Crash: Mind over Mutant

Crash: Mind over Mutant is a platform hack and slash video game developed by Radical Entertainment and published by Activision in North America, and Vivendi Games (under the mh:awesomegames:Sierra Entertainment brand) in Europe and Australia for the mh:awesomegames:PlayStation 2, mh:awesomegames:PlayStation Portable, mh:awesomegames:Nintendo DS, mh:awesomegames:Wii, and mh:awesomegames:Xbox 360.

This was the last Crash game released for consoles until the release of N.Sane Trilogy in 2017, nine years after this game.

Plot
Sometime after the events of the previous game, Dr. Neo Cortex reconciles with his old colleague, Dr. N. Brio, who has invented the NV: a virtual-reality headset powered by bad mojo that transforms the wearer into a mindless, bloodthirsty creature. Cortex realizes the marketability of the device and has it mass-produced. It is advertised as a personal assistant and entertainment system and soon arrives at the door of every Wumpa Island inhabitant free of charge.

The bandicoots also receive these helmets, though Crash and Aku Aku are unimpressed (Crash's malfunctions and Aku Aku's doesn't fit). Coco and Crunch are obsessed, however, and before long the devices turn them into slavering beasts. Crash and Aku Aku must travel to various locales and settlements across Wumpa Island to save Coco, Crunch, and the various mutants they encounter along the way. They must also track down old enemies that Cortex has either betrayed or abandoned (N. Gin, Nina, Uka Uka) and piece together the story of the NV's creation. Eventually, they discover the source of the helmets in Cortex's space station and there confront the doctor himself. Using N. Brio's mutagen, Cortex transforms himself into a mutant to fight Crash one-on-one but is defeated when Crash jacks him and initiates the stations self-destruct. Cortex escapes in an escape pod, leaving Crash and Aku Aku stranded. The ship crash-lands on Wumpa Island. Miraculously, the two survive. They happily reunite with Crunch and Coco and decide not to clean up any of the mess that's now piled up in their front yard.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The gameplay hasn’t been improved much from Titans, as it’s much of the same, and some mechanics from the previous game was butchered badly, like the ‘Spin-Glide’ mechanic where it acts like a Death Tornado Spin Move from the other Crash game in Titans, now when using it, Crash drops down like a brick, unable to move, which could lead to cheap deaths.
 * 2) While most of the redesigns are better, Crash’s redesign is worse since he looks uncanny and too humanoid for a mutated bandicoot, he’s way too tall, and the limb proportions look wrong and weird.
 * 3) * He looks even worse and more downright ugly on the boxart design of the game cover.
 * 4) The boss battles, while better than the previous game, are lackluster and pathetic since 2 of them involve obtaining new Titans, and the 3 others are way too easy since you can take lots of damage away from the bosses.
 * 5) Poor controls, as Crash feels a lot more heavier than he did previously and his spin attack is a bit more harder to handle than it did in the old games since Crash moves around way too quickly and trying to hit enemies with it can be a real nightmare at times but it isn't too frustrating though.
 * 6) The game is an open world game but there's no map which makes it easy to get lost
 * 7) Some levels force you to do massive amounts of backtracking just to progress, which could sometimes last 10 minutes of gameplay.
 * 8) The level design is sometimes confusing and easy to get lost, forcing you to replay the stage over again until you find out where to go.
 * 9) N.Brio personality, much like the others, are been butchered from a shy and crazy scientist to a narcissistic scientist who constantly says he invented Cortex’s work and speak perfectly instead of laughing maniacally when speaking, which is the core of N.Brio’s personality.
 * 10) Even with all the backtracking, the game is quite short, only clocking around 4-6 hours, faster if you know the game inside out.
 * 11) The camera is in a fixed position and can’t be inverted, which could make platforming a tedious chore.
 * 12) The enemies are recycled from Crash of the Titans, just with new redesigns and working under different villains such as N.Gin with the Ratnician and Nina Cortex with the Bratgirls.
 * 13) Much like Titans, some of the enemies never shut up and say unfunny and nonsensical stuff.
 * 14) This is the game who not only killed the Titans series, but the franchise overall for 9 years (12 without counting the remakes) until Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy came out for the 8th generation consoles and PC as well.
 * 15) It awkwardly combines gameplay elements with the classic PS1 games and the previous instalment to implement into the gameplay but it doesn't execute it very well since the level design tries to be like Twinsanity but then decides to take elements from Titans and Wrath of Cortex and makes the game feel either linear or open-ended but doesn't do a good job at it mainly because of how bad the overall level design is with several invisible walls and very little branching paths for the player to take, making it one of the most divisive games in the series in terms of overall gameplay and design.
 * 16) The ending is rather lackluster at best and a weak note to end the Crash Bandicoot series for 12 years until It's About Time, where that game restarted the series on a fresh note with a good plot and a true identity as a soft reboot in general. It's mostly just a cliched climate of the characters falling towards earth to their death on a spaceship after Crash defeats Cortex, and there's a pretty unfunny joke about one of Cortex's new sidekicks wearing his stolen pants before they excavate the burning spaceship. The spaceship then lands near Crash and Coco's home island and they make a lame comment on how they won't be able to clean the evil junk on time, and Crash then just laughs comedically in a pretty lame way that isn't clever or funny in the slightest.

