awarded 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. Unlike in previous Crash titles however, there is no purple gem, ergo only four colored gems are present in the game. "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 per-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 can be 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 how low the player's final time is.

Plot
In a mysterious space station orbiting the Earth, Uka Uka is upset with Doctor Neo Cortex for failing him once again, but Cortex promises a plan that will bring the Earth's inhabitants down to size. Cortex then introduces his relatively new Planetary Minimizer, which he immediately uses to shrink the Earth down to the size of a grapefruit. 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 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. The Earth is returned to its original size, while the space station outside Earth explodes with Cortex and the others in it.

Characters

 * Crash Bandicoot: The protagonist of the game. He is a bandicoot who must reverse the shrinkage of the Earth caused by the main antagonist Doctor Neo Cortex.
 * Aku Aku: An ancient wooden mask who can temporarily protect Crash from harm.
 * Coco Bandicoot: Crash's genius sister. She is the creator of the machine necessary to reverse the effects of Cortex's "Planetary Minimizer".
 * Doctor Neo Cortex: The main antagonist of the game. He is a mad scientist who shrinks the Earth down to the size of a grapefruit with his new "Planetary Minimizer".
 * Uka Uka: The overseer of Cortex's plot and Aku Aku's evil twin brother.
 * Dingodile: A flamethrower-wielding dingo-crocodile hybrid and the first boss of the game.
 * Doctor N. Gin: Cortex's cyborg right-hand man and the second boss of the game.
 * Tiny Tiger: A hulking, muscle-bound beast and the third boss of the game.
 * Mega-Mix: A mixture monster and the extra boss of the game.

Gameplay differences from Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
For the most part, the gameplay in The Huge Adventure can be thought of as being the same as Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped in except in a 2D environment with different levels (some of which are based off ones in Crash's 2 and 3) and some different vehicles, and with Crash's movement feeling slightly different. Most of the elements of gameplay (such as crates, bonus rounds, crystals, gems, relics, unlocking levels and warp rooms, etc.) is the same from Crash 3, but there are some differences.
 * There are only four warp rooms in The Huge Adventure. This is different from Crash 2 and 3, where there were five main warp rooms, as well as a sixth which was accessed via secret entrances or warps on the main path of the levels (Crash 2), and by collecting relics to access them (Crash 3).
 * Gems cannot be awarded during time trial mode in The Huge Adventure like they could in Crash 3.
 * Gem paths cannot be accessed in time trial mode in The Huge Adventure (in addition to bonus rounds), whereas in Crash 3, only bonus rounds were off-limits in time trial, provided that Crash had the required gem to enter the gem path.
 * Locked crates in The Huge Adventure are always empty and can be broken by explosive crates, unlike in both Crash 2 and 3.
 * There is no multicolor gem path like Crash 2 and 3 both had. Also, there are no death routes, secret warps to other levels, or secret entrances to levels, like there were in both Crash 2 and 3.
 * Nitro crates don't bubble or bounce like they did in Crash 2 and 3.
 * The Fruit Bazooka does not exist in The Huge Adventure, possibly because the game has four bosses instead of five, though this seems highly unlikely.
 * Possibly due to the absence of the Fruit Bazooka, it's possible to break TNT and Nitro Crates while a short distance from them by body slamming. This seems like an unnecessary feature however, as Crash is able to detonate TNT crates by jumping on them and Nitro Crates by hitting the Nitro Crate Detonator box. This feature returns in Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced but has no significant use.
 * Similar to Crash 1, Crash moves faster while spinning than he does jumping (this is reversed in the PAL version). This is reversed in Crash's 2 and 3 where Crash moves faster while jumping rather than spinning. A perfect example of this can be seen in Crash 3 when using the Crash Dash as Crash keeps his speed while jumping and loses some of it while spinning.
 * Unlike in Crash 1, 2, and 3, jumping off enemies onto other enemies, or spinning enemies into each other, or jumping from an arrow crate or bouncy platform onto an enemy never gives wumpa fruit or lives in The Huge Adventure.  Similarly, the extra items cheat is absent in this game, although that was not an intended feature of Crash 2 or 3, either.
 * Body slamming on a bounce crate never gives any wumpa fruit, unlike in Crash 2 and 3.
 * Coco is not playable in any levels in The Huge Adventure, similar to Crash 2.
 * The bonus round platforms, and the entrances and exits of gem paths act as checkpoints in The Huge Adventure. Also, the blimps in flying levels act as checkpoints, except in time trial mode.
 * In The Huge Adventure, the HUD in gem paths only shows the crates obtained inside the gem path, although these are added to the total for the main level.
 * In The Huge Adventure, nitro switch crates explode the nitros and the crates adjacent to the nitros are also exploded.  This is unlike in Crash 2 and 3, where the nitro switch crates only explode the nitros on the screen at the time, and simply make the other nitros disappear.
 * The special gem for completing the game with gold relics or better that was in Crash 3 is replaces by the Mega-Mix level, where the special gem is obtained for breaking all the boxes.
 * The platinum relic time appears in The Huge Adventure on any level where Crash has obtained a gold relic. In Crash 3, for the times to appear, Crash needed to reach the game's second ending as well, even though platinum relics could be obtained previous to this.
 * Vicarious Visions never released their developer times, although only in the NTSC version of Crash 3 did Naughty Dog release theirs.
 * While riding on Polar, Aku Aku invincibility only lasts for eight seconds. However, in other places of the game, it lasts for 20 seconds, the same time as in Crash 1, 2, and 3.
 * Whereas in Crash 2 and 3, Crash and Coco could only have Aku Aku invincibility in platforming levels, in The Huge Adventure, Crash can be invincible while on Polar or the space motorcycle (but not while swimming).
 * Unlike in Crash 3, time trial times in The Huge Adventure are rounded to the nearest tenth of a second, therefore the hundredths place is always 0 and is unnecessary.
 * The Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment system is far less sophisticated than in Crash 2 or 3, with the only aspect being that Aku Aku masks can be granted upon several deaths at the same point.

Trivia

 * The term "XS" stands for "Xtra Small".
 * For some unknown reason, this marks the only Crash Bandicoot game to not have a fifth warp area due to the fact this game only has 20 crystals to collect.
 * The music played in the credits is a remix of Crash Team Racing's main theme.
 * If Crash stands around idle for long enough, he will play on his Game Boy Advance for a few seconds.
 * Originally, the game was planned to be released on the Game Boy Color.
 * This game, along with Crash Bandicoot: N-Tranced and Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage can be played on a GameCube by using Game Boy Player.
 * In total, there are 1,880 crates in the whole game, slightly less than in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back.
 * The warp room and the load/save screen had the sky background for Microsoft Windows 95/98.