Sierra Spring Break Roundup

Crash Bandicoot: Mind Over Mutant

Last year's instalment in the Crash Bandicoot series was a bit of a disappointment, at least for platform fans who can remember when there was only one PlayStation and it didn't have a number in its name. If you're nine you probably thought it was marvellous, but then you probably also think excrement is hilarious.

Crash Bandicoot: Mind Over Mutant is most definitely a sequel to Crash of the Titans. In that game, you had to "jack" giant monsters - i.e. leap on their backs to take control of them - and complete an increasingly tedious series of fights. The bad news for miserable traditionalists is the titans are back in Mind Over Mutant, but the good news is there appears to be less boring fighting and more good old platforming.

You can also expect the kind of daft plot you'd have put up with in the nineties but can't understand how now, because you've forgotten what it's like to be a child and willing to accept fantastical concepts and all right let's not get into the Star Wars prequels row again. Neo Cortex and N. Brio have devised what's described in the press release as "a text-messaging, do-anything device" (and more honestly by producer Kirsten Forbes as "a sort of i-Phone, BlackBerry thing") that can control the minds of bandicoots and mutants. (Rumours the third Titans game will see Cortex grooming Crash and his friends through his new social networking site are completely made up.)

The game's big new feature is Crash's ability to keep mutants he's jacked in his pocket, and summon them as required to solve certain puzzles or defeat specific enemies ("Pokemon-style", says Forbes, who's clearly not in the business of pretending). There's one mutant who can slow down everything around him while he and Crash keep moving in real-time (Hiro-style?). Another one, TK, has telekinetic powers and can pull blocks out of structures in the environment to create staircases for Crash to climb. Mutants can also build bridges out of ice, form themselves into grappling hooks, turn into balls Crash can roll around on and so on.

Crash himself has new moves too, including a dodge and counter attack and the ability to dig. Plus he can climb vertical surfaces and jump side-to-side between platforms. This is useful as it appears that there's a lot more exploration to be done here than there was in Crash of the Titans. "This is a free-roaming game, essentially, in the same way that Metroid's a free-roaming game," Forbes explains.

The Wii and Xbox 360 versions of the game offer Coco as a playable character in co-op mode, just like in Titans, but now she acts as a gunner. Other new features include the ability to interact with Crash's house, which is where you go to access extras and collectables you've picked up. There are voices by Tom Kenny, otherwise known as Spongebob Squarepants, and Mark Hamill ("We didn't know he could be funny, but he actually is quite funny.").

Is all this worth getting excited about? Probably not, if you're a typical Eurogamer reader. Either you've never liked him in the first place, or the sight of his furry face makes you want to shake him by his pointy shoulders and shout, "But why? Why did you have to change?" Who knows, though, maybe there are some new ideas we just haven't seen yet, and maybe nine year-olds will like it anyway.