Crash

I was sitting down watching YouTube videos when my brother came over and asked whether an Xbox game would work on the Xbox 360. I replied “Probably...why’d you ask”

“Oh I wanted to play Crash Twinsanity again” Crash Twinsanity had been on the biggest games of my brother’s childhood and even my Dad used to play it a lot too. I was more of a Spyro fane but I still went on the Cex website looking for one. There were seven in stock so I ordered one in fear they may run out. Once it arrived my brother was inseparable from the Xbox but about a week later he asked me to play it. The game was fun to play and I had kinda liked the Crash Bandicoot games on the Playstation 1 so I was filled with nostalgia. Some things were odd though. As the game progressed Crash’s facial expression wasn’t clueless and happy. It became angrier. I ignored it. Soon I found the first crystal so this meant I had to kill the Ant Drones that came out of the drill. Instead of disappearing into a puff of smoke like normal I heard a wail before the body disappeared. The wail was barely audible so I had to listen out for it.

After teaming up with Cortex the game played normal despite the wailing. But soon I noticed Cortex instead of grunting and moaning when being pulled along by Crash he whimpered and looked reluctant to be with him like he was scared of Crash. This continued throughout the game without fail. When I had to fight the Totem god guy with four arms I missed when I had to throw Cortex into his mouth. When Cortex teleported back to me I span to join with him. Instead of grabbing him it hit him and knocked him onto the ground. He whimpered and then picked himself up. Every time Cortex couldn’t complete the objective and had to teleport back to me he got hit. Every hit resulted in a loud whimper until it grew into a wail and towards the end it became a scream. I was unsettled by the noises but I was nearing the end of the game so I didn’t care much for it.



In the Academy of Evil levels I had the chance to play as Cortex himself without Crash. Cortex cried if you stood still for thirty seconds and would sometimes say “I hate him” I was pretty scared at this point and hoped these actions meant nothing. I was soon fighting Madame Amberly after defeating her Cortex said “what have I become.”  Then I went onto the airship I wanted to finish this so I would never have to play it again. The game glitched and replayed a previous level in the airship where Ant drones board the airship and Cortex has to shoot them. This time there were a lot more Ant Drones and one killed me. The game loaded up again with Cortex holding his ray gun under his chin the barrel pointing into his head he was on his knees like he was praying. Crash looking down on him. Crash then said in an animal bark “Do it” Cortex pulled the trigger. The earlier used brain texture flex up into the air and went off screen there was no blood just some black wisps of smoke from the crater in Cortex’s head. In disgust I switched off the console, but the image of Cortex was burnt into the screen leaving a sort of shadow. We had the TV repaired but that image haunts me to this day.