Crash of the Titans
Encyclopedia
Crash of the Titans is an platform
video game published by Sierra Entertainment
and developed by Vancouver-based Radical Entertainment
for the PlayStation 2
, PlayStation Portable
(ported
by SuperVillain Studios
), Wii
and Xbox 360
. The Game Boy Advance
and Nintendo DS
versions of the game were developed by Amaze Entertainment
. The game was first released in North America on October 3, 2007, in Europe on October 12, 2007 and in Australia on October 25, 2007; It is the first game in the Crash Bandicoot series not to have a Japanese release.
Crash of the Titans is the fourteenth installment in the Crash Bandicoot video game series, but it is the sixth chronologically. The game's story centers on the discovery of a substance known as "Mojo", which the antagonist of the series, Doctor Neo Cortex
, plans to use to turn the inhabitants of the Wumpa Islands into an army of loyal mutants known as "Titans". The protagonist of the series, Crash Bandicoot
, must stop Cortex by using the technique of "jacking" to take control of and destroy Cortex's Titans while collecting the Mojo.
The game received mixed reviews upon its release; critics disparaged the game's short length, and although the game's variety was generally seen positively, reviewers noted little outstanding in the game. Despite this so-so reception, the game was nominated for two awards.
in which the player controls Crash Bandicoot
, whose main objective is to rescue his sister, Coco, and save his home, the Wumpa Islands, from being destroyed by the main antagonist's gigantic robot. The player's first goal is to rescue the sentient mask Aku Aku, who gives the player basic instructions, shields Crash from enemy attacks, and transforms into a skateboard to help Crash traverse slippery terrain. From there, each level
(known as an "episode") asks players to complete fights against large groups of enemies or simply progress through the episode.
Crash starts the game with three lives. The length of each of Crash's lives is tied to his health meter
, which decreases whenever Crash is damaged from enemy attacks or falls down a bottomless pit. The player can replenish Crash's health meter by instructing Crash to eat Wumpa Fruit. Each time the health meter is fully depleted, Crash loses a life. However, the player can win an additional life for Crash by collecting 25,000 units of the magical substance Mojo or by collecting a rare type of Golden Wumpa Fruit. After the last life is lost, the player can continue playing by restarting the current episode.
Each episode contains a portal leading to a simple mini-game arena, where the player must accomplish a task in a set time. Generally the task involves collecting a specified quantity of Mojo, using an enemy animal's attacks to snipe targets, or simply defeating a select number of enemies. At the end of each episode, the player earns a rank of a bronze, silver, or gold voodoo doll; the rank can be improved by defeating a set number of minions, destroying three robotic toilets or inflicting a minimum number of consecutive hits in combat. 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.
The Nintendo DS version of Crash of the Titans contains similar gameplay 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. 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, and set off Nitro explosions among other things. Additional content can also be won at these Pachinko boards, such as gallery art, cheats and a large quantity of Mojo.
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. When he defeats an enemy or destroys an object, a magical substance known as Mojo is released. 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. His classic spin attack, named "Old Skool", is an unlockable move, along with an aerial variant that allows Crash to float over chasms.
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. The meter rises when Crash starts attacking a Titan, and depletes when he stops. When it is full, the Titan is stunned and susceptible to "jacking", meaning Crash can mount the creature and control it. While controlled by the player, the Titan possesses a similar moveset to Crash, although some jacked Titans can shoot projectiles. Besides a 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, 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.
"). 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.
Nine characters from previous Crash Bandicoot titles star in the home console version of Crash of the Titans, all of them given a new modern "punk" style that is distinct from other video game characters. 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. Crash's other two allies are his genius sister Coco Bandicoot and his muscular little brother, 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. 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.
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. Nina has Coco brainwashed and makes her participate in the construction of the Doominator. Throughout the course of the game, Crash and Aku Aku interrogate Tiny Tiger, Doctor N. Gin and Uka Uka on the whereabouts of Coco. When they confront Nina Cortex inside the Doominator robot, Nina summons her Arachnina cyborg and fights Crash. 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. 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.
