Crash: Mind Over Mutant

This article refers to the main version of Crash: Mind Over Mutant for the PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, Wii and the PlayStation Portable. For other uses, see Crash: Mind Over Mutant (disambiguation).
Crash: Mind Over Mutant is the sequel to Crash of the Titans, the fifteenth installment in the Crash Bandicoot series, and the seventh mainline series game. It was released for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, & Wii.
The game's story centers on the arrival of a popular technological device that puts its users under the control of the device's creators and antagonists of the story Dr. Neo Cortex and N. Brio. Crash and his magical mask friend Aku Aku are the only ones unaffected by the device, and must free their friends from its control and put an end to Dr. Cortex's plot.
==Gameplay==
As a follow-up to Crash of the Titans, Crash: Mind Over Mutant uses many of the same mechanics of that game, with a few changes. Crash still has the ability to "jack" enemies (called mutants or sometimes titans) by defeating them in close-range combat and riding on their backs. He can also still earn attack upgrades by collecting mojo, but unlike before, each species of mutant Crash controls has their own unique mojo counters and levelling system as well. Crash can "level up" a maximum of twenty times; mutants, only five. In addition, Crash can now put a non-boss mutant in storage ("pocketing"), and can switch between his current and pocketed mutant at any time. Most mutants from the previous game return, and a few new ones have been added. Each one now has the ability to jump, and many of the returning mutants have gained new attacks. Special, stronger variants of the mutants called Heroes can be encountered and jacked later in the game.
As a whole, the style of the game is much more open than most previous instalments. Rather than having twenty linear platforming levels to complete in sequence, Mind Over Mutant features eight distinct locations for Crash to explore and travel between as the story progresses. Scattered throughout the map are Voodoo dolls, which unlock the game's concept art, and health upgrades. Completing the game's story also unlocks minigame rounds to test Crash's combat skills.
==Story==
Some time after the events of the previous game, Dr. Neo Cortex reconciles with his old colleague, Dr. N. Brio, who has invented the NV: a virtual-reality headset powered by bad mojo that transforms the wearer into a mindless, bloodthirsty creature. Cortex realizes the marketability of the device and has it mass-produced. It is advertised as a personal assistant and entertainment system, and soon arrives at the door of every Wumpa Island inhabitant free of charge.
The bandicoots also receive these helmets, though Crash and Aku Aku are unimpressed (Crash's malfunctions, and Aku Aku's doesn't fit). Coco and Crunch are obsessed, however, and before long the devices turn them into slavering beasts. Crash and Aku Aku must travel to various locales and settlements across Wumpa Island to save Coco, Crunch, and the various mutants they encounter along the way. They must also track down old enemies that Cortex has either betrayed or abandoned (N. Gin, Nina, Uka Uka) and piece together the story of the NV's creation.
Eventually, they discover the source of the helmets in Cortex's space station, and there confront the doctor himself. Using N. Brio's mutagen, Cortex transforms himself into a mutant to fight Crash one-on-one, but is defeated when Crash jacks him and initiates the station's self-destruct. Cortex escapes in an escape pod, leaving Crash and Aku Aku stranded. The ship crash-lands on Wumpa Island. Miraculously, the two survive. They happily reunite with Crunch and Coco, and decide not to clean up any of the mess that's now piled up in their front yard.
==Characters==
===Playable===
*Crash Bandicoot
*Coco Bandicoot (Xbox 360 and Wii versions only)
*Carbon Crash
===Bosses===
*Coco Bandicoot
*Crunch Bandicoot
*Scorporilla
*Yuktopus
*Neo Cortex
===Supporting===
*Aku Aku
*N. Gin
*Nina Cortex
*N. Brio
===Enemies===
*Ratnicians - Having gone feral and vegetarian since Crash of the Titans, they now work for Doctor N. Gin.
*Bratgirls - They were Nina's former minions after the events of Crash of the Titans and now attend the Evil Public School with her. They also supervise the NV-controlled Ratcicles in Ratcicle Kingdom.
*Doom Monkeys - They now work for Dr. N. Brio in the Junkyard.
*Znus - Bulbous, purple creatures that work for the Grimlies, armed with flashlights and eye lasers.
*Slap-Es - Hand-shaped robots that share Dr. N. Cortex's memories and personal problems.
