Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Mixed reactions"

I remember I wanted to buy this game to luckily restore my faith in Crash Bandicoot games (or better the direction the new developers have taken) after the shockingly –for me- disastrous games like Nitro Kart, The Wrath of Cortex etc. Those games were either too childish or bad imitations.
The story is so typical of Crash Bandicoot franchises. Cortex has come with another plan to rule the world (or just the wumpa islands, I don't remember). He will use a substance called "mojo" to mutate all animals into horrific monsters that will make up his new army of assassins. Cortex rushes to announce this plan to Crash and his company of friends and relatives, bragging as always. Then he tries to trap them all so that they pose no threat, but Crash gets away and sets off along with Aku Aku to save Coco and stop Cortex (once more).
In this game, Crash of the Titans, it seems the developers tried to freshen up Crash a bit. A bit? Well, actually Crash underwent tremendous changes both in gameplay and appearance.
Crash no longer spins like he used to, and to me that was his trademark, thus I was disappointed. Now, he punches, kicks and at some point he actually can spin (looking really awkward, though). In the punching and kicking Crash looks like he is tripping as though he were drunk. Still the new moves work fine most of the times. Also there are no wumpa fruit to collect but instead mojo.
Off course, the main feature of the game is the ability Crash has, aided by Aku Aku, to control larger creatures by punching them to exhaustion and then taking over them completely. Most, but not all of those creatures (there are not too many, anyway), have impressive attacks but they are not as dynamic or fast and the game gets slowed down at times when the only purpose is to knock down all the monsters in an area. Not very inventive.
Although the game is supposed to be an action, free roaming game, it actually provides the option of the "path" so familiar in the first Crash Bandicoot games. It's not bad, to tell you the truth, but combined with the uncontrollable camera, which tends to show you from uncomfortable angles makes the experience rather annoying.
The very positive about this game is the lush environments and the various landscapes: jungles, mountains, falls, rivers etc. The colours are very vibrant too, so the artistic aspect of the games is above average.
This game, along with the rest of the games after Crash Bash, proves that Naughty Dog "owns" Crash Bandicoot. People who loved "Crash Bandicoot", "Crash Bandicoot: Cortex strikes back" and "Crash Bandicoot: Warped" will feel disappointed. Still, Crash of the Titans, as a stand-alone game is not too bad but way deviated from the style we were so familiar with, doing no justice to Crash Bandicoot's character.