I’m not calling this a review since I have no experience in writing those, and this is all over the place.

So, I just finished Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced, and it was the first game for the GBA that I’ve beat so far. I’m new to this stuff, experimenting with Gameboy things on my Anbernic RG SP.

The game was great! I was surprised that Vicarious Visions was able to nail Naughty Dog’s Crash feel from the fantastic PS1 trilogy, 2 of which were some of my first ever console games. At least to me, it feels very similar to the PS1 trilogy but in 2D.

There’s various different types of gameplay, surfing levels, standard 2D platforming, space levels, and every boss has a different way of how you have to beat it.

I have to admit that I did some save state abuse, but only in one level! It was the last level with ropes and I got relatively easily to what is pretty much the end to grab the gem but I couldn’t figure out how to grab one of the ropes. I ragequit the game, and probably 2 days later it randomly popped into my mind I probably needed to bounce off some boxes.

2 weeks later, I decided to swallow my pride and use save states for the first time because I wanted to beat the game, and I was right about the boxes. This means that if I had the motivation to do a bit more “legit” grinding, I could’ve easily passed the level without save state abuse. I don’t consider it cheating in this case, but who cares about cheating in a single player game to be honest.

I did all the rest of the levels without using save states and had a very pleasant time, especially with the final boss, it was very fun :) I was surprised to find out the game ended there, I thought there was one more stage.

TLDR: Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced is a great game, give it a try if you haven’t already, especially if you like platformers. It’s very much like the PS1 Crash games but in 2D, at least in my honest opinion.