Crash Twinsanity

""They're working together, but they don't have to like it.""

- The tagline, used in promotions.

Crash Twinsanity is an action platformer, developed by Traveler's Tales, and is the fifth game in the Crash Bandicoot series, released for the Playstation 2 and Xbox

Designed as a departure from the usual Crash level style, Twinsanity greatly opens up levels, giving the game a more free-roaming feel. In lieu of totally linear levels, every 'stage' flows seamlessly into the next, and are more open for exploration. There are hidden areas and collectables scattered throughout the game, making many levels have small side paths or puzzles to complete.

Despite these changes to form, the game manages to feel very Crash-like, possibly more than its extremely standard predecessor, Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, also developed by Traveler's Tales.

Three years after the events of Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Crash has returned to his usual sedentary lifestyle of sleeping on the beach, Cortex stuck out in the antarctic wastes. But while digging up an old shoe, he hears his sister calling for him, following her into the jungle...

Turns out, it's actually Dr. Cortex, still bitter about his last defeat, and has gathered most of Crash's old foes together to watch his demise. Despite giving it his best shot, and even bringing in a giant robot version of Crash, Cortex ends up defeated once again.

Later, Crash and Cortex end up meeting the Evil Twins, strange, bird-like creatures from the Tenth Dimension, who've come to get some sort of strange revenge on Cortex, take over the dimension, and make everyone their slaves. This forces Crash and Cortex to set aside their differences, and form a very uneasy alliance against them, and make their way to the Tenth Dimension to stop their evil plans.

But as bright and happy a game as it is, the story behind it is not as fun.

Traveler's Tales Oxford, a division of Traveler's Tales was created to work on the Crash Bandicoot series, this being their first, and last, game. It was intended to revive the Crash series, breathe some much-needed life into it, since Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex had been a near carbon-copy of Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped.

Their intention was to make a huge game, full of what made the Crash games so good and then some, and spanning multiple dimensions, and even planets, where Crash would help out the locals in fending off the Evil Twins' forces, called Crash Bandicoot Evolution.

Despite loads of concept art and tons of ideas, Evolution was scrapped in favor of the simpler Twinsanity, which would simply span a few islands and a few dimensions.

But even that turned out to be too much, even more was lost as Executive Meddling began, Universal Studios Interactive started pulling back the deadline, rushing the game into its unfinished state. Entire completed stages and mechanics were Dummied Out to save time, and the game was released buggy and incomplete, although enjoyable in its own right.

Poor reviews and poor sales were the final nail in the coffin for Traveler's Tales Oxford, and the studio shut down soon after, leaving Crash to be handed over to Radical Entertainment.

Whether that was a good thing is up to you.

--

"Dingodile: "Cozy, ain't it? I hear you two have your hands on some treasure, and I want a piece of that pie." Cortex: "I have no idea what you just said.""
 * Aborted Arc: At the end of the game's first world, the Evil Twins describe something called the 'Vice-Versa Reversa Device', which is sucking the goodness out of Crash's dimension, and depositing it into the Tenth Dimension. This is brought up once, in a cutscene, and is never mentioned again, and never comes up in-game.
 * Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Boiler Room Doom is technically a boiler room, but it has sewer elements, and certainly feels like a sewer.
 * Academy of Evil: Madame Amberly's Academy of Evil, Cortex's alma mater, and where his niece Nina currently attends.
 * Alliteration: Quite a few stages use this style of naming, such as High-Seas Hijinks, Classroom Chaos, Rockslide Rumble, Cavern Catastrophe, Ant Agony, and a number of others.
 * Angrish: A lot of Cortex's lines dissolve into this.
 * Attack Its Weak Point: Used in the Tikimon boss fight, where he exposes his mouth. A huge crosshair even shows up to tell you exactly where to toss Cortex.
 * Awesome Aussie: Dingodile. Period.

"Moritz: "Is it lunchtime yet?""
 * Big Bad: The Evil Twins.
 * Big Ball of Violence: The 'Rollerbrawl' segments of the game, where you control Crash and Cortex in a literal ball of violence through Marble Madness-like levels.
 * Big Eater: Moritz.

"Cortex, after being knocked into a pit: "I-I'm okay! The... spikes broke my fall...""
 * Bottomless Pit: Averted in Jungle Rumble, where the pits clearly have a bottom, it just happens to be covered with spikes. Played straight in basically every other stage, though.

"Victor: "Cower you fools, before the awesome might of... The Evil Twins." Cortex: "Aren't you two adorable. Let me see, I might have some chalky treats here for you!" Moritz: "Chalky treats?! Ooh, ooh!""
 * Bullying a Dragon: Upon meeting the Evil Twins, Crash and Cortex are less than impressed.

