Reviewed: November 22, 2007
Reviewed by: Brian Wylie
Publisher
Sierra
Developer
Radical Entertainment
Released: October 2, 2007
Genre: Action
Players: 1-2
7
7
5
8
7.1
Supported Features:
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
Crash is finally back and this time more than ever is at stake. In Crash of the Titans the evil Neo Cortex has returned and is turning the creatures on Crash’s island into abnormal monsters to help in his plan to create a robotic monster to destroy the island forever!! One thing that Cortex didn’t expect is that Crash is stronger than he remembered and you can use Jack to help Crash take control of the monsters and use them to help you in your quest to save his sister (Coco) and save your home!!!
Crash of the Titans can be played as a single or multiplayer game. I would recommend playing this game solo unless you and your partner are very patient and on the same page on how you play. When you play in multiplayer mode the camera angle makes it harder to see exactly what you are doing. It is easier for enemies to hit you in multiplayer mode due to the fact that you can’t see them once the camera has fully expanded. Also if you defeat an enemy and they die outside the camera view you don’t have the opportunity to pick up important mojo that allows you to receive improve your attacks.
While you are in multiplayer mode and you happen to have one of the players in the other's backpack every time you jump and land you switch characters and if you are not paying attention you can easily set yourself up to die. You will also find there are a lot of dead spots. This is where one player is too far ahead of the other player and then there is a spot the final player can’t get to in the next part of the level and you have to hit the minus button to become player one again.
With single player mode you will not have these glitches. The gameplay is very smooth. The big problem that I have is that this game doesn’t incorporate the Wii sensor controls very much. There are some movements like if you jump up in the air and shake the remote up and down you will helicopter until you hit the ground. Or, if you are controlling a monster and shake the remote or lift the remote up in the air you perform advanced combat moves. But that's about it.
This is really a button mashing game and would be better suited for another game system. Crash of the Titans is really just a two-button game. The A button is used to jump, hit it twice and you perform a double jump, and press the B button to perform an attack. Yes there are heavy attacks by hitting the Z button and if you hold it you perform a supercharge attack. To be honest, the game is very easy and you never need to use the block button (C) or any other buttons for that matter. Now throughout the game you find big rocks that allow you to learn more about the moves you have just acquired for collecting mojo and also just to let you know how you can get past the test ahead of you.
When you perform the Jack maneuver you take control of the monster. After you stun the monster from beating on him you press the down arrow and then in single player mode there is a slow down cutscene which is actually very cool the first time you see it. After you jack the monsters you take control of them entirely. With most of them you move very slowly but have powerful attacks. With some you have quick attacks and move very fast.
The characters from top to bottom have never looked better. They are spot on from every angle with great detail on every character and more. Where you see this the most is with Crash’s spinning attack. There are no glitches and I was just in awe of how well it was done.
The only real problem with this area of the game is the repetitiveness of the background scenes. They are not very detailed and seem to be in the same places with just different mounds here and there with different turns. After dealing with the characters it just seems like the backgrounds were thrown together just to get the game out on the shelves.
This is a part of the game I would really like to forget. The voices seem to be a little overdone and get on your nerves after a while. You can not fast forward through the cutscenes and they are a little long and make you wish there was a skip button. The background music really doesn’t add anything to the experience but on the other hand it really doesn’t hurt the game like other platform games I have played in the past.
Crash is a little different than most Wii games in that it was released at a reduced price, but still fails to offer enough gameplay value to match the cost. Crash of the Titans is repetitive and other than the new monster "jacking" feature this game really doesn’t differ from previous Crash titles in any significant way.
And sadly, for being on the Wii, this game doesn’t really take advantage of the motion system and is still played more like a button mashing PS2 or Xbox game. If you have never played a single Crash game before I would advise you on starting from the beginning with the cheaper original games (they are available in a new box set), and by the time you finished those Crash of the Titans might be discounted to a price worthy of the content.
I was really excited to play this version of Crash because I fell in love with this little bandicoot from the moment I first played it on my, at the time, brand new PlayStation. I really liked Crash of the Titans for the first few hours and then quickly became bored of the repetitiveness and constantly found myself looking for a new game to play.
If you are a huge Crash fan then I would still tell you to just wait it out a little longer until the price drops so you don’t feel like you foolishly spent your money on a newer version of a game you already played. Sadly, Crash of the Titans is just more of the same in a new wrapper.