crash-universe

Crash Twinsanity (Crash Bandicoot 5: Eeh, The Ambition of Crash and Cortex?!? in Japan) is the fifth platform game in the Crash Bandicoot series. It was released in 2004 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.

At the end of Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Doctor Neo Cortex's space station was destroyed once again, leaving him and Uka Uka preserved in ice in the frozen wastes of Antarctica.

Three years later, all is well in N. Sanity Island, as Coco runs through the front yard of the Bandicoot home chasing a butterfly. But she is suddenly paralyzed by a familiar blaster gun. Over at the beach, Crash Bandicoot is digging up an old shoe when Cortex, disguised as Coco, calls for him.[1] Fooled by Cortex's poor disguise, Crash follows him. Upon arriving at the bay, Cortex reveals himself, absolutely bitter over being left alone for three years in the frozen Antarctic wastes because of Crash. As a result, he "ordered up a little gathering like a birthday party except... the exact opposite". The "birthday party" mainly consists of "villains" Crash has faced over the years.[2] He is also introduced to a 20-feet-tall hydraulically-operated mech named Mecha Bandicoot piloted by N. Gin.[3] When Crash defeats the mech with ease, it falls into a cavern, and Cortex loses control of his Cortex Glider, falling into the cavern and taking Crash with him. The guests leave for lunch.

Infuriated over losing to Crash Bandicoot yet again, Cortex throws a tantrum and tackles Crash, a fight ensuing (this introduces the RollerBrawl). Their fight leads them into an area containing a Power Crystal. When Cortex grabs the Crystal, a mysterious group of androids arrives in a drilling device, taking boxes of Wumpa fruit, and leaving. Upon seeing Cortex's Power Crystal, Crash grabs it, dragging Cortex along with it (This introduces "Crystal Crazy" (Twin Spin, Twin Slam & Twin Throw). After a while, they fight some more, escaping a drilling device in the process. Eventually, the duo makes it out in one piece.

Upon leaving the cavern, the duo is greeted by a pair of odd parrot-like creatures who introduce themselves as the Evil Twins, and claim that they've come to destroy N. Sanity Island. When Cortex isn't impressed, the Evil Twins demonstrate their power by telepathically pulling Cortex's brain out and throwing it at him. Cortex runs away screaming, holding his brain.[4] Crash finds Cortex near the native village, lamenting his inability to live the simple life of the tribesfolk. As he does this, he is suddenly attacked by a swarm of bumblebees (This introduces the Doc Amok levels).[5] Crash ends up having to clear a path for Cortex and keeping him out of danger. At the end of the path, Cortex runs into Papu Papu, who decides to use Cortex as a sacrifice to their totem god. Crash follows the tribesfolk into their village, and finds Cortex tied up to a totem pole, which has another Power Crystal on top. When Crash rescues Cortex and grabs the Power Crystal, the totem pole topples over, dumping Cortex into the nearby waterfall, and dumping Crash in front of a group of angry tribesmen. When Crash flees the village, he finds Cortex in a Wumpa orchard owned by Farmer Ernest, who laments that the farmers' market is tomorrow, and his Wumpa trees won't grow because his orchard is riddled with humongous worms, and promises to give Crash a Power Crystal in return for ridding his land of the worms (a possible parody of the often-used mission objective seen in many platformers and adventure games, notably the Spyro the Dragon series), before being blasted by Cortex (who, continuing the possible parody, remarks "This isn't a game!" [6]). They clear the orchard and gain access to an area with a totem god named Tikimon, which the Evil Twins bring to life with their psychokinesis, lamenting the fact that in the 10th Dimension they don't have anything near as nice as the totem gods.[7] Luckily, Crash is able to defeat Tikimon by thowing Cortex into his throat, causing him to become inanimate once more. Upon his defeat, the Evil Twins claim that their "Vice-Versa Reverser Device" is in operation, sucking all the goodness out of this dimension and leaving behind the worst possible world. And with that, they leave.[8] All of a sudden, Cortex comes up with a plan concerning the aforementioned 10th Dimension, and decides that they shall head to Cortex's Iceberg Lair.[9] Using a tribesman's boat, they reach the Iceberg Lair.