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. 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.
. The graphics of the Wii
version of the game was one of Radical Entertainment
's main focuses in the game's development, with Radical stating that the Wii
has "a lot of horsepower under the hood" and expressing their desire to make full use of it. They also considered implementing a feature to connect the Wii to DS during gameplay, but stopped due to technical issues and time. The Xbox 360
version got a few extra months of development time to improve its graphics before setting a final release date.
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 battle against blood cancer. In a bid to further promote the game, a Hummer
(with a Wii inside) was painted with imagery from the game and displayed at the Annual Balloon Fiesta in Bristol
, United Kingdom. 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. Due to its "mild cartoon violence and language", the game received a PG rating from the BBFC
.
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. Radical Entertainment has expressed its pride with some of the music featured in the game, such as Doctor N. Gin's polka
theme. A 32-track soundtrack was made available on the iTunes Music Store on December 18, 2007. The music in the Nintendo DS version of the game was created by Nathaniel Papadakis.
. To achieve a natural feel for their dialogue, the voice actors performed all their lines three times. 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 Nina Cortex, and Nolan North
in the role of Tiny Tiger. Dingodile, who appears only in the DS and GBA versions, is voiced by Nolan North.
To make enemies memorable on their own; 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
. 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
.
credited it as a "fairly sturdy, combat-heavy platformer with a good hook", but concluded that it lacked the distinctive style of past Crash Bandicoot games. The DS version of the game was reviewed positively, with IGN
naming it "one of the better handheld Crash games to hit the market". Nintendo World Report gave the DS version a higher score than the home console version by half a point, but dismissed it as "a short game that has very little gameplay variety". GameSpot proclaimed that "there's plenty to do, and controlling the enemy is a neat twist", but criticized the game's small length of only six to eight hours.
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". GameSpy
also criticized the game for its camera along with its unsteady framerate, but praised the game's attractive graphics and offline co-op mode. IGN described the game as "a good idea wrapped in a mediocre game", dismissing the game's music as "forgettable", and hoping that the jacking concept would be refined for a possible sequel. 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". The PSP version received 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".
Crash of the Titans was a nominee in the Writers Guild of America
's inaugural video game writing awards, competing against Dead Head Fred
, The Simpsons Game
, The Witcher
and World in Conflict
; Dead Head Fred won the award. 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. It lost both awards to Skate
and Mass Effect
' s Commander Shepard respectively.
In Australia, Crash of the Titans was the second highest-selling game in its first week below Halo 3
. The game was not as successful in the United Kingdom, where the PS2 version of the game debuted at #32 in the sales charts. The game made £
3.35 million in the U.K. by the end of 2007.
Despite the poor sales in the U.K., the game was re-released on Platinum for the PlayStation 2 and for the Xbox 360 classics.
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
video game published by Sierra Entertainment
Sierra Entertainment
Sierra Entertainment Inc. was an American video-game developer and publisher founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by Ken and Roberta Williams...
and developed by Vancouver-based Radical Entertainment
Radical Entertainment
Radical Entertainment is a video game developer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was founded in 1991 and previously developed games for game publishers such as THQ, Microsoft and Fox Interactive. It is now an entirely owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard after being acquired by...
for the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
, PlayStation Portable
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
(ported
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
by SuperVillain Studios
SuperVillain Studios
SuperVillain Studios is a video game development company that develops for the Wii, Nintendo DS, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and the PlayStation Portable.-Company Profile:...
), Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
and Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
. The Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
and Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
versions of the game were developed by Amaze Entertainment
Amaze Entertainment
Amaze Entertainment was a video game developer from the United States that sold over 100 games in its ten-year history , for several video game platforms, with headquarters located in Kirkland, Washington. Amaze’s primary focus was licensed games based on movie franchises, comic series, and...
. The game was first released in North America on October 3, 2007, in Europe on October 12, 2007 and in Australia on October 25, 2007; It is the first game in the Crash Bandicoot series not to have a Japanese release.
