Crash of the Titans

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Crash of the Titans
The North American Wii version cover pictures Crash Bandicoot jacking a Ratcicle.
Developer(s)	Radical Entertainment (PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox 360) Amaze Entertainment (Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS)
Publisher(s)	Sierra Entertainment
Distributor(s)	Vivendi Games
Designer(s)	Kirsten Forbes (game producer) Raine Anderson (character designer) Chris Mitchell (writer) Marc Baril (composer)
Series	Crash Bandicoot
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, Xbox 360
Release date	NA October 3, 2007[1] EU October 12, 2007[2] AUS October 25, 2007[2]
Genre(s)	Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multi-player
Rating(s)	ESRB: E10+ ESRB: E (Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS) PEGI: 7+
Media	128-megabit cartridge, DVD, UMD, Wii Optical Disc, DVD-DL
Input methods	PS2 Controllers, Wii Remote, Nunchuk, Xbox 360 Controller

Crash of the Titans is an action-adventure game published by Sierra Entertainment and developed by Vancouver-based Radical Entertainment for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable (the PSP version was ported from the PS2 by SuperVillain Studios), Wii, Xbox 360; the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS versions of the game were developed by Amaze Entertainment. It was released in North America on October 3, 2007,^[1] in Europe on October 12, 2007,^[2] and in Australia on October 25, 2007;^[2] it is the first game in the series not to be released in Japan.

Crash of the Titans is the fourteenth installment in the Crash Bandicoot video game series, which began with Crash Bandicoot in 1996. The game's story centers on the discovery of a new mysterious substance known as "Mojo", which the antagonist of the series, Doctor Neo Cortex, plans on using to create a huge army of loyal mutants out of the inhabitants of the Wumpa Islands. The protagonist of the series, Crash Bandicoot, must stop Cortex's plot by utilizing the new technique of "jacking" to take control of the mutated "Titans" and destroy the Titans while collecting the mysterious Mojo himself. The game received fair reviews upon its release, with differing points of praise and criticism.

Contents 1 Gameplay 1.1 Combat 1.2 Co-operative play 2 Plot 2.1 Setting 2.2 Characters 2.3 Story 3 Development 4 Audio 4.1 Music 4.2 Voice cast 5 Reception and sales 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Gameplay

Crash of the Titans is a platform game in which the player controls Crash Bandicoot, who's main objective in the game is to rescue his sister and save his home, the Wumpa Islands, from being destroyed by the main antagonist's Doominator weapon.^[3] The first goal given to the player is to rescue the sentient mask Aku Aku, who gives the player basic instructions for the game, shields Crash from enemy attacks, and transforms into a skateboard to help Crash get across slippery terrain.^[3] From there, the main goal of each level (known as "episodes" in this game) is to complete fights against large groups of enemies or simply progress through the episode.^[3]

Crash starts the game with three lives.^[3] On the top-left of the screen is an orange health meter.^[3] Whenever Crash takes damage from enemy attacks or falls down a bottomless pit (Crash reappears on solid ground soon after the latter), the health meter decreases.^[3] If the health meter runs out, Crash will lose a life. If Crash loses his last life, the game will end, and the player will have to start the episode Crash died in from the beginning.^[3] Eating Wumpa Fruit replenishes Crash's health, and additional lives can be obtained by collecting 25,000 units of a magical substance known as Mojo; collecting a rare type of Golden Wumpa Fruit also gives Crash an extra life.^[3]

Each episode contains a glowing portal leading to a simple mini-game arena, where Crash has to accomplish a certain task in a set amount of time. The task usually consists of collecting a sufficient quantity of Mojo, using an enemy animal's attacks to snipe bombs, or simply defeating a select number of enemies.^[4]

At the end of each episode, the player will earn a rank of either a bronze, silver, or gold voodoo doll.^[3] This rank can be improved for all episodes by defeating a set number of minions, destroying Cortex's three "spy-toilets", or scoring a minimum combat hit combo.^[3] All three tasks must be accomplished in an episode if a gold voodoo doll is to be obtained for that episode. Hidden voodoo dolls unlock concept art packages for each episode.^[3]

The Nintendo DS (DS) version of Crash of the Titans (Titans) plays similarly to that of previous Crash installments. The game takes place on four islands, each with two levels and a boss. When a boss is defeated, a new island is unlocked.^[5] This process is repeated until the game is won. Each island has its own "Pachinko board" where players can win "on-demand items", items that can be used to restore health, provide temporary invincibility, set off Nitro explosions, etc. Additional content can also be won at these Pachinko boards, such as gallery art, cheats, and a mojo jackpot.^[5]

