Crash: Mind Over Mutant
Score: 93% ESRB: Everyone 10+ Publisher: Activision Developer: Radical Entertainment Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Platformer/ Action/ Adventure
Graphics & Sound: Crash is back! Almost exactly a year from the release of Crash of the Titans, we now get the next chapter in Crash's history Crash: Mind Over Mutant. Once again, Dr. Cortex is trying to take over the world and Crash and his friends are the only ones who can stop him. Last year, I played Crash of the Titans on the PS2. So needless to say, the graphics are much improved in Mind Over Mutant. The characters are still cartoonish like they've always been, and I still think that's a good thing. I like the simplistic graphic nature of the game. If you want, you can even change Crash's clothing. The monsters are very varied in nature. They range from the big hulking things from last game to some new ones that float and fight using telepathy. The cut scenes to me were the funniest. They used quite a few different artistic methods including shadow puppets. If you've ever played a Crash game before, then you know what everything sounds like. The voices have pretty much been constant for years now. Crash still speaks very little. My personal favorite is Aku-Aku (Greg Eagles). You might recognize his voice as the same actor who speaks for Grim in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.
Gameplay: It seems like Crash just never gets a break. Every year, Dr. Cortex causes some huge calamity for Crash to fix, with the help of his friends Coco, Crunch, and Aku-Aku. This year, Cortex is truly ingenious. He creates the most wonderful electronic device ever. When you put it over your head, the screens will be in front of your eyes. From those screens you can do anything, surf the web, check your e-mail, watch a movie, and quite a bit more. Once everyone is hooked on the device (which he sent out free of charge), they will then mutate into giant monsters. Coco and Crunch have no clue that this is their fate when they put the headsets on, though. After they mutate, Crash has to first figure out how to rescue them from the devices and then bring down Cortex once again. Crash: Mind Over Mutant is a platformer that has stayed true to the genre. You start on your home screen and from there, you find out which area you need to go to. Once you're there, it's not a free roam. You stay on the path and figure out how to get around the obstacles in your way. Jacking the monsters is usually the easiest way to do this. Each monster has their own skills. You need to learn which ones you need to keep to get you past the different obstructions. As you journey through the areas, you'll see colored balls lying all over the ground. These are mojo. Collect them to increase your skills. You can also just follow them to figure out where to go next. Each time you exit a level and go back into it, the mojo will be back on the ground. There is an unlimited supply of it. When you beat monsters, you can steal their mojo. You can also destroy objects lying around the board to get the mojo out of them.
Difficulty: In a platformer, figuring out where to go is the easy part, but getting there is the hard part. If you've never played a platformer before, then it might take you some time to get used to the controls. It seems to me like they're even easier than before in some ways though, particularly the wall jumps. It used to be that you would have to jump and press behind you and upwards to jump to the opposite wall and climb it higher. Now though, all you have to do is jump and it will automatically take you up and across the way you want to go. This makes it so much easier to get up these columns than it was before. Given that there is no time limit and there is no limit to the number of lives you can lose, all it takes is perseverance and you will eventually win the game. Sometimes it is a little difficult to figure out what to do to beat the bosses, but none of them are impossible with some practice.
Game Mechanics: Mechanics are important in a platformer. It takes precision and skill to make some of the more difficult jumps. The controls in Crash: Mind Over Mutant handled flawlessly. Crash has several different moves in his attack arsenal. The very basic things you will learn first. The game does a very good job of integrating the tutorial into the gameplay. Jumping is essential. The (A) button will cause Crash to jump. Press it twice to make him double jump. You can also do a high jump by rotating the (L) stick and then pressing (A). Your basic attack button is (X). I would say it works pretty well for one on one combat. When you're surrounded though, you're probably going to want to use Crash's spin attack. Simply spin the (L) stick and then continually press (X) to make Crash spin. Be careful though, because if you use it for too long, he will get dizzy. (Y) is your heavy attack. Hold it down for a charged attack. There's quite a bit more to controlling Crash, but that will get you started. The game does a really good job of explaining all the controls as you're going, so you don't have to memorize all of this right away. I've been playing the Crash series since if first came out over 10 years ago. It's one of the games that I look forward to getting every year. I'm not sure the year would be complete without a new story of Crash and his friends' battle against Cortex and his evil minions. Mind Over Mutant is a great next chapter. You should definitely go get it today.
-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl
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