Crash of the Titans

Crash Bandicoot and "Carbon Crash" have jacked the Titans Snipe and Spike, respectively

Whereas the previous games featured Crash spinning into or jumping on an enemy to attack, Crash of the Titans gives him more options for attack. Early in the game, Crash has a light-powered attack and a heavy-powered attack and can also block, dodge or break an enemy's block.[11] When he defeats an enemy or destroys an object, a magical substance known as Mojo is released.[5] 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.[5] His classic spin attack, named "Old Skool", is an unlockable move, along with an aerial variant that allows Crash to float over chasms.[12]

While small minions require only a single combo attack for Crash to defeat, larger enemies, known as "Titans", require more effort to subdue. Each of the fifteen unique Titans in the game possess a star meter that indicates how close they are to being stunned.[12][13] The meter rises when Crash starts attacking a Titan, and depletes when he stops.[12] When it is full, the Titan is stunned and susceptible to "jacking", meaning Crash can mount the creature and control it.[13] While controlled by the player, the Titan possesses a similar moveset to Crash,[12] although some jacked Titans can shoot projectiles.[14] Besides greater health, the Titans controlled by Crash have a purple Titan Meter. When this meter is full, players can make the Titan unleash a special attack,[14] which fully drains the meter in the process.

A Titan's durability depends on its size; larger Titans will take more effort to defeat than others and a few are immune to Crash's attacks. To defeat them, Crash has to jack a smaller Titan to fight them. On defeating the larger Titan, he can dismount the Titan he previously jacked and directly jack the larger Titan. The dismounted Titan will then be destroyed.

A player using a second controller can join the game at any time in the form of a white-furred version of Crash known as "Carbon Crash".[12][15] The second player appears in the first player's backpack, and can usually enter or exit the pack. However, the second player has to stay in the backpack if the first player is in mid-air or climbing a wall. This method of play is useful for overpowering enemies and collecting Mojo faster. There are two modes of co-op play; in "Leapfrog Mode", the players swap control each time the front player jumps, swings, or slides, while in "Piggyback Mode", each player is equipped with their own backpack and can hide in the other player's backpack if the action becomes too intense, such as when jumping over a chasm.[15]

The setting of Crash of the Titans features twenty levels.[12] Each level is referred to as an "episode", and each has a distinctive subtitle that is usually a punning reference to popular culture (such as "The Blizzard of Claws"). Like the first Crash Bandicoot game, episodes must be played in order, although the player can replay any episode that has been completed. The game moves through five major themes taking place on Crash's homeland, the Wumpa Islands. The story starts in the jungle near Crash's residence and leads to an ancient temple. Later in the game, Crash travels through a wood-cutting and mining area and a land flowing with lava that features giant steel mosquitoes sucking minerals out of the ground. 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 the antagonist's Liberace-style lair, and finally inside the Doominator.

The main cast of Crash of the Titans sporting their new "punk" look

Nine characters from previous Crash Bandicoot titles star in the home console version of Crash of the Titans,[16] all of whom were redesigned with a "punk" aesthetic that is distinct from other and Japanese video game characters.[17] The protagonist of the game, Crash Bandicoot, is a bandicoot who must defeat the main antagonist Doctor Neo Cortex and use the Titans against each other while collecting Mojo to upgrade his fighting techniques. Aiding Crash is Aku Aku, an ancient wooden mask who acts as a shield, a skateboard, and a weapon. He can also help Crash jack Titans. Crash's other two allies are his genius younger sister Coco Bandicoot and his muscular friend, Crunch Bandicoot, who is absent in the Nintendo DS version.

Doctor Neo Cortex is a mad scientist who captures Coco and Aku Aku and wants to use stolen Mojo to create an army of mutants. Uka Uka, who is also absent in the Nintendo DS version, is behind Cortex's plot for world domination; after tiring of Cortex's incompetence, Uka replaces him with his cyborg niece, Nina Cortex. Aiding the Cortexes are Doctor N. Gin, who is Cortex's hysterical right-hand man, and Tiny Tiger. Dingodile, another minion of Cortex, exclusively appears in the DS and Game Boy Advance versions of Crash of the Titans as a boss character.[10] Aiding the villains are a number of small fodder enemies that attempt to hinder Crash in his journey. Each fodder is affiliated with a certain villain in the game. The first fodders encountered are Neo Cortex's Ratnicians, which appear as bipedal, chihuahua-like animals dressed as laboratory researchers. These characters appear in the first four episodes of the game, and are replaced by other enemies as the game progresses. The later enemies 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 sought to give these minor characters personalities by giving them a large number of distinctive quotations.[17]