Crash of the Titans is the fourteenth installment in the Crash Bandicoot video game series, but it is the sixth chronologically. The game's story centers on the discovery of a substance known as "Mojo", which the antagonist of the series, Doctor Neo Cortex
Doctor Neo Cortex
Doctor Neo Periwinkle Cortex, often referred to as "Doctor Cortex" or simply "Cortex", is a video game character and the main antagonist of the Crash Bandicoot series of video games. His name is a play on the term neocortex, an area of the brain...
, plans to use to turn the inhabitants of the Wumpa Islands into an army of loyal mutants known as "Titans". The protagonist of the series, Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot (character)
Crash Bandicoot, or simply Crash, is a video game character and the primary protagonist of the Crash Bandicoot series of video games. Introduced in the 1996 video game Crash Bandicoot, Crash is an Eastern Barred Bandicoot that was genetically enhanced by the series antagonist Doctor Neo Cortex and...
, must stop Cortex by using the technique of "jacking" to take control of and destroy Cortex's Titans while collecting the Mojo.
The game received mixed reviews upon its release; critics disparaged the game's short length, and although the game's variety was generally seen positively, reviewers noted little outstanding in the game. Despite this so-so reception, the game was nominated for two awards.
Gameplay
Crash of the Titans is a platform gamePlatform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
in which the player controls Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot (character)
Crash Bandicoot, or simply Crash, is a video game character and the primary protagonist of the Crash Bandicoot series of video games. Introduced in the 1996 video game Crash Bandicoot, Crash is an Eastern Barred Bandicoot that was genetically enhanced by the series antagonist Doctor Neo Cortex and...
, whose main objective is to rescue his sister, Coco, and save his home, the Wumpa Islands, from being destroyed by the main antagonist's gigantic robot. The player's first goal is to rescue the sentient mask Aku Aku, who gives the player basic instructions, shields Crash from enemy attacks, and transforms into a skateboard to help Crash traverse slippery terrain. From there, each level
Level (video gaming)
A level, map, area, or world in a video game is the total space available to the player during the course of completing a discrete objective...
(known as an "episode") asks players to complete fights against large groups of enemies or simply progress through the episode.
Crash starts the game with three lives. The length of each of Crash's lives is tied to his health meter
Health (gaming)
Health is a game mechanic used in role-playing, computer and video games to give value to characters, enemies, NPCs, and related objects. This value can either be numerical, semi-numerical as in hit/health points, or arbitrary as in a life bar....
, which decreases whenever Crash is damaged from enemy attacks or falls down a bottomless pit. The player can replenish Crash's health meter by instructing Crash to eat Wumpa Fruit. Each time the health meter is fully depleted, Crash loses a life. However, the player can win an additional life for Crash by collecting 25,000 units of the magical substance Mojo or by collecting a rare type of Golden Wumpa Fruit. After the last life is lost, the player can continue playing by restarting the current episode.
Each episode contains a portal leading to a simple mini-game arena, where the player must accomplish a task in a set time. Generally the task involves collecting a specified quantity of Mojo, using an enemy animal's attacks to snipe targets, or simply defeating a select number of enemies. At the end of each episode, the player earns a rank of a bronze, silver, or gold voodoo doll; the rank can be improved by defeating a set number of minions, destroying three robotic toilets or inflicting a minimum number of consecutive hits in combat. 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.
The Nintendo DS version of Crash of the Titans contains similar gameplay to that of previous Crash installments. The game takes place on four islands, each with two levels
Level (video gaming)
A level, map, area, or world in a video game is the total space available to the player during the course of completing a discrete objective...
and a boss. When a boss is defeated, a new island is unlocked. Each island has its own "Pachinko
Pachinko
is a type of game originating in Japan, and used as both a form of recreational arcade game and much more frequently as a gambling device, filling a niche in gambling in Japan comparable to that of the slot machine in Western gambling. A pachinko machine resembles a vertical pinball machine, but...
board" where players can win "on-demand items"; items that can be used to restore health, provide temporary invincibility, and set off Nitro explosions among other things. Additional content can also be won at these Pachinko boards, such as gallery art, cheats and a large quantity of Mojo.