"Cortex, in drag: "It's true! Blonds do have more fun!""
 * Butt Monkey: Dr. Cortex. Used as a snowboard, chased by angry bees, thrown around by his hated enemy. The list goes on.
 * The Cameo: Various villains (also Crunch and Polar) turn up at Crash's "birthday party". Tawna also appears on a sign for the Moulin Cortex.
 * Even  makes an appearance.
 * Comically Missing the Point: Crunch shows up at Crash's 'birthday party' with a cake and a party hat. He's clearly confused by all the villains that are there.
 * Continuity Porn: It's very clear the developers had played the Naughty Dog Crash games a good twenty times a piece. Within the first half hour of gameplay, you've already seen Crash's House, briefly glimpsed in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, and seen a truckload of villains from the previous games. It only gets better from there.
 * Crate Expectations: As per usual for the Crash games, crates litter each stage with no explanation. Only this time, you don't need to break every single one.
 * Creepy Crossdresser: Dr. Neo Cortex disguises himself as Coco in order to gain Crash's trust at the beginning.

"Madame Amberly: "So! Crybaby Cortex is all grown up! I see you've found employment as a barber." Cortex, defensively: "I'm an evil scientist!" Madame Amberly: "A scientist, are we? To me, you'll always be a little worm!""
 * Cutscene Power to the Max: Cortex is a lot more invulnerable and can do a lot more in cutscene. While playing as him... not so much.
 * Dean Bitterman: Madame Amberly, head of the Academy of Evil, is definitely this. She's not above openly mocking her students, current or otherwise.

"Cortex: "And so I've organized a little gathering... Like a birthday party, except... The exact opposite!""
 * Demoted to Extra: Many of the villains/bosses from prior games make an appearance early on. Out of them, only Dingodile and N. Gin show up as bosses. After his first few lines of dialogue, Aku-Aku is demoted until the Uka-Uka boss, after which they appear together in two more cutscenes, and from then on are only found in crates and say nothing. Coco appears at the beginning, midway through the game, and at the very end, although she was originally going to be playable.
 * Dissimile: Cortex's description of his gathering all the villains together.

"Cortex: "Come now, as we explore a new dimension! ...It should have been two new dimensions, but we... Ran out of time.""
 * The Dog Bites Back: Judging by his appearance at Crash's birthday party, Polar has gotten sick of being ridden around by Crash.
 * Door to Before: Being a more free-roaming game, there are passageways back to previous areas. Strangely, few of the 'doors' actually are, most of them are platforms that appear out of nowhere, or start moving.
 * Dual Boss: N. Tropy and N. Brio show up out of seemingly nowhere to confront crash on a small floating landmass. N. Brio attacks Crash as a huge frog-like thing, and N. Tropy splits up the platform into bits and attacks Crash from a distance. N. Tropy is the only one you can actually attack, though.
 * Dummied Out: As mentioned before, loads of content was lost due to time constraints. Lampshaded by Cortex as he activates the Psychetron.

"Cortex: "Crash, I've been like a father to you! I created you, nursed you... tried to destroy you. So what do you say? With my mighty intellect, and your vacuous stupidity, we'll be unbeatable!""
 * Early-Bird Cameo: Nina showed up in Crash Purple during this game's creation. She had a completely different personality, and was used without any permission from Traveler's Tales.
 * Enemy Mine: Crash and Cortex's shaky alliance, along with Aku-Aku and Uka-Uka's.


 * Everything's Worse With Evil Penguins: Evil penguins with jetpacks, who are angry at Cortex for not paying them.
 * Everything's Better with Spinning: Naturally, as it is a Crash game, but Nina gets in on the spinny fun as well.
 * Evil Teacher: Madame Amberly.
 * Evil Twin: Evil Crash in the Tenth Dimension, but not the Evil Twins themselves.
 * Fat Bastard: Madame Amberly is so fat she has to stay suspended by ropes, and has very, very visible jowls. Papu-Papu sort of counts, though the only bastardly thing he does is capture Cortex, and sic the villagers on Crash.
 * Freudian Excuse: Late in the game, it's explained why the Evil Twins want revenge.

"Cortex, sliding through the building: "Coming through! Ladies... Excuse me madam! Are those real? ...Mother?!""
 * Gag Boobs: Madame Amberly's bust is rather sickeningly ample.
 * Gang Plank Galleon: High Seas Hijinks takes place on N. Gin's battleship, full of pirates, rats, and missiles.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Many, many times, though one of the biggest examples is the Moulin Cortex.

