Crash Adventure - Mind Over Mutant

Rather, like Crash Adventure before it, this is a game in which Crash's main function is to assume control of various mutants so that you can play as them and use their various powers to overcome obstacles. This adds some variety to the proceedings for sure, but the amount of backtracking that you have to do, coupled with a problematic camera that you have no control over, makes Crash's latest adventure one that you'll likely tire of long before you've played for the seven or so hours that it takes to beat.

Mind Over Mutant gets off to a reasonably good start; humorous cutscenes that employ a number of different cartoon styles set the tone right off the bat. The early missions also do a good job of familiarizing you with the controls for jumping, digging underground, engaging in combat, and the like. It doesn't take long for things to start going downhill though. The biggest problem is that too many missions not only require you to get from A to B, but also to make your way back to A again. That, or you have to complete the same A to B level that you've already played through more than once to reach C.

So, after navigating all manner of floating platforms and hazards, as well as completing your objective, you then have to do it all again--sometimes backwards. That wouldn't be so bad if the already-problematic camera would move to take this change of direction into account, but it's positioned in exactly the same locations. Leaps of faith toward platforms that you can't see aren't something that you have to make too often, but there's really no excuse for them to exist at all.

That mission, like most, involves plenty of combat. Whether you're controlling Crash or one of the dozen or so different mutants that he can climb onto after beating them into a daze, the moves in your offensive arsenal include a basic melee attack, a more powerful block-breaking attack, and at least one character-specific special move.

The combat system has been improved; you can dig and climb now, as well as power up your abilities by collecting the mojo scattered all over the island, but none of these improvements are good enough to counter the negative impact that the new free-roaming world design has undergone.