Crash Bandicoot: Warped is a gorgeous, gorgeous game. The levels are bright and deep, in what is perhaps the final realization of Crash on the first-generation PlayStation. Just as a three-quel should, Crash 3 delivers the familiar characters one more time, with an over-the-top selection of new powers and new levels.

But Crash 3 suffers from a problem also found in Crash 2: the levels are too short.

It took me several months to conquer the first Crash Bandicoot. Probably a slow time, but that first installment was much trickier in terms of jumping and landing. Crash 2 took me a few weeks. On the very day I bought Crash 3, I sped through the first 8 levels... even nabbing perfect-crate scores on a few of them without trying. The only reason I stopped playing was because I wanted my $40 to last more than one weekend.