Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex (GC) speed run [0:56:39 w/o loads / 1:11:09 RTA]

Channel:

Michael McKenzie

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Published on July 25, 2012 10:39:49 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc9vvX0gNf0

Game:

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex (2001)

Duration: 1:14:44

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This is my speedrun for Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex in 1:11:09, as timed from gaining control in the warp room to being warped out of the final boss arena.

This is a pretty significant update from my earlier run: for one, in this one I only die once, and it's a kind of tragic one right near the end, in stage 24 where I thought I could make a jump and fell just short. Should've just waited. :(

Most of my strategies are also more refined, though in the days since I've improved them a bit more without being able to do an overall-as-clean run. The lesson to take from all my testing is that it's generally better to stay on the ground and slide for as long as possible, even if you have to go around things to do so. (As well as obvious exceptions like the conveyor belts in stage 5.)

Some points of interest:

Bamboozled - I don't know why, but for some reason, your masks work in these levels and not the other ball levels. That's why I take the other two (particularly Eskimo Roll) so conservatively around Nitros.

Rumble in the Roks (first boss) - This is how it's meant to go! Positioning like this after the end of the second phase means you can wedge yourself in between these two rocks at the start of the third, and it's pretty trivial from there.

Also, after each boss you lose all your masks. That's why I play the late levels in each warp room really aggressively; it doesn't matter if I lose them then.

Banzai Bonsai - just jumped at the wrong time here and caught myself, if I had gone through with that jump I would certainly have fallen in the pit.

Weathering Heights - Here I make first use of a very helpful glitch in this game: if you get hit with a mask, the pits don't actually kill you during your invincibility period (which is quite long). This is very convenient because most of the wire mesh things which Crash moves SO SLOWLY on are suspended above these pits, so by taking strategic hits you can skip most of these sections.

Droid Void - First, you can't skip (much of) this overhead section because the void is too low: even with a slide-jump-doublejump you still can't get back up to the mesh. Second, you can actually catch the last enemy on the left just as it's turning around and take a hit from it instead, which saves about five seconds on the mesh, but you have to avoid the mask earlier on and even then, the timing to get there in time is very tight. With only one mask I decided to play safe and pick up the extra, which makes me feel safer in the electric part coming up. And if I don't use it there, I can use it in the mech sections later in the stage - win-win!

Atmospheric Pressure (fourth boss) - It's not immediately obvious, but what you're actually doing here is targeting a different part of Crunch's body with each attack. In order, it's the right hand, the head, the left hand, and the chest. Each part goes down in three rounds except for the right hand, for some reason...

Crate Balls of Fire - I so should have just waited on this jump. :( Having said that, I remember testing just before this run that you could make this jump from any distance, so I was kinda pissed off when it didn't make it. Time loss from this death is around 24 seconds.

Gold Rush - You can't do the damage trick in these pits because they act differently to the other voids - you just fall straight through. Additionally, they place boxes really obnoxiously right in your jump arc, but taking them out and double jumping back to the mesh is still quicker than just holding on the whole way. Speaking of which, optimising the double jump to the mesh is actually quite risky, since after a certain point in your fall the second jump just doesn't work any more.

Crash and Burn - Most of this level is kinda scary to have to do last, but there's a specific jump at 1:08:10 that actually needs a specific tornado rhythm: just mashing B will cause you to stay in the air too long and the platform you're trying to land on will just fall into the lava. After you double jump, you should space out four or five taps of B so that you fall in a slightly lower arc towards the platform, but not spaced out so much so as to end the move.

Enjoy the run!

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