===Mutants===
*Ratcicle
*Coco Bandicoot
*Magmadon
*TK
*Scorporilla
*RhinoRoller
*Spike
*Snipe
*Sludge
*Crunch Bandicoot
*Battler
*Grimly
*Yuktopus
*Stench
*Titan Heroes:
**Spike Hero
**Magmadon Hero
**Snipe Hero
**Grimly Hero
**Ratcicle Hero
**Sludge Hero
*Doctor Neo Cortex
==Locations==
*Wumpa Island
*Ratcicle Kingdom
*Ice Prison
*Wasteland
*Evil Public School
*Junkyard
*Mount Grimly
*Space Head
== Missions ==
Main article: Crash: Mind Over Mutant/Missions
=== Story Missions ===
# Find Coco's Parts
# Find N. Gin
# Save Coco and Crunch
# Find Information on Nina
# Travel to the Ice Prison
# Find Information on Nina's School
# Return to Ratcicle Kingdom
# Return to Wumpa Island
# Reach the Desert
# Find RhinoRoller Village
# Defeat Spikes
# Get to Nina's School
# Protect Nina's School Project
# Defend Wumpa
# Travel to the Junkyard
# Find Crunch and N. Brio
# Save Crunch
# Travel to Mount Grimly
# Save Uka Uka
# Collect Uka's Bones: Uka's Vengeance
# Return to Uka Uka
# Return to the Doominator
# Defeat Cortex
=== Optional Missions ===
Each of these missions has an Xbox Achievement attached to it in the Xbox 360 version.
Image	No.	Name 	Criteria
 	1 	No Place Like Wumpa 	Collect 5 Wumpa Voodoo Dolls from Wumpa Island
 	2 	Freezer Burn 	Collect 5 Ratcicle Voodoo Dolls from Ratcicle Kingdom
 	3 	N is for Evil 	Collect 3 Purple Voodoo Dolls from Evil Public School
 	4 	Hot Stuff 	Collect 5 RhinoRoller Voodoo Dolls from Wasteland
 	5 	Don't Recycle! 	Collect 5 Sludge Voodoo Dolls from Junkyard
 	6 	The Dark Side 	Collect 5 Grimly Voodoo Dolls from Mount Grimly
 	7 	Crash Grab 	Collect 13 Crash Voodoo Dolls from throughout the game
 	8 	Can U Dig It? 	Dig past the thorns on Wumpa Island
 	9 	A Wumpa A Day... 	Collect a Golden Wumpa fruit
 	10 	Duplex Crash1 	Defeat an enemy in Co-op Mode
 	11 	A Combo to Go1 	Defeat 50 enemies in Co-op Mode
 	12 	Big Shooter1 	Use a Charge Shot while in Mask form in Co-op Mode
 	13 	Cold Feat1 	Have both players jack a Ratcicle at the same time
 	14 	Easy Does It1 	Complete the Co-op Puzzle on Wumpa Island
 	15 	It Takes Two to Tango1 2 	Complete the Co-op Puzzle in Wasteland
 	16 	Over Easy1 	Complete the Co-op Puzzle in Mount Grimly
 	17 	Would you like fries with that?	Obtain a 10x Mojo Multiplier combo
 	18 	Break Them To It Gently 	Obtain a 15x Mojo Multiplier combo
 	19 	Chuck is that you? 	Obtain a 20x Mojo Multiplier combo
 	20 	Mutant Recycle3 	Store any Titan
 	21 	Multi-Tasking 	Store a Titan while another has already been stored
 	22 	Stone Cold Crash 	Stun 5 Ratcicles as Crash
 	23 	Spike the Punch 	Stun 5 Spikes as Crash
 	24 	Follow Your Nose 	Stun 5 Sludges as Crash
 	25 	Whack a Nerd 	Defeat 75 Ratnicians
 	26 	Fashion Fury 	Defeat 75 Brat Girls
 	27 	OO OO AH AH 	Defeat 75 Doom Monkeys
 	28 	Shadow Boxing 	Defeat 75 Znu
 	29 	Slap on the Wrist 	Defeat 75 Slap-E
 	30 	Snow Blows 	Complete Level 10 of the Ratcicle Kingdom arena minigame
 	31 	Rumble in the Jungle 	Complete Level 10 of the Wumpa Island arena minigame
 	32 	Stand in the Sand 	Complete Level 10 of the Wasteland arena minigame
 	33 	Kick in the Junkyard 	Complete Level 10 of the Junkyard arena minigame
 	34 	Lark in the Dark 	Complete Level 10 of the Mount Grimly arena minigame
 	35 	Girl Power 	Defeat Coco
 	36 	Crunched 	Defeat Crunch
 	37 	Neo is Getting Angry 	Defeat Cortex
