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Developer Radical Entertainment has admirably tried to revitalize the Crash Bandicoot franchise at the request of Activision -- not an easy task given that the mascot hasn't really starred in a particularly innovative or cutting-edge platformer for a decade. Really, it's akin to taking over public relations for Cory Haim today. Sure, he used to be pretty cool. A teen idol, even. But now he's just kind of crazy. And when I stare into Crash's redesigned face, admittedly sporting more detail than ever before, I think I can see the same I'm-still-here glare, yet underneath the forced smile, there's no soul. Worse in Crash's case is that there really seems to be no identity. Since his inception, he's been a poor man's Mario and while Nintendo's franchise has developed over the years, the Bandicoot has pretty much stayed the same -- in other words, with no fresh gameplay mechanics to fall back on, he's remained practically indistinguishable from the bajillions of other platformers that litter today's industry. Crash's star has left the building, as it were, a truth evidenced by the fact that one of the main selling points in these latest titles, Mind Over Mutant included, is that you don't have to play as the Bandicoot; you can instead control a number of no-name monsters, most of them more interesting.

Mind Over Mutant is the sequel to last year's Crash of the Titans, a 6.5-rated title that didn't sell well on any platform. This latest installment is fundamentally the same, which is not really a bad thing. After all, Radical has made the most of the Crash persona by creating a large world overrun with traditional platforming challenges, a punchy and surprisingly satisfying battle system, the aforementioned gameplay mechanic centered on jacking into monsters, some good technology to boot and an overall presentation filled with cinemas that seem to focus on the comedy of Crash's companions, some of it effective. Therefore, if the point is to reintroduce the Bandicoot to a new generation of players, yeah, I think newbies might actually like some of the simple, straightforward obstacles that lay in wait. Surely they'll enjoy the colorful humor. And yet, Mind Over Mutant, like its predecessor, remains a platformer that falls well short of greatness, particularly for those of us seasoned enough to have seen all of this before, executed better.

The developer has brought back a number of classic Crash villains for Mind Over Mutant, including Dr. Neo Cortex and even Dr. Nitrus Brio, who even points out to players that he was in the original game. There are some laugh-out-loud moments to be had as the surreal storyline, involving a seedy piece of technology that transforms the inhabitants of Wumpa Island into Cortex-controlled baddies, unravels. And Radical has had fun with the presentation, employing a number of different story-telling styles clearly inspired by popular American and Japanese animation. The tale powering the adventure isn't going to attract the eyes of the Academy any time soon, but it does have its moments and it's deeper and more compelling than anything we've seen in a Mario or Sonic game.

Crash explores the landscape in Mind Over Mutant.
If you played the first game, you'll notice right away the expanded large-world design that is the backbone of exploration in Mind Over Mutant. Crash begins the adventure at his home, where he is able to equip new costumes as they become available, among other things, and can simply leave his house and journey into a giant-sized world, where the storyline and quest begins. This isn't an open-world, sandbox-style game, though, so don't get the wrong impression. There are two reasons for this: First, there are scripted events that take place in linear sequence, so you'll actually need to accomplish task A before task B begins. And second, the fixed camera (which cannot be manipulated at all) is so constraining that even if the world were completely open, there would be no effec