For just under a decade Sony had a little orange mascot who went by the name Crash Bandicoot, and he jumped his way into the heart of any gamer over the age twenty. Some of our favorite gaming memories were carried out through the hops and skips of Mr. Bandicoot. Once Sony grew up and adopted the Playstation 3, the kid-friendly mammal was dropped in favor of humans with guns. Years later, and after a couple horrendous games Crash is back in the form of a next-gen action/platformer and console exclusivity is no longer a concern. Developed by Radical Entertainment and published by the folks at Activision-Vivendi, Crash: Mind Over Mutant is one of those games that you can have fun with for a little while but will eventually gather dust on your shelf; at least if you’re over the age of ten.
Mind Over Mutant is the sequel to the lackluster selling Crash game of last year, Crash of the Titans. Therefore the story is very similar in that there are bad guys and good guys; Crash being a good guy must stop the bad guys thus saving the entire universe. Thankfully the writers did a decent job of throwing in a good bit of humor throughout the plot while still hanging onto the simplicity that a game such as this needs. A couple of the major enemies from Crash of the Titans are back and meaner than ever; fans of the series will recognize Dr. Neo Cortex and Dr. Nitrus Brio as well as a couple other small characters. The open-world of Wumpa Island is fairly large, spaced out on the island are the levels (disguised as locations).
The game never really allows you to “freely” explore or go wherever you want as levels only open once some specific task is completed. The five or so worlds each have their own unique level design and feel, the trouble comes once these five levels are completed. Only then do you find what the next five levels are, the same thing only reversed or “changed”. It would have been nice to see the game take a different approach but it doesn’t surprise us considering the budget and time-constraints the developers surely were restrained by.
Each level also has it’s own unique enemies that can be dispelled through the classic stomp or spin technique. The mutants, what we believe are the showcase of the game, can also be used to neutralize bad-guys and/or help traverse certain parts of the level. Crash: Mind Over Mutant features a ton of different mutants that can be controlled, he will ride horned beasts, hovering monsters, fanged baddies, and even get inside a mutant or two. Something that was not in the past Crash game but makes an appearance in this one, luckily, is the ability to store more than one mutant in the hero’s inventory. Each vehicle of destruction has it’s own unique strengths and weaknesses; actually we didn’t really find any weaknesses.
For example if Crash is going through an ice level the best mutant would be the one that looks like an abominable snowman; same thing goes for the telepathic mutant (can be used to move objects and enemies). As with most other parts of the game there is just too little variety to the mutant aspect, after time you will probably get bored with whatever mutant you are controlling and dump it in favor of just playing as Crash. Controlling the orange bandicoot is just as simple as it was years ago. Using the left analog stick for movement, the right one for spin attacks, and the varied face-buttons for jumping, etc. The biggest problem with the gameplay aspect of Mind Over Mutant is the camera system, there’s not one to speak of. Usually with this type of game players would use the right analog stick to move the camera in a 360-degree angle around Crash. The developers made the weird decision to have a fixed camera (stuck behind Crash at all times) that causes way too many problems.
This leads to multiple, and repeated, deaths that turn an otherwise fun game into something that is way too frustrating. We had a four-year old come into the office and spend a little time with Crash: Mind Over Mutant and found out that he really enjoyed it, although he thought it was a bit difficult for someone of his age, had he been a bit older he would have played much longer. Crash Bandicoot will always hold a special place in gaming history and the overall development of platforming games. There is a surprising amount of detail in the different levels and everything but the camera looks good from a graphical standpoint. The game succeeds in what it is trying to be but fails to be the amazing Crash game that we are all waiting for.
