Crash of the Titans uses a fairly straightforward story to motivate players on their quest. While Crash and his gang are messing about one day on Wumpa Island, Dr Nefarious Cortex and his devilish little niece Nina show up to spoil the party, kidnapping Crash’s sister Coco and Aku Aku. After rescuing Aku Aku in the opening scene, Crash must bash and smash his way through Cortex’s new mutant army in order to rescue sister and stop Cortex from finishing his latest creation – the Doominator. Along the way, players must also dispose of Cortex’s allies such as Tiny Tiger, Dr N Gin and Uka Uka, Aku Aku’s evil brother.
Crash disapproves of Cortex's interior decor
It is quite evident from the get-go that Radical Entertainment wanted to give Crash a bit of freshening up. Crash’s spin move is no longer his favoured means of attack, rather he relies on kicks and punches – a bit of a weird choice we think, but it does allow for a bit more variation in the action. Players have to collection magical energy called mojo – filling the mojo meter will give the player a new attack, or enhance an existing one. Players can unlock Crash’s classic spinning move, and new combo chains. Crash has a light attack and a heavy attack at his disposal – light attacks are good for stringing together combos, while heavy attacks are needed to break an enemy’s block, or for stunning titans. When a player has fully stunned a titan, Crash will jump above the creature and place Aku Aku over its face, granting players full control over the titan (referred to by the game as 'jacking', similar to car-jacking, one would assume). There are a large number of titans available, each with varying abilities – most of them are large and pack incredible destructive power, but you get the odd one that shoots lasers from its fingers, which makes for some irritating puzzles as the player lacks the ability to aim said beams. Crash can now also use Aku Aku like a hoverboard to speed through levels and break through enemy lines.
Crash of the Titans has 20 levels or episodes, as the game likes to call them, and the name of each episode is a play on the name of a popular film. There is a change in theme every five levels – the first five are in a jungle environment, then a lava environment and so on – the typical platforming formula. Each level has three distinct goals (well, other than reaching the end); destroy x number of enemies, destroy 3 of Cortex’s surveillance bots and surpass a combo of x hits. Complete one for a bronze award, two for silver and all three for gold. There are other hidden items to collect during the levels – the red doll will unlock concept art and the mojo challenge will test the player’s skill in a small challenge. At the end of each episode, a screen will show you the dolls that the player has unlocked – some will require the player to revisit the level, or they will be unlocked later in the game from fulfilling simple tasks such as jacking 50 of a certain type of titan.
Gonna ride this beast to Mexico!
The action in Crash of the Titans never really strays from generally accepted platforming principles. The game is also pretty easy – we cannot see players taking more than 6-8 hours to see the majority of what is on offer. That is not to say that it is not a fun little romp – and the going gets better when a second player joins in on the action. There are two methods of cooperative play – leapfrog mode, where the players switch control of the lead each time the leading player jumps, swings or slides, and piggyback mode, where the second player is separate from the first, but can hide out in the backpack when the action heats up. It is a nifty little extra, and something we would like to see more of in platformers, but it feels rather superfluous – like it was more of an afterthought.
Crash of the Titans is not going to win any awards for its graphics – there are far better looking games on the PlayStation 2, but it does manage to look good due to the solid design of the existing characters and the game’s use of colour. The character models have a lot more detail than in any previous Crash title – the characters actually look like they have fur (though not to the extent of say Star Fox Adventures or Conker). Animation is of a good quality too, particularly the larger titans and Crash’s idle animations, where Crash essentially tries to amuse the player with various antics. Sound on the other hand is not so good. Crash, who is supposed to be a deranged bandicoot, sounds more like a confused baby. Other characters such as Coco have really annoying voices that make you want to take a power drill to your temple to make the pain stop. The only voices that have any merit are the smaller creatures in the first five levels, who sound a lot like Jerry Lewis from The Nutty Professor.
Radical Entertainment has made an effort in trying to freshen the Crash Bandicoot formula, but in spite of this, Crash of the Titans still comes across as a straightforward platformer. There is not much in the way of new ideas on offer, and those ideas that are new, like cooperative play, feel like last minute additions. Crash of the Titans offers up some fun platforming action - so long as one does not expect anything out of the ordinary and is not after a long lasting experience, this game should have what they are looking for.
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