The Crash Bandicoot franchise has proved extremely popular since its release eight years ago, with total sales running into many millions of copies. With popularity like this, you could probably get away with just dishing out sequel after sequel, and the huge fan base would lap it up, year after year. So what have Traveller’s Tales done with the latest adventure?

Crash and his arch enemy, Cortex, have teamed up together to save their world from the evil Eagle Twins. They have travelled from the infinite dimension to steal all the fruit from Crash and Cortex’s world and are going to use it for an energy source in their world.

Although this is a new release, ‘Twinsanity’ looks dated up against the Jak & Daxter and Ratchet and Clank games. Texture quality and detail isn’t up to the same standard as those games, and ‘Twinsanity’ also suffers from noticeable frame rate and texture swapping at times too. However, the draw distance is incredible, and at times you are able to view the entire level that you have travelled if you look back from a high platform. It’s rather impressive and shows that there is a lot going on. Load times are also virtually non-existent which is always nice, and even between levels and new areas etc, you are never presented with a load screen. In fact, you only ever see one when you have died and have to restart the level.

Crash Twinsanity isn’t without its problems though. Some are new issues, and some are problems that plagued the PlayStation version eight years ago and still haven’t been fixed or improved on. First, and probably the worst thing in the game, is the camera. It’s okay when you are running along through a level that doesn’t require any delicate or precise movement, or the need to look around, but as soon as you need to jump to a small platform or look at a higher level, the camera is a complete pain and next to useless. It’s nigh on impossible to judge the arc of your jump as you scramble for the exact pixel required to be able to just about land on the tiny platform. A pixel either way and you are dead. There is no grabbing on to the edge like in Mario 64 or Jak and Daxter here - if you miss the jump, or jump too far (both incredibly easy to do), it’s life over. Again. And Again. And Again. How many more Crash Bandicoot games are going to be made with this mechanic that punishes the player so harshly for something that is not their fault? Camera systems are hard to do properly, so when other developers add assists into their games such as the grabbing of edges, why have Traveller’s Tales decided to not take that route? Perhaps they think their fans enjoy the outrageous leaps of faith the game asks of people, only to punish them for a slight error of judgment. I’d like to apologise to our neighbours because when I was playing this game the words coming out of mouth were not pretty, and I think I need a new controller as this Dual Shock 2 has been thrown a few times this week. Twinsanity is probably the most frustrating game I have played this year - I thought games were supposed to be fun?

Basically I think the health and lives system in the series needs an overhaul, as you can only get hit a couple of times before losing a life. Perhaps a system like Sonic the Hedgehog would work better where you lose your pickups, (fruit in this case) if an enemy hits you, would be a fairer way of doing it. I think it would cut the frustration, like when the little bastard tribesmen poke you when you have – by a pixel again – just missed hitting them during your spin attack.