Upon arriving, Cortex introduces the Iceberg Lab, stating that in the wrong hands the Iceberg Lair could actually do the world some good. When Cortex tries to open the front door, he finds that the button used to open it is frozen. With no other option, they're forced to take another path.[10] Along the way, Cortex meets up with a group of penguins who happen to own a Power Crystal. The penguins are apparently angry over their cheque being bounced, which Cortex blames on the poor sales of Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex.[11] When fish fails to please the penguins, Cortex has no choice but to stun them and take the Crystal. The penguins fly off, leaving the duo to adventure together. When Crash and Cortex journey further, Crash frees Uka Uka by throwing Cortex into the sheet of ice he was frozen in. When he sees that Crash and Cortex have released him, he becomes angry, and forms a body of ice to try and kill them.[12] When this fails, Uka Uka prepares to flee when Aku Aku stops him, informing him of the great evil that threatens to destroy the Earth. With this, he recruits Uka Uka, who wants to destroy the Evil Twins so that he can destroy the Earth himself.[13] When Crash and Cortex finally reach the lab, the Evil Twins arrive, using Aku Aku and Uka Uka as Halloween masks. As they brag about how they have the power over reality itself, they inadvertedly reveal that they're also wealthy. Claiming that Cortex ruined their lives, they unleash a large group of Ants, which the duo dispose of.[14] The Evil Twins flee. The Aku Uka Brothers start considering handing Cortex over to the Evil Twins, with the probability of them sparing Earth. Faced with this, Cortex decides to call a truce with Crash, and they officially join forces.[15] Cortex then introduces Crash to the Psychetron, which will allow them to travel to the 10th Dimension and defeat the Evil Twins. Unfortunately, the Psychetron requires six Crystals in order to make the leap. They only have four, which is obviously not enough. All seems to be lost, but suddenly, Cortex has an idea.[16]

Crash finds Cortex at the Iceberg Lab's balcony. He points to the sea, saying that Doctor N. Gin's battleship contains the Crystals they need. But the ship is about to set sail.[17] As Cortex ponders how to get there, Crash begins to brainstorm while staring at Cortex's behind. He decides to kick it, causing Cortex to fall over (This introduces the HumiliSkate level). At this point, Crash is able to use Cortex as a sled and make it to N. Gin's Battleship in time, sledding through both Cortex's prized chicken coop and Cortex's prized adult club in the process, and grabbing a Power Crystal along the way.

The giant snowball Crash and Cortex create lands on Dingodile's house. Cortex is plastered into the snow, and he laments how no amount of treasure could ever compensate for the humiliation he went through. Dingodile overhears this, and assumes that the duo is going after treasure.[18] Crash decides to venture into N. Gin's battleship alone, dodging numerous missiles, grabbing a Power Crystal, and sending N. Gin's crows nest plummeting towards the battleship's deck. Crash lands in a long hallway, and is almost immediately greeted by Rusty Walrus, who wants to cook Crash as food.[19] Luckily, Crash is able to outrun the walrus and escape the battleship, only to wind up in an area filled with TNT Crates. N. Gin lands on one of them, causing them all to explode, resulting in the battleship apparently sinking and sending Crash flying. He lands on an ice platform, where he meets up with Doctor Nefarious Tropy and Doctor Nitrus Brio, who seem to know of the treasure Crash and Cortex are seeking. After Crash doesn't tell them where the treasure is, N. Tropy and N. Brio decide to "wring it out of him" [20], and N. Brio, with the aid of a potion, transforms into a large frog-like monster. After Crash defeats N. Tropy, N. Brio bodyslams the edge of the platform, catapulting Crash back to the Iceberg Lair. Upon returning to the lab, Crash finds Cortex confronted by Coco, who believes that Cortex kidnapped Crash. When she kicks him, the two Crystals they gathered fly into the Psychetron, causing a chain reaction that paralyzes Coco and damages the machine. Cortex states that only one person can fix the Psychetron: his niece Nina Cortex, whom Cortex gave cybernetic arms. She currently resides at Madame Amberly's Academy of Evil, so Crash and Cortex head to Cortex's private airship to travel there.