Combat
Chuck Norris
Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris is an American martial artist and actor. After serving in the United States Air Force, he began his rise to fame as a martial artist and has since founded his own school, Chun Kuk Do...
Roundhouse or the Triple Dragon. His classic spin attack, named "Old Skool", is an unlockable move, along with an aerial variant that allows Crash to float over chasms.
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. The meter rises when Crash starts attacking a Titan, and depletes when he stops. When it is full, the Titan is stunned and susceptible to "jacking", meaning Crash can mount the creature and control it. While controlled by the player, the Titan possesses a similar moveset to Crash, although some jacked Titans can shoot projectiles. Besides a 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, 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.
Co-operative play
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". 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.Setting
The setting of Crash of the Titans features twenty levels. 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 ClawsThe Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
"). 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
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886...
. 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
Liberace
Wladziu Valentino Liberace , best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist.In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned...
-style lair, and finally inside the Doominator.
Characters
Bandicoot
Bandicoots are a group of about 20 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial marsupial omnivores in the order Peramelemorphia.- Etymology :...
who must defeat the main antagonist Doctor Neo Cortex
Doctor Neo Cortex
Doctor Neo Periwinkle Cortex, often referred to as "Doctor Cortex" or simply "Cortex", is a video game character and the main antagonist of the Crash Bandicoot series of video games. His name is a play on the term neocortex, an area of the brain...
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. Crash's other two allies are his genius sister Coco Bandicoot and his muscular little brother, Crunch Bandicoot, who is absent in the Nintendo DS version.
Doctor Neo Cortex is a mad scientist
Mad scientist
A mad scientist is a stock character of popular fiction, specifically science fiction. The mad scientist may be villainous or antagonistic, benign or neutral, and whether insane, eccentric, or simply bumbling, mad scientists often work with fictional technology in order to forward their schemes, if...
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. 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
Radical Entertainment
Radical Entertainment is a video game developer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was founded in 1991 and previously developed games for game publishers such as THQ, Microsoft and Fox Interactive. It is now an entirely owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard after being acquired by...
sought to give these minor characters personalities by giving them a large number of distinctive quotations.
Story
Crash of the Titans is set after the events of Crash Twinsanity. In the beginning of the game, Crash Bandicoot aids Coco with a butter-recycling device. Doctor Neo Cortex arrives, captures Coco and Aku Aku and 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. 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. 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.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. Nina has Coco brainwashed and makes her participate in the construction of the Doominator. Throughout the course of the game, Crash and Aku Aku interrogate Tiny Tiger, Doctor N. Gin and Uka Uka on the whereabouts of Coco. When they confront Nina Cortex inside the Doominator robot, Nina summons her Arachnina cyborg and fights Crash. 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. 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.
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. 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.
Development
Development on Crash of the Titans began after the completion of Crash Tag Team RacingCrash Tag Team Racing
Crash Tag Team Racing is a racing video game published by Sierra Entertainment and developed by Vancouver-based Radical Entertainment for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox and PlayStation Portable. A Nintendo DS version, which was to be developed by Sensory Sweep Studios rather than...
. The graphics of the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
version of the game was one of Radical Entertainment
Radical Entertainment
Radical Entertainment is a video game developer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was founded in 1991 and previously developed games for game publishers such as THQ, Microsoft and Fox Interactive. It is now an entirely owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard after being acquired by...
's main focuses in the game's development, with Radical stating that the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
has "a lot of horsepower under the hood" and expressing their desire to make full use of it. They also considered implementing a feature to connect the Wii to DS during gameplay, but stopped due to technical issues and time. The Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
version got a few extra months of development time to improve its graphics before setting a final release date.
While the game was being developed, the title's main character, Crash Bandicoot, became the new mascot of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society , founded in 1949, is the world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research, education and patient services. LLS's mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and to improve the quality of life of...
