Good evening ladies, gentlemen and everything in between, today we bring you the dawn of a new series of articles, spearheaded by me and in collaboration with the man, the legend, @Jusaiki . A series of articles where we review games we consider to be hidden gems. This first article is the beginning of that. However, next episode will be covered by Jusaiki so please look forward to his game of choice!
So without further ado, new year, new beginnings, let’s not waste time!
What is The Huge Adventure?
A surprisingly important segment to have! This is a game some people may have only vaguely heard about, which is fantastic! It just adds to the “hidden gem” factor of it! After Crash went multi-platform, it bounced back and forth between multiple devs. In this instance, The Huge Adventure was handled by Vicarious Vision. Yes, that Vicarious Vision. Humble beginnings sure are interesting, eh?
Like many games around this time, THA follows in the footsteps of Warped, and as such aims to emulate its structure of 5 levels per boss, box gems, hidden gems and time relics. It does not innovate, but it doesn’t have to! As one of our wonderful forum members, Cheela, have said, it was like having 2/3 on a handheld.
And as the reviewer here, I couldn’t agree more. That’s exactly what you’re getting and I couldn’t be more grateful for it.
So it’s like a handheld version of Warped?
In layman terms, essentially yes! Now, let’s level our expectations a bit. While I love Vic with all my heart, they’ve never compared to the big ND. But I do believe that’s to be expected. Vicarious Vision was never a top tier quality studio in and of itself, even the N.Sane trilogy was awkward as hell to play compared to the PSX originals, and arguably inferior in terms of physics, game-feel and overall polish.
But they did an ok job with THA, not only is it a reliable successor to the trilogy but one with its unique wonderful quirks.
Differences?
At first, not that many. The Huge Adventure plays shockingly similar. You’d be surprised by how much muscle memory could carry over here. All the stuff you expected from Warped, minus the Bazooka and other stuff, are left in tact. It’s very faithful. Although… with some minor quirks that’ll be further elaborated on later during the review.Wow, sounds awesome! But wait!
For all its strengths, THA comes with a number of setbacks. You won’t notice them right away, but there’s something about the double jump… that’s a little funky, putting it tightly. I’ve performed all kinds of tests, and I could not find a consistent reason as to why the game would sometimes eat your double jump input. The game is shockingly precise, so input lag can’t be the problem. Rather, the window is very strange.
To make things weirder, the floating spin jump has an extremely specific trigger that even after beating the game, I still can’t properly nail and it’s not even entirely required in some areas which kinda defeats the point all together.
But for every dud, there’s a stud! Or… something.
The Huge Adventure is not without faults, that’s for sure. It’s got VV’s usual brand of unpolish, but it compensates with (occasionally) great level design across its 20 levels, fantastic music (more on that later) and generally good vibes. The plot is… wait, why do you care about the plot? Err, moving on.Wait, 20 levels?
Yup! Despite not deviating much from the originals, THA opts for having 5 less levels than Warped. Well, debatably anyways. While this is a nice change of pace, it understandably raises a couple of eyebrows. How much actual content is there in Huge Adventure? Let’s break it down.Actually actually 20 levels?
This is a very hard no. While the game itself is quite meaty, it features some unfortunate cases of recycling.See this?
There’s three of these.
That’s three too many.
And no, none of ‘em deviate. They’re all identical to one another one, with barely a faint change of scenery to justify them being called new levels.
Now this isn’t inherently a crime. But you must understand, this is a review. We’re breaking down a game to its core components. These questions do deserve an answer, irregardless of how it affects the quality. Not to mention, I’ll be clear regardless if this does impact the overall game or not.
But 17 levels compared to 20 doesn’t that bad, right?
Right…?
Oh you sweet summer child, we’re not half done (neither was this game, the more you think about it).
Remember these in Crash?
There’s 4 of them here. And similar to before, they all blend together. So now what? 7 recycled stages? So only 13 true stages?
There’s also…
Three sewer levels…
Three ice levels…
And…
Ok, but does this all really matter?
Not at all, haha! I’m just taking a crack at it all. It’s all the British sitcoms influencing my brain to make fun of everything, even stuff I like! And I do genuinely like THA! I’m a believer you can poke fun of stuff you love. By the end of the day, this debate isn’t that deep. But I felt some obligation to highlight this merely for curiosity sake, rather than to knock down the game a few pegs. The music is still good too!No really, the music is REALLY good.
Hey, wanna hear some tunes?This? This is just a casual stroll. How can you not like it? No really, how, tell me!
And now… our swan song, a track so good, it fooled me into thinking the credits don’t loop and that they’re just really, really long!
Final Notes: this was quite… an adventure!
The Huge Adventure is a game that carries itself with pride. Let’s make that crystal clear. The task of translating the 3D adventures into a 2D handheld must’ve been scary at first, but they pulled it off quite well all things considered, so now we move on to the final tally but first, got any GBA games from your childhood? Why not crash through the comments and leave a huge memory down below!Lastly, housekeeping 
So it was quite nice grabbing my own footage for once. This might become easier or more challenging based on the game itself. But it was overall quite worth it here all things considered. Lastly, my buddy @Jusaiki is still recovering from covid. Send him your regards. Once he feels better, his episode might drop but for now I’m flying solo so if you’ve got any questions, please fire them away! I’d love to hear your feedback! Thanks to everyone who read this and wish you all the best!
Pros
- + Fantastic transition to 2D!
- + Nice level design (sometimes)
- + One decent Boss!
- + Banging tunes!
Cons
- - But it was still kinda a rough transition
- - Three (out of four) terrible bosses
- - Level recycling is very noticeable
- - Physics can occasionally feel weird
7
Gameplay
While tight, controls can feel a bit weird sometimes. As if the game eats your input. Combined with weird enemy placements and this can feel unfair at times.
6
Graphics
Visually nice, but still has that occasional GBA jank. Visibility can be a real problem on occasions.
9
Sound
If you don’t like the music, we can’t be friends.
7
Replayability
Not too bad in this front, thanks to relatively light completion requirements.
7
out of 10
Overall
The Huge Adventure succeeds in the most important area; providing a fun handheld adventure. It could’ve done so much worse, so it does deserve admiration for what it accomplished here.
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