Crash of the Titans

Crash of the Titans is an action-platform game developed by Radical Entertainment and published by mh:awesomegames:Sierra Entertainment for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii, and Xbox 360. The Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS versions of the game were developed by Amaze Entertainment.

Story
In the beginning of the game, Crash Bandicoot aids Coco with a butter-recycling device. Doctor Neo Cortex arrives, captures Coco and Aku Aku and encases Crunch in ice. Crash throws Coco's machine at Cortex's airship, severing the chain holding Aku Aku's cage, which causes the cage to fall into the nearby forest. After Crash rescues Aku Aku, they discover that Cortex and Uka Uka are stealing Mojo from a nearby temple and decide to stop them. On reaching the temple, Cortex reveals his plot to use the stolen Mojo to create an army of loyal mutants, which will be used to build a robot known as the Doominator, that will crush the Wumpa Islands and take over the world. After failing to defeat Crash with his Yuktopus robot, Cortex boasts that Crash will never find his base and flies off, leaving Crash and Aku Aku to follow him.

At Cortex's base, Uka Uka told Cortex about failing to destroy Crash, and replaces Cortex with his niece, Nina Cortex, despite protests from Neo, N.Gin and Tiny Tiger. Nina has Coco brainwashed and makes her participate in the construction of the Doominator. Throughout the course of the game, Crash and Aku Aku interrogate Tiny Tiger, Doctor N.Gin, and Uka Uka on the whereabouts of Coco to which they all tell parts of Nina's plan.

When they confront Nina Cortex inside the Doominator robot, Nina summons her Arachnina robot and fights Crash. Crash eventually destroys the robot, liberating Coco and disabling the Doominator. The Doominator collapses and barely misses the Bandicoot home (and Crunch), sparing much of Wumpa Island. Escaping from the collapsed Doominator, Cortex praises Nina for betraying him, and promises to be more evil in the near future, though saying he was still gonna "spank her stupid". The Bandicoots decide that it is time for celebration, leading Crash to shout his first word in the series and the object of their celebration: Pancakes!

The DS version of the game largely follows the story of the home console versions, but with minor alterations such as Nina Cortex having a greater role and the inclusion of Dingodile.

The Game Boy Advance version also includes Dingodile and some plot differences, such as the Arachnina (referred to by its old name, "Spiderbot") not being the last boss, and Cortex being reinstated after Nina's defeat on N. Trapment Island.

Bad Qualities
Note: This will cover all versions of the game, except the DS version.


 * 1) Gameplay is completely different from previous Crash Bandicoot games, going from a linear platforming to a beat'em up with very minimal platforming. While it’s a good idea however, it lacks the platforming Crash Bandicoot charm of the original games, along with the redesigns.
 * 2) *Crash weirdly doesn't even have his Spin Attack from the beginning, it needs to be unlocked, despite being his attack in the original games. Using the attack for too long also makes him dizzy, despite how the Spin Attack has been his trademark move since the first Crash Bandicoot game. Why only now does he get dizzy?
 * 3) On that topic of Crash Bandicoot, the characters' redesigns received mixed reception, as they look like fan OCs (some fans liked them, while many others did not).
 * 4) * On the topic of new looks, the worst case is with Uka Uka and Tiny Tiger. Their new designs bear absolutely zero resemblance to their old designs, with Uka Uka having a different shape, no jaw (yet somehow being able to talk) and weirdly resembles a monkey and Tiny being a regular Asian tiger instead of an extinct Tasmanian tiger.
 * 5) The levels themselves are boring and generic with no replay value.
 * 6) Lame boss battles, while there are five of them in total, three of them (Yuktopus robot, Uka Uka and Nina)follow the basic pattern of hijacking the boss and destroying everything with that boss, while two of them (Tiny Tiger and N.Gin) are just enemy rushes then boss fights.
 * 7) Wumpa Fruits, one of the most iconic elements in the Crash Bandicoot franchise, aren’t well represented in this game, and only serve as health for Crash, due to the game introducing a new element called Mojo, which is used to upgrade Crash's combat abilities. Also, extra lives must be earned by collecting 25,000 units of Mojo.
 * 8) The "Titan" controls feel heavy, tank-like and lack an ability to jump (though thankfully they can jump in the sequel, Crash: Mind over Mutant).
 * 9) Uninteresting and generic plot.
 * 10) While the series has been mostly linear games, this game is extremely linear. There are no secrets and you'll only go front.
 * 11) When encountering the smaller enemies, they will have dialoged as they fight, and they never shut up.
 * 12) Continuing from Crash Tag Team Racing, characters are completely butchered, giving them significantly worse personalities:
 * 13) * Crash became even dumber.
 * 14) * Coco now uses Crash to gather parts for her machines; she's also a damsel in distress now.
 * 15) * Uka Uka is made into the incompetent villain that blames his failures on his henchmen.
 * 16) * And the worst offender, by far, is Tiny Tiger. besides looking absolutely nothing like his old look, he went form a ferocious Hulk-like beast who spoke in broken English and referred to himself in third person, to a pacifist who speaks fluent English with an extremely annoying voice who  hates violence. 
 * 17) Bad and uncontrollable camera makes the platforming elements a chore.
 * 18) While there are 20 episodes in total, the game feels short and you'll get most collectibles easily on your first playthrough.
 * 19) Very poor balancing in terms of difficulty, some levels are way too easy, while others are way too hard and frustrating.
 * 20) Stupid and childish attempts at humor, with most of it being outdated references to old medias, even for its time.
 * 21) In the PSP version, there are less sound effects then in the PlayStation 2/Wii/X-Box 360 versions and the graphics look SUPER water down and bleck, also some facile-expressions made by certain characters can be made at an odd time, such as Aku-Aku smiling as he (alongside Coco) gets captured by Cortex early on in the intro cutscene of the game.
 * 22) The overall combat is just downright awful, as Crash moves rather stiff-like due to his animations not being properly animated right to make contact with the enemy, and the hit detection isn't good either with the strategy to get several combos by knocking out and defeating many enemies as possible not being programmed the best when it comes to how it's combined with the more slower-paced controls in comparison to previous games, and it's most likely that you could get hit by an enemy if your still trying to knock out another due to how slow the combat is in general, and this is easily the biggest problem with the combat as it's too slow and clunky to handle and with the game trying to be a different game than the previous games, it easily results in the game not being that fun to play in the slightest and makes a complete chore to get through when trying out the newly implemented mechanics introduced in these entry for fans of the series.
 * 23) *It also doesn't help that the game forces you to rapidly mash the attack button to defeat all of the enemies which combined with the poorly programmed combat makes playing the game a far worse experience than previous games in the series.

