It's been a while since I've played a Crash Bandicoot game. For a franchise that was once a driving force of the Sony PlayStation, we haven't heard much from Crash in the past few years. He's now made the leap onto other game platforms, including the Xbox 360. And I have to say, just as seeing Sonic the Hedgehog on the Nintendo Wii, it just doesn't seem right. Imagine Mario appearing in an Xbox game... it's somewhat bizarre. This aside, however, let's take a look at Crash's new game.

Prior installments in the Crash universe relied on a sort of faked three-dimensional environment, with very limited control on exploration. Mind Over Mutant, on the other hand, has created a full 3D world for Crash to explore. Crash has the capability for full 360-degree movement, in addition to numerous new maneuvers, including climbing, digging, and mounting large mutants to aid in his quest. It feels like more of a continuous adventure than previous installments in the series, because everything happens in one contiguous world rather than in separate stages. New missions and areas open up as the story line is advanced and as new abilities are earned.

From the very beginning of the game, you'll notice blue and pink crystals littering the landscape. These crystals are called "mojo" and while not absolutely necessary, it is a good idea to collect as many of them as possible. At first, this seemed a bit pointless, as I thought it would only earn my character an extra life, or something of the sort. But there is actually more depth to it than that, and it was a nice surprise. As it turns out, collecting mojo is how your character becomes stronger and earns new abilities, in an RPG-leveling-up sort of way. For example, collecting your first 1,000 mojo allows Crash to use his patented spin-attack for a longer period of time without becoming dizzy. It's a nice incentive and makes collecting mojo much more important and less trivial.

The combat system is surprisingly fun, and has just enough depth to keep it from becoming too repetitive. Crash can perform the standard punches and kicks, his aforementioned spin attack, a spin-jump, and even some combos using the triangle button for power moves. And that's all without using a mutant. Once you mount a mutant, you're able to use their special attacks and powerful combat moves. The first mutant you encounter is able to freeze enemies, freeze water, and is ultra-powerful compared to Crash. It almost makes you feel invincible at some points. What I really liked about the combat system is that the game keeps track of your consecutive hits, and only resets this counter when you take damage from an enemy. Building up this counter in turn builds a mojo multiplier. So if you've scored 20 consecutive hits, you might have a 6x multiplier on any mojo you pick up. So if you battle carefully and ruthlessly, your character and mutant will level up that much faster.

I have to give kudos to the writers - they've put together an entertaining storyline and dialogue. Much of this storyline is told through cut scenes that take on a life of their own. Each one is done in a unique art style, ranging from comic book style, to a puppet performance, to Japanese-anime style. They're funny, unexpected, and keep you engaged in what otherwise might be a drab storyline. The humor is at a level that would most likely pass by any youngsters playing the game, but for teen-agers and 20-somethings, it's sure to be a riot. And a large part of this is due to outstanding voice acting.

Coming out of the cut scenes is almost a disappointment once the game's standard graphics are loaded back up. That's not because the cut scenes are high-powered, high-tech, and flashy. It's just that there's more personality, and more life in them. The cut scene art styles are done very, very well, while the game's standard graphics are basically run-of-the-mill 3D platformer. They're not bad, I just found myself wishing for more of the lively cut scene styles.

While Mind Over Mutant was certainly a fun game to play, and while it certainly kept me entertained and even made me laugh a number of times, I couldn't help but think it was a bit too easy. I rarely felt challenged, except for some of the platforming - jumps can be tricky! The game does offer three levels of difficulty to choose from, and I played on normal. So if you're an experienced gamer, I'd almost recommend playing on the hard difficulty, unless you just want to breeze through this title. Overall though, once I got past the initial weirdness of seeing Crash Bandicoot on my Xbox, it was fun, just like old times.

Gameplay: 8.5
Crash in a full 3D environment! Excellent controls, with enough variation and depth to keep things from becoming stale. No camera control though, which is somewhat of a bummer.

Graphics: 7.1
Lets just say that Mind Over Mutant doesn't push the 360 to it's limits. The standouts all come in the cutscenes, with the inclusion of an excellent variety of art styles used to spin the newest tale of Crash Bandicoot vs. Dr. Neo Cortex.

Sound: 7.5
The music is standard Crash fare, but the voice acting is superb, especially in the cutscenes. The characters are truly brought to life, and you'll definitely get some laughs if you have any sense of humor.

Difficulty: Easy
Well, there are 3 difficulty levels to choose from, but playing on standard difficulty, I was able to breeze through the game with little trouble. If you're an experienced gamer, you might want to consider trying the hard difficulty.

Concept: 7.5 
It's nice to see the Crash formula evolve, even just a little bit, by including the ability to control mutants and use their superpowers against the evil Dr. Neo Cortex. You're still able to control Crash on his own, but the new twist adds some needed variety to the gameplay.

Overall: 8.1
Though it was not the most challenging game, Mind Over Mutant remained a joy to play. Stepping into the 3D world is definitely a good move for the franchise, and the gameplay translates well. The cutscenes are the icing on the cake, and they tie everything together well while providing a good deal of entertainment. Crash Bandicoot, welcome to my XBOX.