Crash Bandicoot 2 : Cortex Strikes Back

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back for PlayStation is Naughty Dog's 1997 follow-up to the original Crash Bandicoot, published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The single-player 3D platform game returns Crash to the islands around N. Sanity Island after Doctor Neo Cortex survives their first confrontation. Cortex claims that a looming planetary alignment threatens Earth and asks his old enemy to recover the crystals needed to stop it. His holographic briefings give Crash a new mission, but Coco Bandicoot and Cortex's former assistant Doctor Nitrus Brio both urge him to question the villain's story.

The adventure is organized around five-level Warp Rooms rather than a single uninterrupted route. Each portal leads to a stage with a Crystal to collect, and clearing a room's five stages opens a boss encounter and the route to the next hub. That format lets players choose among several available levels and return to earlier ones, while a separate chase for Gems encourages more careful exploration. Secret entrances, alternate paths, bonus areas, timed challenges, and box-completion goals give many stages objectives beyond simply reaching the exit.

Crash's familiar spin attack and jump remain central to moving through hazards and defeating enemies, but Cortex Strikes Back expands his toolkit. He can slide under obstacles or into suitable foes, use a body slam to break particular crates, and link a slide into a higher jump. The game makes its crates part of the platforming language: Wumpa Fruit contribute to extra lives, checkpoint crates mark progress, Aku Aku masks provide protection, and TNT or Nitro crates demand careful timing. Arrow boxes, ! crates, and other special containers change how a route must be approached, particularly when players are working toward a Gem.

The PlayStation game moves between jungle paths, snowy terrain, sewers, waterfalls, ruins, and more technological locations, mixing forward-running stages with sections viewed from behind Crash. Some levels change the pace with vehicle sequences, including riding a young polar bear, steering a jetboard, or navigating with a jetpack. These variations sit alongside precision platforming, enemy patterns, collapsing paths, rolling hazards, and environmental traps. Crash meets returning adversaries such as Ripper Roo and N. Brio as well as new threats including the Komodo Brothers, Tiny Tiger, and Cortex's technician Doctor N. Gin.

The Crystal hunt is only part of the story. Cortex needs 25 Crystals for the space-based Cortex Vortex, a machine he intends to use for global brainwashing rather than rescue. Coco uses her technical skills to break into Cortex's communications and expose the deception, while Brio proposes using Gems to destroy the station. Players who concentrate on the normal progression can reach the final confrontation after collecting the required Crystals, while the wider Gem challenge reveals a more complete outcome for the campaign's conflict.

As a PlayStation sequel, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back refined the series' mascot-platform formula with its Warp Room structure, expanded move set, collectible routes, and a larger assortment of stage concepts. It was originally released for the first PlayStation in late 1997 and later appeared through PlayStation digital services. The game was also remade as part of 2017's Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, but this entry refers to the original PlayStation version: the second main Crash Bandicoot adventure and the bridge between the 1996 debut and Crash Bandicoot: Warped.