Crash Bandicoot: Wrath Of Cortex Is A Hidden Gem You ALL Missed

Worth It For The Atlaspheres

One of the biggest reasons why Wrath of Cortex is such an underrated gem that more people need to know about is the addition of the atlasphere levels, a feature that has yet to make their return to the franchise but are long overdue another rollout.

The levels feature Crash being dumped into a glass ball, which players have to navigate around various platforms and obstacles all the way to the end goal.

One of the key themes from the very first stages of Cerny's initial vision for the game was a sense of realism to the levels and their design, opposed to the wacky fantastical settings across the previous three titles. It's with the atlasphere levels that this vision really comes closest to being fulfilled, with the sphere's realistic physics allowing for a slower, more exploration-friendly pace and puzzles that really match what the original game was meant to be all about.

Louis Bedigian from Gamezone claimed that these levels were so good that: "Traveller's Tales could develop a whole game based on the sphere levels alone". These levels really just go a long way in illustrating the potential the game had behind its original vision, and how good it really could have been if the developers had the chance to build things out from this solid foundation.

Nevertheless, these are still some of the most unique and fun levels anywhere in the Crash series and deserve more appreciation.