[edit] Combat

Combat, a feature new to the series, is done in real-time, with Crash sporting a light and heavy attack early in the game. Crash can also block, dodge, or break an enemy's block.^[3] When Crash defeats enemies or destroys objects, they release a magical substance known as Mojo for Crash to collect.^[3] When Crash collects enough Mojo, he will earn either an ability upgrade or a new move, such as the Norris Roundhouse or the Triple Dragon.^[3] His classic spin attack, named "Old Skool" here, is one of these unlockable moves, along with an aerial variant that allows Crash to float over chasms.^[6]

While the small minions require only a single combo for Crash to defeat, the larger enemies, known as "Titans", require a little more effort. They have 15 Titans in the game. Unlike the smaller enemies, the Titans possess a star meter over their heads, which indicates how close a Titan is to being stunned.^[3][6] The star meter will rise when a Titan takes damage, and will deplete when Crash stops attacking the Titan.^[6] When the star meter is full, the Titan will be stunned, and will be susceptible to "jacking". When Crash jacks a Titan, he will mount the creature, putting it under his control with the aid of Aku Aku.^[3] In this state, the player will take control of the Titan, who has a similar moveset to Crash,^[6] with the exception of some Titans, who shoot projectiles instead.^[3] Along with a longer health meter, the Titan also possesses a purple Titan Meter. When this meter is full, the Titan is able to unleash a unique special attack.^[3] The Titan Meter is drained completely upon the completion of the attack, so if the attack misses or is misused, the player must wait for the meter to completely refill.

How durable a Titan is depends on how large it is. Some Titans will take more effort to defeat than others, while a few won't even be fazed by Crash's attacks alone. To defeat the larger Titans, Crash will have to jack a regular Titan to combat a larger Titan. When the larger Titan is defeated, Crash can dismount the Titan he previously jacked and directly jack the larger Titan, which he can use to defeat even larger Titans. Titans' attacks are particularly effective against members of their own species as well as weaker creatures. If Crash dismounts a jacked Titan to directly jack another stunned Titan, the Titan he left behind will die immediately. This allows for large groups of Titans to be dispatched quickly, with the only challenge being to manage to stun one of them.

[edit] Co-operative play

A second player, in the form of a white-furred "Carbon Crash", can join in the game at any time with the aid of a second controller.^[3][6] The second player will appear in the first player's backpack, which can be exited or entered for most of the time.^[3] The second player will not be able to leave the first player's backpack if the first player is in mid-air or is climbing a wall.^[3] This co-op mode is useful for overpowering enemies and collecting Mojo faster.^[3] There are two modes of co-op play, selectable from the Pause screen. In "Leapfrog Mode", the players swap control each time the leading player jumps, swings, or slides.^[3] In "Piggyback Mode", the second player will be separate from the first player, but can hide out in the first player's backpack if the action becomes too intense (eg. when jumping over a chasm) and vice versa.^[3]

[edit] Plot

[edit] Setting

Main article: Wumpa Islands

The setting of Crash of the Titans is a collection of twenty levels that the player progresses through.^[6] Each level is referred to as an "episode", and each has a distinctive subtitle that is usually a reference to popular culture (such as "The Blizzard of Claws"). Like the first Crash Bandicoot game, the episodes are played in numerical order, though the player can replay any episode that has been completed. The game moves through five major themes, all of them taking place on the Wumpa Islands, Crash's homeplace. The story starts in the jungle near Crash's and Coco's residence. This leads to an ancient temple lasting a single episode. Later in the game, Crash travels through a wood-cutting/mining area and a lava episode that features giant steel mosquitoes sucking minerals out of the ground. These episodes are overseen by Tiny Tiger, who is gathering materials for Nina Cortex's Doominator robot from the areas. The next few episodes take place on an artillery-bombarded beach, where Crash infiltrates Doctor N. Gin's missile factory, which resembles the Statue of Liberty. The penultimate area is a gigantic tree located in the middle of the island. This tree holds up an entire house owned by Uka Uka, one of the major antagonists of the series. The final moments of the game take place in Cortex's over-the-top Liberace-style lair, and finally the inside of the Doominator.

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of Crash Bandicoot characters

Nine returning characters from previous Crash titles star in the home console version of Crash of the Titans,^[7] all of them given a new modern "punk" look that is distinct from other video game characters.^[8] The player character and protagonist of the game, Crash Bandicoot, is an evolved bandicoot who must defeat Doctor Cortex and use the Titans against each other while collecting the mysterious new Mojo to advance his own fighting techniques. Aiding Crash is Aku Aku, an ancient wooden mask who acts as a shield, a skateboard, and a weapon for Crash. Crash's other two allies are Coco Bandicoot, his genius sister, and Crunch Bandicoot, his muscle-bound friend.