In the beginning of the game, Crash aids Coco with a butter-recycling device.[18] When Dr. Cortex arrives, not only he captures Aku Aku and Coco, but encases Crunch in ice. Crash throws Coco's machine at Cortex's airship, severing the chain holding Aku Aku's cage, which causes the cage to fall into the nearby forest. After Crash rescues Aku Aku, they discover that Cortex and Uka Uka are stealing Mojo from a nearby temple and decide to stop them.[19] On reaching the temple, Cortex reveals his plot to use the stolen Mojo to create an army of loyal mutants, which will be used to build a robot known as the Doominator, that will crush the Wumpa Islands and take over the world.[20] After failing to defeat Crash with his Yuktopus cyborg, Cortex boasts that Crash will never find his base and flies off, leaving Crash and Aku Aku to follow him.[21]

At Cortex's base, Uka Uka derides Cortex for failing to destroy Crash and replaces Cortex with his niece, Nina Cortex, despite protests from Neo, N. Gin and Tiny Tiger.[22] Nina has Coco brainwashed and makes her participate in the construction of the Doominator.[23] Throughout the course of the game, Crash and Aku Aku interrogate Tiny Tiger,[24] Doctor N. Gin[25] and Uka Uka on the whereabouts of Coco.[26] When they confront Nina inside the Doominator robot, she summons her Arachnina cyborg and fights Crash.[27] Crash eventually destroys the robot, liberating Coco and disabling the Doominator. The Doominator collapses and barely misses the Bandicoot home (and Crunch), sparing much of Wumpa Island. Escaping from the collapsed Doominator, Cortex praises Nina for betraying him, and promises to be more evil in the near future.[28] The Bandicoots decide that it is time for celebration, leading Crash to shout his first word in the series and the object of their celebration: pancakes.[29]

The DS version of the game largely follows the story of the home console versions, but with minor alterations such as Nina Cortex having a greater role and the inclusion of Dingodile.[10] Near the end of the game, Nina teams up with Crash to stop Doctor Cortex and his dancing "CortexBot". The Game Boy Advance version also includes Dingodile, 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.

Unlike Crash Tag Team Racing, Radical did not hire the composer of the music in the previous Crash games, the a cappella band Spiralmouth whose members Rebecca Kneubuhl and Gabriel Mann left to compose musical pieces to The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night and The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon from Crash's companion franchise Spyro the Dragon, to write the music for Crash of the Titans. Instead, they assigned the job to their in-house composer Marc Baril, who took Spiralmouth's work on the previous games as references for Crash of the Titans.[17] Radical Entertainment has expressed its pride with some of the music featured in the game, such as Doctor N. Gin's polka theme.[17] A 32-track soundtrack was made available on the iTunes Music Store on December 18, 2007.[35] The music in the Nintendo DS version of the game was created by Nathaniel Papadakis.[36]

To avoid repetitive audio,[12][31] Crash of the Titans features more than 7,000 lines of dialogue,[37] many of which contain references to popular culture, such as the film Brokeback Mountain.[31] To achieve a natural feel for their dialogue, the voice actors performed all their lines three times.[38] 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 Crash of the 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 Coco Bandicoot, and Nolan North in the role of N. Gin.[10] Dingodile, who appears only in the DS and GBA versions, is voiced by Nolan North.

To make enemies memorable on their own;[17] Radical Entertainment scripted conversations between the enemy characters that can be overheard as the player approaches. Several voice actors provide the audio for the small enemies, including Tom Kenny from Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants.[38] 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 Mike Tyson, Mr. T, Jerry Lewis, and Peter Lorre.[39]

Reception to the Nintendo DS version of Crash of the Titans was also mixed, but slightly more favorable than the console versions. Craig Harris of IGN considered the game to be "a fantastic apology for Crash Boom Bang!" and praised Crash's new design as well as the game's visuals, level design and gameplay variety, but felt that the combat and the incorporation of some touch screen elements were clunky.[65] Zachary Miller of Nintendo World Report commended the fast-paced and interesting gameplay and colorful and distinct graphics, but felt that the environments and enemy types blended together, and while he was fairly impressed with the voice-acting, he was critical of the storyline and inclusion of a laugh track.[66] Frank Provo of GameSpot commended the gameplay variety granted by the jacking mechanic and slaloming segments, and was impressed by the graphics, which provided a "slick and upbeat" presentation, but he lamented the game's short length.[63] Louis Bedigian of GameZone considered the basic gameplay and graphics to be comparable to the original PlayStation games, but said that the frequent amount of enemies caused the gameplay to become repetitive, deemed the touchscreen controls unwieldy and unnecessary, and lambasted the voice-acting as childish.[64]