History VideoGame / CrashBandicootTheWrathOfCortex

* SlippySlideyIceWorld: "Arctic Antics" and "Avalanche". Made especially difficult in the latter due to the sloped pathway and cluttered path of Nitro crates ahead.

* SlippySlideyIceWorld: "Artic Antics" and "Avalanche". Made especially difficult in the latter due to the sloped pathway and cluttered path of Nitro crates ahead.

* MinecartMadness: The start of "Compactor Reactor". "Ghost Town" is a minecart race.

* TheManyDeathsOfYou: As usual, the developers take great fun in imagining any possible amusing manner Crash can lose a life, ranging from being torched to ashes, turned into a bat or freezing into a mini iceburg. Coco gets in on it too, though not nearly to the extent.

* HumanSacrifice: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen Early footage of the game]] depict a more story-centric level in which Coco is captured by tribesman gorilla and placed in a cage hovering dangerously over a pit of lava.

* CatAndMouseBoss: The third boss, a molten lava mutation of Crunch chases after you. The tables turn after you make your way to a mech with an freeze projectile.

* BonusFeatureFailure: Many of the alternate vehicles and gameplay modes are actually more limited and unwieldly to play compared to Crash himself. Coco in particular works to same effect as Crash diluted to just his primary moveset.

Within their secret lair in deep space, Dr. Cortex and his cronies are sour over their previous defeats by Crash Bandicoot. [[BigBad Uka Uka]] is giving them an intense chewing out, they still haven't conquered the world and [[CardCarryingVillain their current evil productivity]] is pathetic. Within their convension over how to eliminate their nemesis, N. Gin brainlessly mentions Dr. Cortex's super secret project, Crunch Bandicoot, a super mutant with unbelievable strength. However, he requires a completing element. Uka Uka immediately devises upon releasing The Elementals, an destructive band of Elemental masks that had previously been imprisoned by Aku Aku, that can be used to power Crunch as well as bring chaos and destruction to the entire planet. Once again it is up to Crash and his sister Coco to save the day.

* ActionGirl: Coco.

* FollowTheLeader: ''The Wrath of Cortex'' for the most part emulates the mechanics exactly as ''Warped'' had previously. It wasn't the last game in the series to follow this method.

** Crunch himself lacks most of the LaughablyEvil traits of Cortex's other minions, the creepy transformations caused by the Elemental masks doesn't help [[spoiler: This however, proved to be a result of being BrainwashedAndCrazy, as later games show, the normal, good-natured Crunch isn't serious or intimidating, at all.]]

* MissionPackSequel

* [[HumanSacrifice Bandicoot Sacrifice]]: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen Early footage of the game]] depict a more story centric level in which Coco is captured by tribesman gorilla and placed in a cage hovering dangerously over a pit of lava.

* [[spoiler: BrainwashedAndCrazy: Crunch as it turns out, after the Elementals are defeated, the "missing element", ie. Cortex's control over his mind, is missing once again.]]

* DemotedToExtra: Cortex and Uka Uka's minions, N. Gin, Tiny, N. Tropy and Dingodile appear only briefly in the introduction, following which they appear only as hindrances in a couple of levels. Cortex and Uka Uka themselves act as TheUnfought, due to Crunch acting as the boss in all five hubs.
** Well, in a sense, both Cortex and Crunch are Final Bosses. Crunch is responsible for most of the attacks, but it's Cortex you have to attack, and it's his picture next to the health bar.

* DummiedOut: The game uses a few areas from early development and planted new levels on top of them. Ice Station Bandicoot for example uses a small platforming area as a background under the helecopter racetrack. An unused [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brXCe8gUL34 racing]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS-Ky4_RRW4&feature=related dogfight]] level have also been found inside the game, as well as some extra Coco animations suggesting she was meant to be more fully playable.

* GimmickLevel: The number of gimmick levels literally outnumber the standard ones, with a noticeable impact on the game's quality.