While in the airship, Crash and Cortex encounter the Evil Twins, who order the Ants to attack them once again, even fast-forwarding Cortex's rants to get to that stage.[21]. Cortex defeats the Ants, but now the Evil Twins know where they're going. As a former student in the academy, Cortex knows a secret way to Nina's bedroom through the boiler room.

On their way through the boiler room they encounter Dingodile, who now knows about the treasure. Due to Dingodile's heavy Australian accent, Cortex is unable to understand him when he asks where the treasure is, making Dingodile very angry. He blows Cortex away with his flamethrower and attacks Crash. Crash defeats Dingodile and is ejected out of the boiler room.

Crash makes his way alone through some of the classrooms until Cortex appears and tells Crash to get back to the airship and tie it to something secure. Cortex then carries on alone to Nina's bedroom, proud to see how much Nina's grown.

Cortex wants to test Nina's skills, so he sends her to explore the rooftops (which are crawling with Ants). They eventually learn that Crash tied the airship to the school bus, and it is flying away with it. Nina gets the airship back but she and Cortex are attacked by Ants and flee. While Cortex runs away from them, he meets his old teacher, Madame Amberly. Cortex was never any favorite of Amberly, and when Cortex yells at her that he is an evil scientist (not a barber as she mistakes him for), she attacks him. Cortex destroys the wires holding her up, sending her plummeting to her unknown demise. He, Crash, and Nina go back to Iceberg Lab.

In the airship Cortex suddenly recalls his past. When he was a child in the Academy of Evil, he was developing the Evolvo-Ray, phase one in his dream to create an army of superanimals. His test subjects were his two pet parrots Victor and Moritz, the only two creatures he didn't loathe or eat. When Cortex activated the Evolvo-Ray, it ended up sending them to the 10th Dimension. He had wondered where they were sent to ever since. But as Cortex puts it, "Be careful what you wish for, young man. Or your wish might come true..."

As soon as Crash, Nina and Cortex arrive at Twinsanity Island (the 10th Dimension version of N. Sanity Island), Nina is kidnapped by Crash's 10th Dimension counterpart Evil Crash. Crash and Cortex chase Evil Crash all the way to his hut. There Cortex offers Evil Crash to take him instead of Nina. Evil Crash chases Cortex and with Crash's help Cortex escapes.

When Crash, Cortex and Nina get to Victor and Moritz's Stronghold, Ant Agony, they finally find the treasure, but N. Tropy, Brio and N. Gin seem to have somehow beaten them to it and want the treasure for themselves. Cortex tries to point out that the treasure is stolen property. They won't listen to him until Cortex points out that "he" might want his gems back. It turns out that "he" is none other than Spyro the Dragon, who makes short work of the trio [22].

Crash, Cortex and Nina finally encounter the Twins and fight them, the Twins in a huge mech. Crash is able to defeat them using the Mecha Bandicoot, and the Twins flee, only to be eaten by Evil Crash upon arriving at his hut.

Back at the Iceberg Lab, Cortex tells Crash that he's learned something from all this. He learned that you can't run away from your mistakes but you can bury them. The mistake was in this case, Cortex so he tries to "bury" Crash by using the Psychetron to send Crash away to other dimensions. However, the Psychetron collapses and to Coco and Nina's surprise, sends Cortex inside Crash's brain, which is full of miniature Crash clones doing the Crash dance. Cortex's scream of terror is the final sound we hear from him. Crash rubs his ear, looks at his finger, and smirks.

Crash Twinsanity reviewed better than Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex and was made into a platinum and greatest hits title for the PS2 and Platinum Hits title for the Xbox. It was also well-received by fans, praising it for its humor and contemporary a cappella music (see below), but it was criticized for its short length and lack of difficulty. Some praised it for making references to the Naughty Dog Crash games.

Scores
GameSpot - 7.3 out of 10
IGN - 7.7 out of 10
Yahoo! Games - 4 out of 5
Eurogamer - 7 out of 10
All Game Guide - 3.5 out of 5
1UP.com - 7.5 out of 10
Official PlayStation Magazine - 2.5 out of 5

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