's "School and Youth" programs in an effort to promote the battle against blood cancer. In a bid to further promote the game, a Hummer
Hummer
Hummer was a brand of trucks and SUVs, first marketed in 1992 when AM General began selling a civilian version of the M998 Humvee. In 1998, General Motors purchased the brand name and marketed three vehicles: the original Hummer H1, based on the Humvee; and the H2 and H3 models that were...
(with a Wii inside) was painted with imagery from the game and displayed at the Annual Balloon Fiesta in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, United Kingdom. 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. Due to its "mild cartoon violence and language", the game received a PG rating from the BBFC
British Board of Film Classification
The British Board of Film Classification , originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom...
.
Music
Radical did not hire the composer of the music in the previous Crash games, the a cappellaA cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
band Spiralmouth whose members Rebecca Kneubuhl and Gabriel Mann left to compose musical pieces to The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night
The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night
The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night is a video game in the Spyro the Dragon series. It is the second game in "The Legend of Spyro" trilogy, released for the PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and Wii...
and The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon
The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon
The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon is the 3rd and final installment in The Legend of Spyro trilogy, as well as the tenth anniversary game of the series. It was released on October 21, 2008 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Wii and PlayStation 2 for North America, Australia and Europe...
from Crash's companion franchise Spyro the Dragon
Spyro the Dragon (series)
Spyro the Dragon is a platform and action game series starring the video game character Spyro, which was originally published by Sony Computer Entertainment and developed by Insomniac Games for the PlayStation....
, 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. Radical Entertainment has expressed its pride with some of the music featured in the game, such as Doctor N. Gin's polka
Polka
The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...
theme. A 32-track soundtrack was made available on the iTunes Music Store on December 18, 2007. The music in the Nintendo DS version of the game was created by Nathaniel Papadakis.
Voice cast
To ensure that the audio does not become repetitive, Crash of the Titans features more than 7,000 lines of dialogue, many of which contain references to popular culture, such as the film Brokeback MountainBrokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee. It is a film adaptation of the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx with the screenplay written by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry...
. To achieve a natural feel for their dialogue, the voice actors performed all their lines three times. Many of the voice actors from Crash Tag Team Racing reprised their roles, including Jess Harnell
Jess Harnell
Jess Q. Harnell is an American voice actor and singer, best known for voicing Wakko Warner on Animaniacs. Harnell has been the announcer for America's Funniest Home Videos since 1998.-Life and acting career:...
as Crash Bandicoot and Lex Lang
Lex Lang
Walter Alexis "Lex" Lang is a two-time Emmy Award–winning American voice actor, producer and entrepreneur. He is the cofounder of The Love Planet Foundation, a non-profit organization which creates educational materials for children on the importance of recycling, world water awareness, and the...
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
Greg Eagles
Greg Eagles is an American voice actor whose talents have been used for numerous TV shows and video games...
as Aku Aku, Chris Williams as Tiny Tiger, and John DiMaggio
John DiMaggio
John William DiMaggio is an American voice actor. A native of North Plainfield, New Jersey, he is known for his gruff, deep voice and New Jersey accent, which he uses to voice mainly villains and anti-heroes.-Filmography:...
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
Nolan North
Nolan Ramsey North is an American actor and voice actor born in New Haven, Connecticut. He has been described as "the nearest thing the games industry has to a bona fide leading man."-Biography:...
in the role of Tiny Tiger. Dingodile, who appears only in the DS and GBA versions, is voiced by Nolan North.
To make enemies memorable on their own; 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
Tom Kenny
Thomas James "Tom" Kenny is an American actor, voice actor and comedian. He is especially known for his long-running-role as SpongeBob SquarePants in the television series of the same name, as well as the live-action character Patchy the Pirate, Gary the Snail and the French narrator based on...
from Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
's SpongeBob SquarePants
SpongeBob SquarePants
SpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series, created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. Much of the series centers on the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the underwater city of "Bikini Bottom"...