* KnightOfCerebus: Though {{Mark Hamill}}'s hammy acting ensures he is still somewhat entertaining, Py-ro comes off as much more sinister and manic than [[LaughablyEvil his bretheren]], even refered to as the strongest and most evil mask in the manual. He was in fact meant to be the final Elemental boss, though was switched with Lo-lo for unknown reasons.
** Crunch himself lacks most of the LaughablyEvil traits of Cortex's other minions, the creepy transformations caused by the Elemental masks doesn't help [[spoiler: This however, proved to be a result of being BrainwashedAndCrazy, as later games show, the normal, good-natured Crunch [[CloudCuckooLander isn't]] [[GoodIsDumb serious]] [[MotorMouth or intimidating]], [[GentleGiant at all]].]]
* LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: The original PS2 version infamously suffered from tediously long loading times. You could be waiting up to a minute just to play each level. The "Greatest Hits"/"Platinum" versions as well as the [=GameCube=] and Xbox ports fixed this to a more tolerable fifteen or so seconds.

* [[spoiler: NeverMyFault: After another failure, Uka attempts to smoke Cortex with an energy ball as punishment, which misses and hits the circuitry of the space station, causing a breakdown.]]

* PointyHairedBoss: Uka seems to have converted into one since the previous titles, even frequently managing a [[TheJetsons Mr Spacely]]-style bellow of Cortex's name.

* SlapstickKnowsNoGender: Inverted; Coco suffers a few AmusingInjuries, but not ''nearly'' to the same extent as [[IronButtMonkey her brother]]. She seems to be far less natural on ice however.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: ''The Wrath of Cortex'' was originally planned to be a sandbox exploration game, much in the vein of ''VideoGame/CrashTwinsanity'' developed afterwards. As the project traded hands however, the developers shyed away from differing the game too much from the traditional ''Crash'' gameplay, to the point of remaking it into a borderline carbon copy of ''Warped''.

The sixth installment in the ''Franchise/CrashBandicoot'' series and the fourth platformer title. ''Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex'' was also the first title in the series to make a leap to a next generation console. It was developed by Creator/TravellersTales' Knutsford division and originally released on the PlayStation2 and later ported to the Xbox and NintendoGameCube.

* AdvancingWallOfDoom: In "Wizards And Lizards", you have to run from a giant dragon, while in "Jungle Rumble" to take control of a jeep to drive away from a herd of rhinos.

* DemotedToExtra: Cortex and Uka Uka's minions, N. Gin, Tiny, N. Tropy and Dingodile appear only briefly in the introduction, following which they appear only as hinderances in a couple of levels. Cortex and Uka Uka themselves act as TheUnfought, due to Crunch acting as the boss in all five hubs.

* HubLevel: Coco conviniently enough just finished whipping one up as the Elementals attacked. And it looks near exactly like the one in ''Warped'' as well.

* DivergentCharacterEvolution: In ''CrashBash'', Coco was an alternate for Crash in terms of gameplay, having an identical spin attack. Here Coco has obtained kick attacks in their place. Granted it could be taken with a grain of salt since her abilities overall still work to the same effect as Crash's (albeit with a lower number of abilities). Arguably keeping her with identical moves as Crash would have actually been more productive.

The sixth installment in the ''CrashBandicoot'' series and the fourth platformer title. ''Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex'' was also the first title in the series to make a leap to a next generation console. It was developed by Creator/TravellersTales' Knutsford division and originally released on the PlayStation2 and later ported to the Xbox and NintendoGameCube.

The sixth installment in the ''CrashBandicoot'' series and the fourth platformer title. ''Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex'' was also the first title in the series to make a leap to a next generation console. It was developed by Creator/TravellersTales' Knutsford division and originally released on the PlayStation2 and later ported to the Xbox and NintendoGameCube. The game, while maintaining itself as a "slow burner" in sales at the time, was met with mixed reception by fans and critics alike, essentially acting as a carbon copy of ''CrashBandicoot3Warped'' with new levels and bosses, and despite doing a competent job of recreating the original games' gameplay, suffered from LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading and adding little new to the series ([[ScrappyMechanic or at least little new that was productive]]), with the exception of [[EnsembleDarkhorse Crunch]].

* HubLevel: Coco [[AssPull conviniently enough]] just finished whipping one up as the Elementals attacked. And it looks near exactly like the one in ''Warped'' as well.

* MissionPackSequel: The major complaint.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: ''The Wrath of Cortex'' was originally planned to be a sandbox exploration game, much in the vein of ''CrashTwinsanity'' developed afterwards. As the project traded hands however, the developers shyed away from differing the game too much from the traditional ''Crash'' gameplay, to the point of remaking it into a borderline carbon copy of ''Warped''.