"Coco: "You Monster! Let my brother go!" (She delivers the aforementioned kick) Cortex, wheezing: "My crystals!""
 * Good Me Scares Me: In the cut material, Cortex was going to be terrified by his good counterpart in the Tenth Dimension. In other bit of cut material, Cortex was going to be his good counterpart, and Crash his evil counterpart.
 * Turned right back around to Evil Me Scares Me with Evil Crash, who's scary to everybody.
 * Grievous Harm with a Body: While paired up, Crash spins Cortex around, swinging him into enemies. He can also slam the flat top of his head down like a hammer, and toss him like a Frisbee.
 * Groin Attack: Coco shows up at Cortex's iceberg lab, and delivers a kick to his crystals.

"Uka-Uka: "Free! Again!" Cortex: "Mighty Uka-Uka!" Uka-Uka: "Who has released me from my icy tomb? My, my, can it be? Crash and Cortex? I don't know whether to kiss you, or kill you!" [Crash purses his lips, expecting the former.]"
 * Human Popsicle: Cortex is seen this way just before the title screen, frozen with Uka-Uka chasing him. Later on in the game, Crash and Cortex find Uka-Uka frozen in a different block of ice, and break him free.

"Cortex: "Meet your brand new, hydraulically-operated twin brother... Mecha Bandicoot!""
 * Human And Bandicoot Snowball: Crash and Cortex end up in one of these near the end of Slip Slide Icecapades.
 * Humongous Mecha: The Mecha Bandicoot.

"Cortex: "Like the fleas in your fur, I keep coming back!""
 * Implacable Man: Cortex himself proves to be one of these, even more than in the previous games. He manages to come back from a deep freeze, survives pits of spikes, can be thrown into explosive crates, tossed into freezing water, into bottomless pits, into enemies, and all manner of other things that would kill Crash himself.

"Cortex, after removing his Paper-Thin Disguise: "Surprised to see me, Crash? Like the fleas in your fur, I keep coming back! Three years I spent alone in the frozen antarctic wastes! ...And I missed you!""
 * Subverted in that while playing as him you're just as vulnerable as Crash is, and he can be killed in the Doc Amok stages. Also if he's left standing somewhere, waiting for Crash to join up with him again, he'll be instantly killed by any hazard that comes into contact with him. Thankfully if only Cortex dies, Crash doesn't lose a life.
 * Incoming Ham: "Cower you fools before the awesome might of...The Evil Twins!"
 * Dr. Cortex displays this as well.

"Cortex "I will-" Moritz, dismissively "Bo-riiing!" Cortex, speaking too fast to be intelligible "Ishallcrushyoulikethepunyruntsyouare, youarenothingtomeforIamthegreatandallpowerfulNeoCortex! Howdareyoumock, manhandleandmanipulateme! Restassured, Iwilltakemyterriblevengeanceupon..." [He stops, panting heavily.]"
 * Interdimensional Travel Device: The Psychetron, Cortex's gigantic interdimensional portal generating machine. Also the technology the Evil Twins use to warp reality, letting them pass through dimensions.
 * Jungle Japes: The first few levels are this, when they're not Palmtree Panic, to invoke the feel of the original Crash Bandicoot.
 * Load-Bearing Boss: After Mecha Bandicoot's defeat, the floor drops out from under it, taking Crash and Cortex with it into an Underground Level.
 * Large Ham: Cortex has always been somewhat hammy, but in this game, he really goes whole hog.
 * Lighter and Softer: While the Crash games have never been particularly dark, Twinsanity places a greater emphasis on humor which would continue throughout the Radical games.
 * Living Statue: The Tikimon boss. A huge, invincible, four-armed totem god, who coincidentally has bad indigestion.
 * Motor Mouth: Cortex is one of these momentarily, thanks to the Evil Twins' reality-warping powers.

"Cortex: "This... is the Psychetron. Gateway to the infinite dimensions, beyond our universe!""
 * NameTron: The device used to take Crash and Cortex to the tenth dimension is called... The Psychetron. For some reason.

