Crash: Mind Over Mutant (Nintendo DS)
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.jpg) Crash of the Titans’ GBA port was an abject disaster on so many levels, so why would TOSE attempt to do that again with its sequel and on a far more popular handheld?
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Crash: Mind Over Mutant is a 2D Action game in the Crash Bandicoot series, developed by TOSE and released in October 2008 for the Nintendo DS. The game is a portable version of Crash: Mind Over Mutant, and the sequel to the Nintendo DS version of Crash of the Titans, however, the story and gameplay are radically different from the console versions of the game.
This article will be focusing on the Nintendo DS version.
Why It Will Make You Lose Your Mind
- The game strangely uses the Titans designs, which is odd, considering the version came out four weeks after the console versions.
- The game's prequel on the DS was an open-world game and it was closer to the original trilogy, but this game instead is a side scroller similar to the GBA version of the prequel (which got worse reviews) but somehow even worse.
- Not only do the console version of this game is originally an open world, but this port was also released 4 month after the console version, which make this port very unfaithful to the original game.
- Unlike the console version that had a very creative and unique cutscene animations, here they are weirdly animated, with janky and awkward movement.
- Speaking of which, there are only 2 cutscenes in the entire game, which are the opening and the ending, which makes it impossible to understand the story unless you played the console version.
- There is also no voice acting in this version, which is really buzzard seeing as while this can be understandable given the Nintendo DS' limitations, the prequel on the DS had voice acting.
- It tries to play like the GBA duology (as in Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure and Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced) but misses the point that made the duology entertaining and like the classic PS1 trilogy.
- The Titans are incredibly nerfed here, the only reason you'd want to play with them is when you need them, since their attacks are incredibly weak and they move in a very slow way, thus making them almost useless.
- When you lose a life, you hear Crash crying, which can get annoying after a while.
- Despite most of the characters models being improved, the graphics are still poor, even for a 2008 DS game, games like Crash of the Titans, Sonic Rush, Super Mario 64 DS, Pac 'n Roll and Mega Man ZX look better than this game on DS, and the color palette is rather bland, even when compared to Crash of the Titans on DS.
- Despite being a neutral point, some songs can be sometimes annoying due to them being repetitive or having annoying composition.
- Only 5 titans in the entire game, the previous game had more on the DS so there's no excuse for this.
- Each Titan is available only in one world, so if you need a specific titan, you'll have to backtrack again to get it, which can make this process really tedious.
- Some characters like N. Brio and Uka Uka are missing from this version.
- Combat is extremely terrible and the titans you jack don't help, avoiding the titans is much easier, in fact the combat is so bad that even the GBA version of Crash of the Titans have a better combat system, despite this port being similar to that said game.
- The bosses here are terrible and have nothing to do with the series, and some even look like they were ripped directly from Sonic Rush.
- Because of the terrible combat the game goes from hard to be borderline impossible to complete it.
- Somehow TOSE selected Bad and annoying little voice clips from the enemies and titans that are so annoying that they can make you want to turn off the sound of your DS at times.
- The Titan/mutant that you unlock on N.gin lab has these creepy, loud, and annoying screaming sounds when it gets hit or defeated.
- The small enemies' clips are repetitive. they only have 3: Standard, a one that makes Crash dizzy and the dead one. And they all are annoying!
- The developers misspelled "N.Jin Lab" instead of putting N.Gin!
- This game overall misses everything that made the Titans duology console counterparts fun.
- Apparently this game is unfinished/rushed judging by the ending, that would explain his poor quality overall.
- The controls are even worse than the GBA version of Crash of the Titans, as here, they are incredibly slippery and unresponsive, which can result in some cheap deaths, and in the most annoying way possible.
- Not to mention that some of the levels are even harder due to the horrible controls, also some of the levels have tight platforming which result them being some of the worst levels of the game due to this.
- The collision detection is absolutely terrible which add another reason of why the combat of this game is extremely terrible, sometime you will hit an ennemy and it's will not even take damage from you, in fact the hit-detection is even worse than Crash of the Titans on GBA (which also got a pretty terrible hit-detection).
- Terrible level design that is even worse than the GBA version of Crash of the Titans, since the platforms are poorly placed, some of the levels are long but in a bad way, also some of them relies on gimmicks that are annoying and awful, thus making the level design one of the worst in a Crash Bandicoot game.
Redeeming Qualities
- Despite having terrible animations, the models are a little improvement, having more development on the polygons.
- Some songs can be catchy, since they sound decent enough and had good composition.
- There are very good ideas on paper, despite the awful execution.
- This version has evolutionary forms of titans, except Chimera.
- After completing the bonus stages, Crash can wear different skins.
- Some of them evolve faster to your titans and others increase your attack, jump, speed or even Super Crash brings you an infinite tornado spin. Sadly,the level desing doesn't take full advantage of these mechanics.
Reception
The Nintendo DS version received mostly negative reviews in contrast to the console releases. Mike David of GameZone said it was the "first really disappointing Crash title", while Neal Ronaghan of NWR felt that the game "leaves much to be desired in terms of depth and level design". Craig Harris of IGN christened the DS version as a "boring, drab, uninspired beat 'em up with none of what made last year's game so good on DS."
The Nintendo DS version own a score of 45/100 on Metacritic, making this version being the lowest rated version of the game, right next to the PlayStation Portable version.
Trivia
- Despite the characters N. Brio, and Uka Uka Having important roles in the console version, they are completely absent from this game.
- Alongside its console counter-part, this was the last Crash Bandicoot game until the Crash N. Sane Trilogy nine years later.
- In the console version, Crash, Coco and Crunch all have new designs, but in the DS version they all retain their designs from Crash of the Titans.
- As developed by TOSE, Crash Mind Over Mutant DS was one of the only two Crash Bandicoot game that was made entirely in Japan.
- The only other game to be developed in Japan is Crash Boom Bang!, which was developed by Dimps.
- Despite the DS port being made in Japan, it was not released there.
- This is the last Crash Bandicoot game on the Nintendo DS, as well as the very last until N. Sane Trilogy (or Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time if you don't count N. San Trilogy).
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