Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced (Game Boy Advance)

Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced for the Game Boy Advance is a follow-up to Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure. For those familiar with the previous game, the sequel is pretty much more of the same thing, although it does boast some slight improvements here and there. Crash's nemesis, the evil Dr. N. Tropy, has kidnapped the other bandicoots and hypnotized them into working toward his evil schemes. Your job, playing as Crash Bandicoot, is to rescue the others and stop N. Tropy's plans. Like in similar games such as Super Mario Bros. or Sonic the Hedgehog, this means running and jumping your way through side-scrolling levels full of platforms, crates, monsters, and various other hazards.

Sliding down ropes and smashing crates are two frequent activities.

For the most part, Crash Bandicoot 2 isn't different from any other side-scrolling action game. You can run and slide your way through each level, collect wumpa fruits in order to earn extra lives, and jump onto crates and enemies in order to knock them out of the way. Crash has a double-jump move that lets you boost him up to higher areas. He also has a spin attack that is similar to Mario's cape or Sonic's spin-dash ability in that it allows you to destroy crates or monsters without bouncing on top of them. You'll travel from left to right in the majority of stages, although there are some areas that require you to backtrack or explore higher or lower to reach the exit. Additionally, many of the game's 24 different levels have hidden platforms that lead to bonus stages, which give you further opportunities to explore and generally deepen the game's extensive replay value.

Where Crash Bandicoot 2 distances itself from other games in the action genre is in its variety. As you delve deeper into the game, each of Crash's standard abilities can be upgraded into a turbo version of itself, such that you can leap higher, run faster, slide further, and generally reach areas that were otherwise inaccessible to you. Besides the crystals you need to collect at the end of each stage, there are relics that you can acquire only by attempting timed runs through previously completed levels. Since Crash's upgraded abilities make this an easier feat, there is significant motivation to replay earlier areas. Inside many of the stages, there are helicopter and magic-carpet contraptions that you can control, allowing you to fly up and down the passageways and shoot lasers at angry magicians. Additionally, roughly a quarter of the game's stages are obstacle courses in which you have to water-ski, pilot a spaceship, or roll in an "Atlas sphere" to reach the exit. These stages offer a welcome change in perspective after you've completed two or three of the side-scrolling levels, especially since they're often brimming with extra lives.