. 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
Mike Tyson
Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson is a retired American boxer. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles, he was 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old...
, Mr. T
Mr. T
Mr. T is an American actor known for his roles as B. A. Baracus in the 1980s television series The A-Team, as boxer Clubber Lang in the 1982 film Rocky III, and for his appearances as a professional wrestler. Mr. T is known for his trademark African Mandinka warrior hairstyle, his gold jewelry,...
, Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
, and Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
.
Reception and sales
Crash of the Titans received fair reviews upon its release. GameSpotGameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
credited it as a "fairly sturdy, combat-heavy platformer with a good hook", but concluded that it lacked the distinctive style of past Crash Bandicoot games. The DS version of the game was reviewed positively, with IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
naming it "one of the better handheld Crash games to hit the market". Nintendo World Report gave the DS version a higher score than the home console version by half a point, but dismissed it as "a short game that has very little gameplay variety". GameSpot proclaimed that "there's plenty to do, and controlling the enemy is a neat twist", but criticized the game's small length of only six to eight hours.
The more negative reviews include those from Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...
, who criticized the game for its "fixed and unforgiving" camera, which they felt made the platforming experience "frustrating". GameSpy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
also criticized the game for its camera along with its unsteady framerate, but praised the game's attractive graphics and offline co-op mode. IGN described the game as "a good idea wrapped in a mediocre game", dismissing the game's music as "forgettable", and hoping that the jacking concept would be refined for a possible sequel. Eurogamer
Eurogamer
Eurogamer is a Brighton-based website focused on video games news, reviews, previews and interviews. It is operated by Eurogamer Network Ltd., which was formed in 1999 by brothers Rupert and Nick Loman. Eurogamer has grown to become one of the most important European-based websites focused on...
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". The PSP version received 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".
Crash of the Titans was a nominee in the Writers Guild of America
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
's inaugural video game writing awards, competing against Dead Head Fred
Dead Head Fred
is a horror-themed action-adventure video game for the PlayStation Portable, developed by Vicious Cycle Software and published by D3 Publisher. It was released in North America on August 28, 2007 and is powered by Vicious Cycle's proprietary Vicious Engine. It features a premise that is a...
, The Simpsons Game
The Simpsons Game
The Simpsons Game is an action/platformer video game based on the animated television series The Simpsons, made for the Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation Portable. The game was developed, published, and distributed by Electronic Arts. It was released in North...
, The Witcher
The Witcher
The Witcher, or , by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski is a cult series of fantasy short stories and five novels about the witcher Geralt of Rivia...
and World in Conflict
World in Conflict
World in Conflict, or WiC, is a real-time tactical video game developed by the Swedish video game company Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows. The game was released in September 2007...
; Dead Head Fred won the award. 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. It lost both awards to Skate
Skate (video game)
Skate is a skateboarding video game developed by EA Black Box for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It was released in North America on September 17, 2007 for the Xbox 360 and September 24, 2007 for the PlayStation 3 and in Europe on September 28, 2007 for the Xbox 360 and October 5, 2007 for the...
and Mass Effect
Mass Effect
Mass Effect is an action role-playing game developed by BioWare for the Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows by Demiurge Studios. The Xbox 360 version was released worldwide in November 2007 published by Microsoft Game Studios...
In Australia, Crash of the Titans was the second highest-selling game in its first week below Halo 3
Halo 3
Halo 3 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie for the Xbox 360 console. The third installment in the Halo franchise, the game concludes the story arc begun in Halo: Combat Evolved and continued in Halo 2...
. The game was not as successful in the United Kingdom, where the PS2 version of the game debuted at #32 in the sales charts. The game made £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
3.35 million in the U.K. by the end of 2007.
Despite the poor sales in the U.K., the game was re-released on Platinum for the PlayStation 2 and for the Xbox 360 classics.
External links
- Crash of the Titans official website
- Crash of the Titans (PS2) | (PSP) | (X360) | (WII) | (DS) | (GBA) at GameSpotGameSpotGameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...