#27
'Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped'
for the Sony PlayStation released in 1998.
It doesn't happen often that the third game in a numbered series is the best one. Usually, the quality gradually goed down a bit with each new entry. For 'Crash Bandicoot', that was never the case. Quality actually went up. During the time the games were developed by Naughty Dog in any case. This is due to the simple fact that with each iteration, they kept everything that was good, and improved everything that was bad without resorting to introducing gimmicky new gameplay mechanics or anything of the sort.
'Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped' is therefore the best one in the 'true' Crash-trilogy. The games, including this one, are 3D platformers, during the golden-age of the genre in the 5th Generation. And one of the finer examples at that. The Crash games nailed one of the hardest things to get right in those days; camera movement. Even in this day, there's games (even big, popular ones, but I won't point fingers here) that struggle to get a satisfactory camera.
But, of course, flawless technical aspects aren't the reason this game made it to this list, and fairly high too. It was because of the level-design and replay value. The games were clever in design, with no level alike, and featured a wide range of locales which made you keep going. I thought the level-design on this third game was better than that of the other two, but it could also simply be because I played this one the most. Or because 1998 was such a magical year. In any case, this entry could also be viewed as an entry in the list for the whole Crash series on the first PlayStation.
#26 Hint
A certain cheat would give the player a choice of two wildly different things; either a mobster with a rather cliché name would give you money, or you'd get a castle!