The main antagonist of the series, Doctor Neo Cortex, is a mad scientist who captures Coco and Aku Aku, and wants to use the stolen mojo to create an army of dangerous mutants. The entity behind Cortex's plot for world domination is Uka Uka, who eventually tires of Cortex's incompetence and replaces him with his cyborg niece, Nina Cortex. Aiding the Cortexes are Doctor N. Gin, Cortex's crazy right-hand man, and Tiny Tiger, an unusually kind-mannered minion of Cortex. Dingodile, another minion of Cortex, exclusively appears in the DS and Game Boy Advance versions of Titans as a boss character.^[5]

Aiding the villains are a number of small fodder enemies that attempt to hinder Crash in his journey. Each of the fodder enemies are affiliated with a certain villain in the game. The first of these encountered is Neo Cortex's Ratnicians, which appear as bipedal, blonde-haired, chihuahua-like animals sporting lab coats and large beakers filled with a bubbling green fluid. These characters only appear in the first four episodes of the game, and are replaced by other enemies as the game progresses. These include Tiny Tiger's Southern-accented Koo-alas, Doctor N. Gin's monkey wrench-wielding Doom Monkeys, Uka Uka's spear-chucking Voodoo Bunnies, and Nina Cortex's Brat Girls. Radical Entertainment made a special effort in giving even these minor characters a personality by giving them a large number of distinctive quotes.^[8]

[edit] Story

In the beginning of the game, Crash Bandicoot aids Coco with a butter-recycling device.^[9] This peace is interrupted by Doctor Neo Cortex, who arrives in his airship. Cortex captures Coco and Aku Aku, and encases Crunch in crystal. In an attempt to stop Doctor Cortex, Crash throws Coco's machine at the airship, and manages to sever Aku Aku's cage, which falls into the nearby forest. After Crash rescues Aku Aku from the cage, they discover that Cortex and Uka Uka are stealing the Mojo from a nearby temple, and elect to stop them.^[10] Upon reaching the roof of the Temple, Neo Cortex reveals his plot to use the stolen Mojo to create a huge army of loyal mutants, and use those mutants to build a colossal robot known as the Doominator, which will crush the Wumpa Islands and take over the world.^[11] After failing to defeat Crash with his patented Yuktopus, Cortex boasts that Crash will never find his base, and flies off, leaving Crash and Aku Aku to follow him.^[12]

Back at Cortex's base, Uka Uka derides Cortex for failing to destroy Crash, and replaces him with his niece, Nina Cortex, despite protests from Neo, N. Gin, and Tiny Tiger.^[13] Nina's first act as the main antagonist is to have Coco brainwashed and have her aid in the construction of the Doominator.^[14] Throughout the course of the game, Crash and Aku Aku interrogate Tiny Tiger,^[15] Doctor N. Gin,^[16] and Uka Uka on the whereabouts of Coco.^[17] When they finally confront Nina Cortex inside the Doominator robot, Nina summons her Arachnina robot and fights Crash.^[18] Crash eventually overcomes the robot, and destroys it. Coco is freed, and the Doominator can be disabled. The collapsing Doominator just barely misses the Bandicoot home (and Crunch), sparing much of Wumpa Island. Escaping the collapsed Doominator, Cortex praises Nina for betraying him, and promises to be more evil in the near future, but proclaims that he's still going to spank Nina stupid for all of this.^[19] The Bandicoots decide that it is time for celebration, leading Crash to shout his first word and the object of their celebration: pancakes.^[20]

The Nintendo DS version of the game largely follows the same story of the home console versions, but with minor tweaks involved, such as Nina Cortex having a more predominant role and the inclusion of Dingodile.^[5] The Game Boy Advance version also includes Dingodile, and has some plot differences, such as the Arachnina (referred to by its old name, "Spiderbot") not being the last boss, and Cortex being reinstated after Nina's defeat in the N. Trapment Island (the penultimate island in the game).

[edit] Development

Development on Crash of the Titans began immediately after the completion of Crash Tag Team Racing.^[8] Radical observed that Crash Bandicoot's presence had diminished in the minds of modern gamers, and decided to refresh the franchise by producing Titans.^[21] The graphics of the Wii version of the game were one of Radical Entertainment's main focuses in the game's development,^[22] with Radical stating that the Wii has a lot of horsepower under the hood and expressing the desire to make full use of it.^[23] Originally, the Xbox 360 version would get a few extra months of development time to improve its graphics before setting a final release date.^[24] Wii to DS connectivity was also considered, but due to technical issues and time, this feature was removed.^[5]

While the game was being developed, the title's main character, Crash Bandicoot, became the new mascot of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's "School and Youth" programs in an effort to promote the fight against blood cancer.^[25] In a bid to further promote the game, a Hummer (with a Wii inside) was decorated with painted imagery from the game and displayed at the Annual Balloon Fiesta in Bristol, United Kingdom.^[26]