 	38 	Crash King 	Fully upgrade Crash
 	39 	Ice on the Cake 	Fully upgrade Ratcicle
 	40 	Shell Shocked 	Fully upgrade Magmadon
 	41 	T to the K 	Fully upgrade TK
 	42 	Roll It Up 	Fully upgrade RhinoRoller
 	43 	Stick it to Them 	Fully upgrade Spike
 	44 	Shoot the Works 	Fully upgrade Snipe
 	45 	Goo Squared 	Fully upgrade Sludge
 	46 	Night Fright 	Fully upgrade Grimly
 	47 	P Stinking U 	Fully upgrade Stench
N/A 	48 	Two Bits4 	Reach 25% completion
 	49 	The Glass is Half Full 	Reach 50% completion
N/A 	50 	And a Hair Cut4 	Reach 75% completion
N/A 	N/A	Superstar4 	Reach 100% completion
Notes:
# These missions are absent in the PSP version due to the lack of multiplayer. As a result, Missions 17-50 are instead numbered 10-43.
# The Xbox Achievement for It Takes Two to Tango is called It Took Two to Tango
# The Xbox Achievement for Mutant Recycle is called Happy To See Me
# These missions do not have any associated Xbox Achievements
To reach 100% completion, the player must complete all Story Missions and Optional Missions, as well as fully upgrade Battler, Scorporilla and Yuktopus. Upgrading the Titan Heroes is not required.
== Reception ==
The PS2 and Wii versions of Crash: Mind Over Mutant were met with average to generally positive reviews. IGN gave the game an overall average of 6.9 and said it was the first good Crash game in awhile but that the camera angle almost ruined the whole package. GamePro gave it 7.5 and said that the game's graphics were excellent and that the game play had overall improved since Crash of the Titans. It also was nominated for Nintendo Power's Best Platformer of the Year award in 2008.
The reviews for the Xbox 360 version of Crash: Mind over Mutant were slightly less positive. Christopher Ewen of GameZone liked the series' transition into a free-roaming gameplay environment, but felt the game was too easy. Matt Casamassina of IGN found it to be like Crash of the Titans. Andy Eddy of TeamXbox liked the strong voice acting, but noted the uninspired gameplay, which was "not very consistent in its fun generation." Justin Calvert of GameSpot claimed the game "has too much backtracking and too many camera problems to make it recommendable." OXM concluded "there's very little about Mind over Mutant [sic] that makes it worth your $50 or the four hours it takes to complete." Eurogamer's Dan Pearson criticized the game's fixed camera, extensive backtracking, useless mission log, and dated concepts. Andrew Reiner of Game Informer proclaimed that the game's "unpredictable framerates, extensive backtracking, and the guarantee of one death caused by faulty camera positioning for every platforming segment" made it "a mess of a game, and a new low point for the once-loved marsupial."
==Cast==
* as Crash Bandicoot
* as Aku Aku
* as Coco Bandicoot
* as Crunch Bandicoot
* as Dr. Neo Cortex
* as N. Brio, Znu
* as Uka Uka
* as Nina Cortex
* as Doctor N. Gin
==Gallery==
See: Crash: Mind Over Mutant/Gallery
==Names in other languages==
Крэш повелитель мутантов (transparent).png|Russian logo of the game
Mom esp.png|Spanish logo of the game
Mom de.png|German logo of the game
Mom it.png|Italian logo of the game
Mom fr.png|French logo of the game
This game was developed in English and was officially localized into Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.
