The lovable, cool and spinning bundle of muscles is back. After his travels with the titans, he’s back with the mutants.
Suffice to say, Doctor Neo Cortex is at it again with plans to overtake the world, and he’s hired N-Gin and Uka Uka. Neo and his gang has developed a mask, a form of virtual reality computer game which turns real popular. The problem is that these masks are containing and evil force, which makes the carrier mutate and turn to Neos side. Crunch disappears wearing the mask, influenced by this force and Crash will have to go save Crunch alongside his sister Coco, and the friendly mask, Aku Aku.
Theres no real surprise in this edition from the series of the Crash Bandicoot games. You are Crash and you are supposed to save the whole world and your friends by running, spinning and jumping your way through the courses. The same boxes are represent such as dynamite boxes and wooden boxes – not to mention the endless abysses. I have missed a few games in the series but there’s very few new things such as digging in predetermined places, crawling on fences, nothing I can’t be too excited over, but practical.
Funny and Versatile Cutscenes
If you like me love cutscenes and getting told a story to enhance your experience of the game, you will quickly notice the colourful and comedic blend in the cutscenes. It seems like the task is assigned different artists, giving them free hands to style their assigned scenes to add diversity in the artstyle. The idea is not too bad, as every single artstyle and humour in the various cutscenes is great – and they keep to the written script.
In general it seems like the idea of riding and overtake the figures from the “Crash and the Titans” is milked quite a bit, but I should not speak too loudly of this, as I haven’t had the opportunity to play it. Mind over Mutants is a brilliant 3D platformer with lovely and entertaining graphics – however the difference from the first Crash game ain’t big. I love Crash, and there is small additions, however it might be time to look for a new front figure or a world maybe even gameplay with Crash, away from platforming and racing. Non the less I am still very sentimental and really enjoy being in the company of the marsupial and seeing new areas with him – and I don’t think I am alone.
Same, insane?
The audio span hasn’t changed in a decade. Crash still sounds like the same when jumping or falling, and the music is still fitting for the game. The rhythm speeds up and atmosphere of the beat changes for the situation, giving clues to danger or when in a big fight against a boss. The rhythms can be relaxing when theres no action expected, but will ready you for a fight when needed.
The courses is quite enjoyable and satisfying challenging, in spite of having the game on lowest difficulty. Not even hardest possible setting is adding limited lives – which just prooves you can die as many times as you want – thus playable for everyone. If you stumble over the edge, just try again.
The missions is oddly distributed, as up until now you just had to go from A to B or from A to A via B. That is not the case in this game, and I think it’s to prolong the game time. This makes the game repetitive when you for the third time has to cross the same area to get to the next mission. This is eliviated a lot when you unlock the ability to fast travel.
I find Crash Bandicoot: Mind over Mutant very entertaining but it does make me squirm to run back and forth through the same areas. In that regard, Crash Bandicoot 1-3 was much better, just a row of courses you needed to get through.
It would had been a huge improvement if you had the option to travel directly to the area when a new mission got available. I have nothing against visiting the same areas when the missions is on going – but I do have something against wasting time between missions.