A "Monster Edition" of the game was released exclusively in Europe on October 12, 2007 for the PlayStation 2. This special edition of the game features "Making-of" videos, water-on tattoos, game hints, a cheat code list, and the game's E3 and theatrical trailers in multiple languages. The BBFC has given the game a PG rating for "mild cartoon violence and language".^[27]

[edit] Audio

[edit] Music

Radical did not hire the composer of the music in the previous Crash games, the a cappella band Spiralmouth, to write the music for Titans. Instead, they assigned their in-house composer Marc Baril to do the job, who took Spiralmouth's work on the previous games as references for Titans.^[8] Radical Entertainment has expressed its pride with some of the "funny and surprising" music featured in the game, such as Doctor N. Gin's polka theme.^[8] A 32-track soundtrack was made available on the iTunes Music Store on December 18, 2007.^[28]

[edit] Voice cast

To ensure that the audio does not become repetitive,^[6][24] Titans features more than 7,000 lines of dialogue,^[29] many of which make numerous references to popular culture, including a nod to the film Brokeback Mountain.^[24] To better achieve a natural feel for their dialogue, the voice actors performed all their lines three times.^[30] Many of the voice actors from Crash Tag Team Racing reprised their roles, including Jess Harnell as Crash Bandicoot and Lex Lang as Doctor Neo Cortex. Characters who were regulars in the series but did not appear in Crash Tag Team Racing were given new voice actors for Titans. These replacements include Greg Eagles as Aku Aku, Chris Williams as Tiny Tiger, and John DiMaggio as Uka Uka. The DS version features full voice acting for cutscenes and in-game elements by some of the same voice actors from the home console version of the game, though some of the voice actors were substituted, such as Debi Derryberry in the role of Nina Cortex, and Nolan North in the role of Tiny Tiger.^[5] Dingodile, who appears only in the DS and GBA versions, is voiced by Nolan North.

Radical Entertainment wanted the enemies to be memorable on their own;^[8] they scripted conversations between the enemy characters that can be overheard as the player comes near. Several voice actors provide the audio for the small enemies, including Tom Kenny from Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants.^[30] Adding to the game's numerous pop-culture references, the voices and mannerisms of some of the characters are based upon those of real people, including Peter Lorre (Doctor N. Gin), Mike Tyson (Tiny Tiger), Mr. T (Crunch Bandicoot), Vincent Price (Doctor Neo Cortex), and Jerry Lewis (the Ratnicians).

[edit] Reception and sales

Crash of the Titans has received fair reviews since its release. GameSpot credited it as a "fairly sturdy, combat-heavy platformer with a good hook", but concluded that it lacked the distinctive feel of past Crash Bandicoot games.^[33] Nintendo World Report described the game as "a satisfying platform brawler that should easily please younger gamers while providing enough action and humor to keep older gamers interested".^[44] The DS version of the game was reviewed positively, with IGN naming it "one of the better handheld Crash games to hit the market".^[35] Nintendo World Report gave the DS version a better score than the home console version by half a point, but dismissed it as "a short game that has very little gameplay variety".^[43] GameSpot proclaimed that "there's plenty to do, and controlling the enemy is a neat twist", but criticized the game's short length of only 6 to 8 hours.^[31]

The more negative reviews include those from Nintendo Power, who criticized the game for its "fixed and unforgiving" camera, which they felt made the platforming experience "frustrating".^[41] GameSpy criticized the game for very much the same reason along with the unsteady framerate, but was more positive in their opinion, praising the game's attractive graphics and offline co-op mode.^[4] IGN described the game as "a good idea wrapped in a mediocre game", and hoped that the jacking concept would be refined for a possible sequel.^[37] Eurogamer was also critical of Crash of the Titans, deriding its graphics as "designed primarily with the PS2 and Wii in mind, with a fairly lazy high-def makeover late in development".^[45] The PSP version was met with less praise than its console counterparts, with IGN remarking that it "loses out to the consoles in a number of areas; especially when it comes to multiplayer".^[38]

Crash of the Titans was a nominee in the Writers Guild of America's inaugural video game writing awards, going up against Dead Head Fred, The Simpsons Game, The Witcher and World in Conflict.^[52] Titans lost the award to Dead Head Fred.^[53][54] Crash of the Titans was also selected as a nominee in the "Best Sound Design" and "Best Character" categories of the Second Annual Elan Awards.^[55] It lost both awards to Skate and Mass Effect's Commander Shepard respectively.^[56]

In Australia, Crash of the Titans was the second highest-selling game in its first week below Halo 3.^[57] The game was not as successful in the United Kingdom, where the PlayStation 2 version of the game debuted at #32 in the sales charts.^[58] The game made 3.35 million pounds (equivalent to 6,532,500 U.S. dollars) in the U.K. by the end of 2007.^[59]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Crash of the Titans official website

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