==Voice cast==
Language 	Voice actor 	Character 	English	Amy Gross	Nina Cortex
 	Additional voices 	 	English	 	
 	Additional voices 	 	English	 	
 	Crunch BandicootTiny Tiger	 	English	 	
 	Additional voices 	 	English	 	
 	Coco Bandicoot 	 	English	 	
 	Aku Aku 	 	English	 	
 	Additional voices 	 	English	 	
 	Uka Uka 	 	English	 	
 	Crash Bandicoot 	 	English	 	
Kathryn Feller 	Additional voices 	 	English	 	
 	Additional voices 	 	English	 	
 	Neo Cortex 	 	English	 	
https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/_img/games/credits_101_5.jpg	ZnuAdditional voices 	 	English	 	
 	N. Gin 	 	English	 	
 	Additional voices 	 	English	 	
 	Additional voices 	 	English	 	
Rik Kiviaho 	Additional voices 	 	English	 	
 	Additional voices 	 	English	 	
 	Additional voices 	 	English	 	
 	Additional voices 	 	English	 	
 	Additional voices 	 	English	 	
 	Additional voices 	 	English	 	
 	N. Brio 	 	English	 	
Italian 	Mago Forest 	Neo Cortex 	 	 	
Italian 	Giorgio Melazzi 	Aku Aku 	 	 	
Italian 	Antonio Paiola 	Uka Uka 	 	 	
Italian 	Luca Sandri 	N. BrioAdditional voices 	 	 	
Italian 	Laura Merli 	Coco Bandicoot 	 	 	
Italian 	Marco Balbi 	Crunch BandicootAdditional voices	 	 	
Italian 	Renata Bertolas 	Nina CortexAdditional voices 	 	 	
Italian 	Gianni Quillico 	N. GinAdditional voices 	 	 	
Italian 	Paolo De Santis 	Additional voices 	 	 	
Italian 	 	Additional voices 	 	 	
Italian 	 	Additional voices 	 	 	
Italian 	 	Additional voices 	 	 	
Italian 	Silvano Piccardi 	Additional voices 	 	 	
Italian 	Pietro Ubaldi 	Additional voices 	 	 	
==Trivia==
*The game was originally titled Crash: Invasion of the Bandicoot Snatchers early in development.https://web.archive.org/web/20170908041739/https://www.ign.com/boards/threads/new-crash-game-crash-invasion-of-the-bandicoot-snatchers.159076713/https://web.archive.org/web/20150520080347/https://www.gamespot.com:80/forums/nintendo-fan-club-1000001/crash-invasion-of-the-bandicoot-snatchers-26356023/ This name is a reference to the 1956 horror movie, Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
* Before the game came out, the PSP version was supposed to have multiplayer face-offs just like in Crash of the Titans. They are not present in the final version and neither are the areas that were created.
* The PlayStation 2 and PSP versions of the game lack of a playable Coco for player 2 due to hardware limitations, as Crash and Coco with multiple enemies on screen, each with their own individual animations would have been too much for the PlayStation 2 and PSP to handle. In these versions, Carbon Crash becomes player 2.
*This is the only game in the series to include 2D animated cutscenes.
* The drawings in the concept art, as well as those seen inside Crash's house and in the Evil Public School, were drawn by the winners of a contest held by Kidzworld in collaboration with Radical Entertainment. Besides having their drawings included in the game, the winners also received a free copy of the game and appeared in the game's credits.https://web.archive.org/web/20160123050726/https://www.kidzworld.com/article/14054-crash-bandicoot-mind-over-mutant-getting-in-the-game
* Originally, the save points used to be blue crystals instead of tiki statues.https://www.crashmania.net/en/games/crash-mind-over-mutant/unused-content/general-findings/
*Tiny Tiger and Ripper Roo were mentioned in some way: Tiny made no physical appearance but his voice was heard in the credits, and there is unused text in the game's files for a Ripper Roo villager.https://tcrf.net/Crash:_Mind_Over_Mutant_(PlayStation_2,_PlayStation_Portable)#Unused_NPC
*Just like Crash of the Titans, this game was also localized into Russian, Finnish, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian.
*Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled has two skins based on this game, a skin called Evil Coco which uses her outfit from the game and has the NV on her head, but without the goggles. And Evil Crunch which also uses his design from this game also having the NV on his head.
*Crash Bandicoot: On the Run! also has a Coco skin called Mind Over Mutant which is based on this game.
==Notes==
==References==
de:Herrscher der Mutanten
es:Crash: Mind Over Mutant
fr:Crash Géneration Mutant
pl:Crash: Mind Over Mutant
pt:Crash: Mind Over Mutant
pt-br:Crash Mind Over Mutant
ru:Crash: Mind over Mutant
Category:Crash: Mind Over Mutant
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