DS Version

 * 1) The game strangely uses the Titans designs, which is odd, considering the version came out four weeks after the console versions
 * 2) The game's prequel on the DS was an open-world game and it was closer to the original trilogy, but this game instead is a side scroller similar to the GBA version of the prequel (Which got worse reviews) but somehow even worse.
 * 3) The cutscenes are weirdly animated, with janky and awkward movement.
 * 4) There are only 2 cutscenes in the entire game, which are the opening and the ending, which makes it impossible to understand the story unless you played the console version.
 * 5) It tries to play like the GBA duology but misses the point that made the duology entertaining and like the classic PS1 trilogy.
 * 6) The Titans are incredibly nerfed here, the only reason you'd want to play with them is when you need them.
 * 7) When you lose a life, you hear Crash crying, which gets annoying after a while.
 * 8) Despite being a neutral point, some songs are sometimes annoying.
 * 9) Only 5 titans in the entire game, the previous game had more on the DS so there's no excuse for this.
 * 10) * Each Titan is available only in one world, so if you need a specific titan, you'll have to backtrack again to get it
 * 11) Combat is extremely terrible and the titans you jack don't help, avoiding the titans is much easier.
 * 12) The bosses here are terrible and have nothing to do with the series
 * 13) * While this can be said on all of the Sierra games in the series, but at least they still have cartoon-like style, the bosses here feel more like they belong in a JRPG
 * 14) Because of the terrible combat the game goes from hard to be borderline impossible to complete it.
 * 15) Somehow TOSE selected Bad and annoying little voice clips from the enemies and titans.
 * 16) * The Titan/mutant that you unlock on N.gin lab has these creepy, loud, and annoying screaming sounds when it gets hit or defeated.
 * 17) * The small enemies' clips are repetitive. they only have 3: Standard, a one that makes Crash dizzy and the dead one. And they all are annoying!
 * 18) The developers misspelled "N.Jin Lab" instead of putting N.Gin!
 * 19) Apparantly this game is unfinished judging by his ending, that would explain his poor quality overall.

Good Qualities

 * 1) Some bits are improved over Titans such as keeping the Titans, being able to jump with the Titans, more stuff to do on the bosses instead of jack Titans, better redesigns (apart from Crash), Crash has his spin ability unlocked from the beginning, etc.
 * 2) The graphics are beautiful and vibrant for an early seventh-generation game, even on the PS2, which was the sixth generation.
 * 3) Some features from the old games are back such as a boulder chase level, N.Brio returning as a villain, Coco looking like her old designs and Uka Uka acting like his old self again (though still using his new design)
 * 4) The game is an open world now and it's huge for its time
 * 5) The Kid’s Art Pack in Crash’s home is interesting to look at, and see the creativity kids could make with their favorite character.
 * 6) The voice acting is still great, especially N.Brio, since Maurice LaMarche stepped in to voice him, and he makes his personality funny and interesting.
 * 7) The writing is a little improvement from Titans. The dialogue is pretty funny, such as N.Gin’s “Not my throat!, I need that for swallowing.”, especially N.Brio referencing that he was in the first game when Cortex mentions the Evolvo-Ray.
 * 8) The soundtrack is superb and well done just like in Titans.
 * 9) Despite being first in Cortex Strikes Back, the mechanic of going down the world to find secret mojo or avoiding enemies or impossible ways to go point to point in the level is great, and better to watch it do a comeback also in The N.Sane Trilogy 9 years later.
 * 10) Less bosses than the last game (3 as opposed to 5) but all bosses are different from each other, instead of the last game where they're just enemy rushes.

DS Version

 * 1) Despite having terrible animations, the models are a little improvement, having more development on the polygons.
 * 2) Some songs can be catchy.

Reception
The console versions of Mind over Mutant received mixed to favorable reviews, with Metacritic scores of 73, 70, and 60 for the PS2, Wii, and Xbox 360 versions, respectively. The DS version, on the other hand, received negative reviews, and it has a Metacritic score of 45.

Trivia

 * A contest was held in KidzWorld in partnership with Radical Entertainment to submit fan art related to Crash Bandicoot and this game, it was held for kids under 18, the winners had their art featured in the Kid's Art Pack and in walls in Nina's Academy of Evil. The winners also had their names featured in the credits of the game and received a free copy of the game as soon as it was released.

Videos
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