Gameboy Advance Version

 * 1) The game was rushed probably because of the Gameboy Advance's decline at the time which led to the problems below
 * 2) All the character models are bigger than usual, which makes the screen feel cramped.
 * 3) Crash is extremely nerfed in the game while literally every other enemies are stronger than him.
 * 4) Tons of bugs in the game, including poor collision detection and one that makes you recharge your titan's health by just unjacking and jacking back again.
 * 5) Lots of multiple paths in the game but most are either dead ends, has lots of enemies or just some useless collectibles.
 * 6) Like the console version, the bosses are basically the same, you beat them then jack them to defeat bunch of enemies, though unlike the console version, jacking bosses is pointless since you need to defeat them.
 * 7) Like the console version the game has upgrades, however in this version it's pointless since when you upgrade an ability, every enemy will get stronger too. This isn't even a glitch, it's a feature as once you upgrade something the game will tell you that enemies are going to be stronger, what's the point of upgrades then ?
 * 8) Combat is even more repetitive than the console version.
 * 9) Has features that add nothing to the game and are very pointless:
 * 10) * The game has five islands and to get to each new island, Crash must surf his way to it in unskippable pseudo-3D segments which are not only dull, but also completely pointless since you won't win anything from them, their main existence is probably to pad out the game's length
 * 11) * The invisibility crates from Wrath of Cortex are back, but it does nothing other than making you semi-transparent, which makes enemies see and attack you; and worse yet, they can break it as well and they can become semi-transparent as well (which also does nothing).

Good Qualities

 * 1) This game has co-op mode, and while it is not as addicting and/or fun as Crash Bash, it can be a lot of fun now that two players can play the game.
 * 2) With the exception of Tiny Tiger and Uka Uka, the voice acting is good, since some the voice actors from the original games return, except for Mel Winkler, who was replaced by Greg Eagles.
 * 3) Cutscenes are fun to watch.
 * 4) The graphics are good.
 * 5) The concept involving riding Titans is an interesting idea.
 * 6) The music is catchy and kinda memorable.
 * 7) The Mojo Mutants score some unique designs.
 * 8) * Not only that, but with the small exception of three Titans, each Titan have a unique move-set themselves, making it feel like you're not playing the same exact Titans.
 * 9) Crash's new slide move is a good addition.
 * 10) The Mojo rooms can pervade a nice challenge, as well as a nice chance to get some extra mojo.
 * 11) While very simple, the JAVA mobile version is decent.
 * 12) The DS version is superior and plays more like the PS1 games unlike the console version.
 * 13) Crash and Coco hug after defeating the final boss which is very cute and wholesome, it's also the only game they've done that so far.
 * 14) To be fair, the idea behind this game could have worked well if it was a game on its own, or at least without changing a lot of stuff from it.
 * 15) The game at least was trying to do something different because at the time most of the games were basically copying the Naughty Dog games.

Gameboy Advance Version

 * 1) Unlike the consoles and DS version, literally every enemy can be jacked and played with, whether it's a minion, titan or boss.
 * 2) Like the DS version, Dingodile is available as a boss here.
 * 3) Adding the game's cartridge into the DS (Original DS and DS Lite only) while playing the DS version grants you 1000 Mojo in the DS version (you can only do this once per save tho)
 * 4) Crystals return from the old games and here they grant you invunerability when you collect them, a feature that's not in other versions.

Videos
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Reception
The game received mixed to favorable reviews from official review critics. The redesigns of the characters to have a more steam-punk like look and the completely different gameplay style received mixed reactions by fans and critics alike.

The Nintendo DS version was positively received, however.

Trivia

 * This was the first game where Uka Uka was voiced by John DiMaggio, who would voice him again in Mind Over Mutant and reprise his role in the N. Sane Trilogy and Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled.
 * This is the first game to not get a release in Japan.
 * The game's original name was Crash Jackin'; however it was changed due to sounding inappropriate.