Crash: Mind Over Mutant

Review by I BlckJck I

Story

When Crash: Mind Over Mutant hit my disc tray the last thing I was expecting to be writing here was that its story would provide one of its best game features. While, like you would expect, it's incredibly shallow but its cut scenes provide enough entertainment to push you along so you can see the next. Each is modelled around a different cartoons from Looney Tunes to South Park. The humour is aimed as much at adults as it at kids. Don't expect to be rolling around on the floor but you'll certainly be cracking a smile more that a few times as you progress. Jokes and wisecracks aside the story is what you expect from your average platform game, a single playthrough will last just over 6 hours and see you hunting down the evil Doctor Neo Cortex and thwart his plans to control everyone's minds by use of the NV (essentially all forms of media wrapped up into one headset).

It is also worthwhile to point out that the game has not strayed too far from the old style platform games with bosses defeat, glowing orbs (Mojo) to collect and of course a lot of moving floors and jumping. The game certainly isn't breaking any barriers but it's clear from the offset that the games only intention is to entertain, and it has succeeded at this at least as far as the story and cut scenes are concerned.

Gameplay

All the classic gameplay elements are there to, Crash has his standard attacks and he can still spin knocking all the enemies around him flying. However most of the time I spent as Titans rather than Crash, once you defeat a mutant you can 'jack' it. This is the only thing in the game that will combat any life, each race of titans has its own unique ability. Some fire projectiles, other curl into a ball and roll over their enemies and one even slows down time to help you with tricky situations. Apart from these few special attacks combat is rather dull, as a titan you tend to button bash until your enemies are stunned and as Crash just hit 'Y' each time your prompted to dodge an attack and then counter. While you can't expect a revolutionary design for a game that his as heavily based in fighting as much as this some more effort may have salvaged an extra few hours of playtime.

Another attempt to give the game some depth is the open-world design which has unfortunately completely failed, I found myself running through the same areas over and over as I moved between missions. Later in the game this problem is lessened as you are teleported to some of your objectives, however this comes in far too late and you'll already have done many areas 3 or 4 times.

However aside from a lack of depth the game plays well and until you get bored of its repetitive nature is very fun to play, there are a good mix of enemies and puzzles and while nothing is very challenging for experienced gamers you'll still be forced to think on occasion.

Graphics and Sound

These too fronts are a huge let downs for the game. The graphics are basic almost to the extreme and the background music for the game will have you reaching for some pruning shears to cut your own ears off within an hour. However watch a cutscene and all of that is turned around, some brilliant voice acting and sound effects together with a clever script and some wonderfully recreated cartoon designs and you forget all about how poor the game looks and sounds once its over.

Conclusion

A fun game for a few hours until the monotonous drone of the background music and tediousness of running through the same levels begins to dawn on you. The games story has saved the game, with some witty one liners and good level of satire and slapstick which meets a range of audiences. The gameplay however won't appeal to more experienced gamers, and will be much more enjoyable if played casually over a longer period. The open world elements give the opportunity for those who do like the game to get a lot more out of it but overall it would have been a much better game without the long hauls between each new area.