http://betterbracketmaker.com/#!/30d3bc4ef0c15
It came down to the wire last round, but Spyro 2 managed to squeak by after an intense battle with Silent Hill. On to round 3!
Round 3: Final Fantasy IX Vs. Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back!
Final Fantasy IX is the third game in the PS1 Final Fantasy
mainline trilogy, and something of a swan song for Role Playing Games on the
console, coming out around the same time as Breath of Fire IV, Parasite Eve II,
and Chrono Cross, rounding out the last big RPG releases for the system.
Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back! Is the sequel to the
PS1 killer app, Crash Bandicoot. The levels are bigger, Cortex is badder, and
the game is an overall improvement in pretty much every conceivable way over it’s
predecessor.
Graphics:
Let’s be honest here, the only part of the FF trilogy’s
graphics that hold up extremely well are the pre-rendered backgrounds.
Everything else goes strictly into “Your Mileage may vary” territory. Whereas
Final Fantasy VII’s character models sought to recapture the sprite style of
the SNES Final Fantasy game using 3D models, and Final Fantasy VIII went for
full on realistic (at the time, anyway) models, Final Fantasy IX strikes a
middle ground between the somewhat cartoonish style of VII, and the realistic
proportions of VIII. That said… the character models are really, really, jaggy.
Almost moreso than VII’s somewhat crude character models. Unless you have the
smoothing option enabled when playing this on PS2/PS3/PSP/Vita/, it’s almost
kind of distracting. However, it’s a game that pushes the PS1 to it’s limits
moreso than any other FF game before it, a task that is admirable in it’s own
right.
Crash Bandicoot 2, on the other hand, has a pretty
simplistic art style in comparison to FFIX. It’s clean, cartoonish, and doesn’t
attempt to get any more complicated than that. It’s that simplicity perhaps,
that makes Crash 2’s visuals hold up as well as they do. PS1/N64/Saturn 3D
visuals tend not to hold up well at all.
The 3D games from that era with defined art styles tend to be the ones with visuals that age more gracefully, and
Crash 2 falls squarely into that category. Crash 2 takes the visuals category.
Gameplay/Controls:
Final Fantasy IX controls about the same as any turn based
RPG on the system. You walk around towns, talk to NPCs, navigate menus to equip
weapons, armor, or items, and you navigate a menu during battle to attack and
defend. Basic stuff, really. Nothing in it that necessarily revolutionizes the genre. The abilty to learn skills from equipped weaponry/armor is quite novel, though. The synthesis system seen in so many Square Enix games (Most notably Kingdom Hearts) has it's root in this game.
Crash 2 has somewhat simplistic controls to, at least at
first. Crash can run, jump, spin and slide using the face buttons on the PS1
controller. After that, though… there’s a few other actions like the high jump,
crawling, and of course, the body slam. In an era where 3D platformers lived
and died by their controls and how well they controlled (*couge*sonicadventure*cough*),
Naught Dog nailed the controls. Crash never feels like he’s too slippery or too
stiff.nBoth games do exactly as they set out to do here gameplay-wise. I’ll
call it a tie.
Replayability:
Final Fantasy IX is a pretty big game. It spans 4 discs, and
every single one of those discs are packed with content. There’s mini-games to
play, side quests to discover (True Story:
A *very* late game sidequest was just only recently discovered in the game, 13
years after its release!) and optional bosses to fight. As far as Final Fantasy
games go, this is one of the more content packed entries.
There’s no shortage
of things to do. Crash 2 is pretty much
the same as Crash 1, as far as game structure goes. You play through linear
levels, sometimes with hidden paths or secrets to discover, and go from point A
to point B. It’s simple, and straight to the point. By discovering everything
and getting 100% you can get a secret ending, but that’s about it, as far as
replay value goes. Overall, there’s just so much more actual game to FFIX that
I have to give the nod to IX.
Verdict:
Er… wow. Another tie. Looks like a coin flip is in order,
then. Same deal as before, best two out of three.
FFIX is heads, Crash 2 is tails.
Flip 1: Tails
Flip 2: Heads
Flip 3: Tails
Looks like Crash 2: Cortex Strikes Back wins. Can’t say I
was expecting that!
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