First Impressions: Oh Crash, Wii love you long time.
Think of a console manufacturer and then think of its iconic character. Those thinking of Nintendo will conjure up images of Mario or Donkey Kong, while Sega fans will no doubt visualize Sonic. When posed with the same question, many Sony diehards will think back to the days of Crash Bandicoot and his crate smashing ways. These characters continue to be the main faces of the gaming industry. Since they first debuted, Mario, Donkey Kong, Sonic and Crash Bandicoot have all appeared in countless games. It looks like and Crash’s latest adventure, Crash of the Titans, will serve to increase that figure.
Much like Sonic, the current version of Crash Bandicoot does not owe allegiance to any specific console. Case in point, Crash of the Titans will be released on the Nintendo Wii along with other major platforms. In Crash Of the Titans, Neo-Cortex is yet again attempting to conquer the world. You’d have thought Crash would have been tired of saving the world by now, yet like James Bond, he just keeps on going, learning new things on his way. New moves will be included such as the ability to wall run, which will hopefully open up the gameplay more by allowing Crash to avoid certain enemies and get around cliffs.
Other than wall running, Crash of the Titans will throw a huge bundle of new gameplay additions your way. Chief amongst these is the new concept of ‘enemy jacking’, which allows Crash to take control of his adversaries. This works fairly simply. While in the midst of hand-to-hand combat, an enemy’s health indicator will appear above them. Once this bar has been completely drained you will be able to hop on the enemy’s head and then move it around, use its powers and abilities or work your way past something you previously couldn’t.
The Wii version will naturally take advantage of the Wiimote’s capabilities. ‘Enemy jacking’ will make the most usage of the Wii’s capabilities to perform many of the enemies’ special moves, with on screen prompts appearing in a similar fashion as they did in Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition.
The 20 level main story mode supports local two-player, cooperative play. In this mode the second player is able to join and leave the game as they please. The two Bandicoots will be able to connect at jumps, for example, where the two players will have to alternate their jumping at every other turn.
