Back in my day, THIS was Crash Bandicoot 4:
Not only was it my first proper Crash game (I say proper because Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers opened me up to this kind of gameplay)
Before Crash 4 - Part 2: It's About FRIGGIN' Time came in and regarded the PS2 games onward an alternate dimension (hell, Titans and Mind over Mutant were already far different to be its own dimension too), Wrath of Cortex was MY go-to Crash game. And unlike its Travellers' Tales more popular entry, Crash Twinsanity, this game was pretty much mostly HATED on release. I, never playing the original games before or knowing what a Crash was, tried it out as a pre-owned game. And I instantly clicked with it. Granted, it took years until I got to 106% the game, but for what its worth, this game opened me up to a series I would forever enjoy.
While the gameplay is pretty much a slower (and less refined) version of Crash 3: Warped, it does open up new ideas that would later be expanded on by Twinsanity and even It's About Time like the 4 powerful masks (though not Elementals like before), levels that either grow larger or longer depending on which world you're in, new boxes that shake up the box breaking, the SNEAK powerup (ok that one's stupid lol), specialized vehicle levels that you wouldn't see in other entries or games, and COCO BANDICOOT as a playable character. Yes, playing as Coco was done first in this game before the N. Sane Trilogy.
By all means, It's About Time is a definitively better game, hands down. And while its initial reveal felt kinda like a slap in the face to me as it gave the assumption that it was just another destructive reboot of a series' past, playing the game... it felt more like a celebration of its past. Seriously! It's About Time celebrates almost every aspect of Crash Bandicoot while being a soft reboot of the whole franchise. It didn't erase its past like so many other revivals have done in recent memory. I'm still going for 106% on ITA and that's a masochistic run I'm happy to endure.
There is ONE thing that Crash 4: ITA fails at that Wrath of Cortex succeeds... it's the music. No disrespect to Crash 4's composer (Walter Mair) or Toys For Bob, but Andy Blythe and Marten Joustra from Swallow Studios made some music that truly kicked some ass. And I'm not even talking with nostalgia on that one, the music for Wrath of Cortex is REALLY good. Some of the game's songs like Gold Rush really give you funny sense of adventure. Hell, N. Sane Trilogy didn't even give you the option to listen to the original PS1 tracks uncompressed. We had to wait for Toys for Bob to deliver on that, and those were only used in the special FLASHBACK TAPES!
I'll forever love Wrath of Cortex. Not only was it a door-opener, but its a somewhat underrated entry in the Crash series. Maybe not as memorable as Twinsanity, but still worthy of SOME respect.
