Old Crash formula plus combat aspect and the ability to control the enemies
As usual, the evil Dr Cortex has come up with a plan to conquer the world and its up to Crash to collect the gems and tiki masks and stop him. The game doesn't contain too many levels, but they all have replay value in order to collect all the hidden masks. Also, by collecting the allotted mojo-orbs, and smashing all the crates, extra gems are awarded. Each island has 2 levels, each of which have 2 parts. There is the usual platform level as well as a obstacle course type level. Some of these courses have you riding a titan and navigate left and right using the touchscreen and using the D-pad to jump, with the titan constantly charging forward. Other courses, you are grinding down a rail using the tiki-mask, and can jump left and right onto other rails in order to collect items and avoid hazards. These levels have multiple paths which also add replay value in order to collect everything.
The combat is fairly fun, but Crash doesn't seem to have too much health to fight the titans by himself, so you are constantly 'jacking' them and taking control to fight titan against titan. There are plenty of different enemies and each one has a different type of attack (examples include ranged fire attacks and smashing the ground). You will need the titans to smash the larger crates, and navigate through water if you want to go for the extra gems and secrets. Although the levels are fairly linear, they contain little secret areas, which with help of the superb auto adjusting camera, you will find them if you keep an eye out.
The graphics are very good, but the frame rate and draw distance is poor. You will be walking along with no crates in view when a crate will suddenly appear a few yards away. The frame rate is very sluggish when more than a few enemies are on screen too, so often the combat feels like its in slow motion.
Despite the games flaws, this game is one of the most fun games I've played on the DS so far and will certainly play a future sequel.