"Cortex: "I'm an evil scientist, what did you expect? This isn't a game.""
 * No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom: Handily averted by greatly opening up the stages and adding secret areas.
 * Nostalgia Level: Most of the first world counts, specifically Jungle Rumble and Totem Hokem. The first is a throwback to the first stages of the original Crash Bandicoot, and the second is a throwback to the native fortress stages, complete with a recreation of Papu-Papu's hut, down to the textures.
 * Notable Original Music: The soundtrack was composed by Spiralmouth, an acapella group, which gives the game a very distinctive sound style, compared to all the other Crash Bandicoot games.
 * Notice This: In the first half of Classroom Chaos, there are sections where you need to get to a hall monitor without being spotted. The game helps you by putting massive sparkles on the objects you need to hide behind.
 * Ominous Latin Chanting: Used during the Tikimon boss' theme. While not really Latin, it's certainly ominous.
 * One-Winged Angel: N.Brio, as usual, only this time he turns into some sort of giant frog.
 * Palmtree Panic: The first world of the game, N. Sanity Isle, is this when it isn't Jungle Japes.
 * Paper-Thin Disguise: Cortex dresses up as Coco to lure Crash through the jungle. Crash doesn't really seem to notice that his sister suddenly has a man's voice, a completely different body shape, a giant triangular head, and a beard.
 * Plot Coupon: The Power Crystals serve as these, as mentioned below. There's only twelve in the entire game, and it's impossible not to get them.
 * Power Crystal: The Plot Coupons of the game, as mentioned above. There's only twelve in the entire game, and it's impossible not to get them.
 * Punny Name: Quite a few levels have pun names, like Ant Agony, which takes place in the Evil Twins' lair, and predominately features their ant-like Mooks.
 * Quest Giver: Subverted with Farmer Ernest, who offers to give Crash a crystal if he defeats the worms stopping his Wumpa Trees from growing. Cortex shoots him and steals the crystal.

"Cortex: "Before you rises a cathedral of diabolical genius! Scary, but in the wrong hands this iceberg lair could do much... goodness in the world.""
 * Retcon: Cortex did in fact create the Evolve-O-Ray, Nitrus Brio only perfected it.
 * Although it's far more likely that Brio did create the Evolve-O-Ray, and Cortex stole it.
 * Sadist Teacher: Madame Amberly, who wears gloves that apparently generate lightning, used to great effect in her boss battle.
 * Scenery Porn: Unlike Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex's stiff, ugly, off-model graphics, Twinsanity is very, very pretty, filled to the brim with little details, crisp textures, great character models, and good special effects.
 * Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The Iceberg Lab and its stages are this, although one is a Gang Plank Galleon stage.
 * The Starscream: Almost every prominent ally of Cortex turns on him after hearing of the Twin's supposed treasure. Dingodile even directly attacks the doctor at one point.
 * Supervillain Lair: Cortex's massive Iceberg Lab.

"Cortex: "Here's one gift you can return!""
 * Tactical Suicide Boss: Cortex seems to have forgotten about the first game, and continues to fire returnable plasma balls at Crash.

"Cortex: "The check bounced?! Well, Wrath of Cortex didn't do as good as we had hoped...""
 * Take That: While discussing finance with some penguins, Cortex drops this line.

"Cortex, stuck in a pipe: "I'm stuck! The greatest evil scientist in the world! ...Stuck in a pipe. How could things get any worse?" [He farts, letting out a whine soon after.]"
 * This Is a Drill: The Evil Twins' ant minions seem to like drills a lot. In Cavern Catastrophe, you meet up with one of their gigantic drill crawlers, the sides of which come down to let out troops. There are also ant minions with drills on their heads, letting them tunnel underground, or charge at Crash.
 * Toilet Humour: To be expected, as the script was written mostly by former Ren and Stimpy writers, but this also means it's Actually Pretty Funny.

"Cortex: "My daught-err... Niece!""
 * Überwald: The Academy of Evil is designed like this.
 * Uncle's Little Villain: Cortex's adorable niece, Nina. Though we're not informed of anyone else in the Cortex family, leaving the 'niece' thing a little ambiguous.

"Victor: "This is the part where you run away screaming.""
 * Underground Level: Cavern Catastrophe, which takes place deep underground N. Sanity Isle. It serves mostly as a tutorial level for the Crash-Cortex team gameplay, when you're not controlling the both of them in a Big Ball of Violence.
 * Unexpected Gameplay Change: During the final boss, Crash runs away, leaving Nina and Cortex to fight it themselves.
 * Video Game Caring Potential: Utilized as an entire part of the game, Doc Amok, in which Cortex runs full tilt into hazards and pits, unless Crash does something to get rid of them.
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential: While dragging him around, Crash can toss Cortex into hazards and enemies, with little regard for the doctor's safety. He keeps coming back, though.
 * The Voiceless: Crash, who's even more voiceless than usual, and Nina, save for a few grunts. Also Dr. Nitrus Brio.
 * Wasted Song: Quite a few songs didn't make it in, or had the stage they belonged to cut. Some found use in the trailers, but others were just left on the soundtrack. An even stranger example of one is the music for Uka-Uka's boss fight, due to the boss being so pitifully easy and short, you won't hear much of the song unless you wait around forever.
 * You Can Panic Now: After telepathically removing Cortex's brain from his head through his ear, Victor lets him go with this line as Moritz gestures for him to go.