Crash: Mind over Mutant – 360 – Review

It’s been a while since I’ve played
a Crash Bandicoot game. For a franchise that was once a driving force of the
Sony PlayStation, we haven’t heard much from Crash in the past few years. He’s
now made the leap onto other game platforms, including the Xbox 360. And I have
to say, just as seeing Sonic the Hedgehog on the Nintendo Wii, it just doesn’t
seem right. Imagine Mario appearing in an Xbox game… it’s somewhat bizarre.
This aside, however, let’s take a look at Crash’s new game.

Prior installments in the Crash
universe relied on a sort of faked three-dimensional environment, with very
limited control on exploration. Mind Over Mutant, on the other hand, has created
a full 3D world for Crash to explore. Crash has the capability for full
360-degree movement, in addition to numerous new maneuvers, including climbing,
digging, and mounting large mutants to aid in his quest. It feels like more of a
continuous adventure than previous installments in the series, because
everything happens in one contiguous world rather than in separate stages. New
missions and areas open up as the story line is advanced and as new abilities
are earned.

From the very beginning of the game,
you’ll notice blue and pink crystals littering the landscape. These crystals are
called "mojo" and while not absolutely necessary, it is a good idea to collect
as many of them as possible. At first, this seemed a bit pointless, as I thought
it would only earn my character an extra life, or something of the sort. But
there is actually more depth to it than that, and it was a nice surprise. As it
turns out, collecting mojo is how your character becomes stronger and earns new
abilities, in an RPG-leveling-up sort of way. For example, collecting your first
1,000 mojo allows Crash to use his patented spin-attack for a longer period of
time without becoming dizzy. It’s a nice incentive and makes collecting mojo
much more important and less trivial.

The combat system is surprisingly
fun, and has just enough depth to keep it from becoming too repetitive. Crash
can perform the standard punches and kicks, his aforementioned spin attack, a
spin-jump, and even some combos using the triangle button for power moves. And
that’s all without using a mutant. Once you mount a mutant, you’re able to use
their special attacks and powerful combat moves. The first mutant you encounter
is able to freeze enemies, freeze water, and is ultra-powerful compared to
Crash. It almost makes you feel invincible at some points. What I really liked
about the combat system is that the game keeps track of your consecutive hits,
and only resets this counter when you take damage from an enemy. Building up
this counter in turn builds a mojo multiplier. So if you’ve scored 20
consecutive hits, you might have a 6x multiplier on any mojo you pick up. So if
you battle carefully and ruthlessly, your character and mutant will level up
that much faster.

I have to give kudos to the writers
– they’ve put together an entertaining storyline and dialogue. Much of this
storyline is told through cut scenes that take on a life of their own. Each one
is done in a unique art style, ranging from comic book style, to a puppet
performance, to Japanese-anime style. They’re funny, unexpected, and keep you
engaged in what otherwise might be a drab storyline. The humor is at a level
that would most likely pass by any youngsters playing the game, but for
teen-agers and 20-somethings, it’s sure to be a riot. And a large part of this
is due to outstanding voice acting.

Coming out of the cut scenes is
almost a disappointment once the game’s standard graphics are loaded back up.
That’s not because the cut scenes are high-powered, high-tech, and flashy. It’s
just that there’s more personality, and more life in them. The cut scene art
styles are done very, very well, while the game’s standard graphics are
basically run-of-the-mill 3D platformer. They’re not bad, I just found myself
wishing for more of the lively cut scene styles.

While Mind Over Mutant was certainly
a fun game to play, and while it certainly kept me entertained and even made me
laugh a number of times, I couldn’t help but think it was a bit too easy. I
rarely felt challenged, except for some of the platforming – jumps can be
tricky! The game does offer three levels of difficulty to choose from, and I
played on normal. So if you’re an experienced gamer, I’d almost recommend
playing on the hard difficulty, unless you just want to breeze through this
title. Overall though, once I got past the initial weirdness of seeing Crash
Bandicoot on my Xbox, it was fun, just like old times.

Gameplay: 8.5
Crash in a full 3D environment! Excellent controls, with enough variation
and depth to keep things from becoming stale. No camera control though, which is
somewhat of a bummer.

Graphics: 7.1
Lets just say that Mind Over Mutant doesn’t push the 360 to it’s limits. The
standouts all come in the cutscenes, with the inclusion of an excellent variety
of art styles used to spin the newest tale of Crash Bandicoot vs. Dr. Neo
Cortex.

Sound: 7.5
The music is standard Crash fare, but the voice acting is superb, especially
in the cutscenes. The characters are truly brought to life, and you’ll
definitely get some laughs if you have any sense of humor.

Difficulty: Easy
Well, there are 3 difficulty levels to choose from, but playing on standard
difficulty, I was able to breeze through the game with little trouble. If you’re
an experienced gamer, you might want to consider trying the hard difficulty.

Concept: 7.5
It’s nice to see the Crash formula evolve, even just a little bit, by
including the ability to control mutants and use their superpowers against the
evil Dr. Neo Cortex. You’re still able to control Crash on his own, but the new
twist adds some needed variety to the gameplay.

Overall: 8.1
Though it was not the most challenging game, Mind Over Mutant remained a joy
to play. Stepping into the 3D world is definitely a good move for the franchise,
and the gameplay translates well. The cutscenes are the icing on the cake, and
they tie everything together well while providing a good deal of entertainment.
Crash Bandicoot, welcome to my XBOX.