I might end up abandoning this run of the game as well. My first review had to do with criticizing the presentation of the 360 version, as I thought they slapped on far too many "next-gen" graphical effects to what was clearly designed and built first as a PS2 game. This review is going to be spent detailing my experience with the game on the PS2 version and on the game as a whole.

As I usually like to do, I'll start by listing all my positives. I actually really like most of the redesigns in this game (Tiny aside, because he went from a Tasmanian Tiger with Arnold Schwarzenegger's voice to a Siberian Tiger with Mike Tyson's. I don't think it's even fair to compare him to his original incarnation because he's practically a new character). They're not better than the original Looney Tunes-inspired ones, and they were VERY off-putting and difficult to get used to; but I think with the drastic change in gameplay, a rebooted storyline and redesigned characters was for the best. I especially love how Uka Uka and Cortex look! I think Nina is the only design I dislike. She looks too... realistic? For lack of a better term? I hate the proportions of her face, but I guess her being "ugly" was the goal. She just doesn't really seem to fit in with the rest of the very cartoony cast. The general aesthetic of the game leans really hard into the tribal jungle feeling, while trying to still be "edgy and punk", according to the devs. It feels like a Nickelodeon cartoon I might've caught during the weirder NickToons era, and I sorta like that. The tribal tattoos, voodoo dolls and idols, and whatnot add to this really unique feeling that "this ain't your grand-daddy's Crash!!" for better and worse.

The animations are probably the best they've ever been in any Crash game until 4 came out. The cutscenes have great bouncy, comedic animations that help in selling the vocal performances, and the in-game animations are all very snappy and use lots of squash and stretch.

I'll say as a minor aside that while I don't necessarily find the writing of this game very funny, the animations do make some of those jokes at least bearable, and they help the joke be delivered better than if everyone was standing around flapping their mouths in idle poses. The jokes are just a time capsule of the "meta-humor, toilet humor, loud is funny, we're trying so hard to be zany and random"-kind of writing that was endemic to a lot of kids cartoons I watched growing up. Even as a kid, I found a lot of this stuff kind of annoying, but I'm not the demographic for this game NOW as a 22 year old woman. I'm sure hearing these little rat goons say "ooh, that's so silly!!" (seriously, this game loves to overuse the word "silly" as a punchline and I don't get what's funny about it), or making jokes about "hax0rz n n00bz!!!" and "ha ha italian plumber in overalls, this is a video game!!" for 4 hours as a kid would be entertaining. Not all the jokes are bad. Like, I laughed at the 1968 Planet of the Apes ending joke that came out of absolutely nowhere at the start of the N. Gin stages, but what average, normal kid would get THAT joke?! I guess parents of the 2000s would've been alive in the 60/70s to MAYBE get it, assuming they're playing with their kids...

And finally, I like the CONCEPT behind the main gimmick of this game. The Titans, of those I witnessed in my playthrough, are almost entirely really well-designed. The only criticism I have is that a lot of them look way too similar to each other or very obviously reuse animations with each other, like Stench and Snipe, and Titans like Goar, Shellephant, and Rhinoroller look too similar to each other in silhouette. But otherwise, Titan Jacking is really fun and theoretically serves a very fun way to diversify combat. These big enemies are designed in such a way that any move they can use against you, you can also use yourself once you Jack them. In concept, this is fair. But they all have very limited movesets, and a lot of their attacks are very slow and can be interrupted. And this leads into my most major criticism...

I know this is mostly on me for choosing to start on Hard Mode, but I consider myself pretty good at video games like these to feel confident starting like this. I played a little bit on Normal as well, to be clear, and the game is just too braindead easy and not very fun on that difficulty. It's such a slog. So I figured Hard would be more up my alley, and it was for a while.

On Hard, as soon as you reach Level 3, this game becomes extremely bullshit. You die in like 3 hits, even accounting for the points at which you'll naturally get health upgrades by collecting Mojo. There are so many mob fights that are just 5, 6, or 7 Titans all swarming you at the same time. Punching Titans builds up a Stun meter that leads to you being able to Jack them. If you don't attack them for long enough, the Stun meter VERY quickly runs out, so they expect you to be constantly assaulting these guys as much as possible, AND making sure you break through THEIR guards if they start blocking. There are also power-ups called Free Jacks in SOME mob fights that let you kick an enemy and immediately stun them to Jack them. Even when you utilize Free Jacks, the issue of slow and interruptible Titan attack animations just fuck me over so hard. There's a severe lack of good, reliable CC/AOE attacks to keep myself alive.

If I try to guard, I just end up getting hit consecutively by the other 6 Titans I'm swarmed by with no way to escape. If I try to swing, I might hit one or two guys, but then get decked in the face by a stray one I missed or I'll just get blocked and then swung at. If I try winding up a Special Move or a Heavy Attack, I get interrupted. Before I know it, I'm kicked off my Titan and desperately trying not to get two-shot by the entire swarm of Titans because there's no way to reasonably separate them. Blocking as Crash ONLY protects against Medium Attacks, so while 4 of the Titans are mashing their Medium Attacks against me, one might end up hitting me with a Heavy and I get chunked, or I'll get pushed into lava or toxic waste. Cue John DiMaggio laughing obnoxiously as the screen fades to black and I have to start the section over again. Dying too many times sends you all the way back to the start of the level. Hope you didn't spend the last 50 minutes breaking Spybots and working on your Combo King mission, because you gotta do it all over again for the Gold trophy!

I feel like Mojo collection is way too slow and you have such a barebones moveset at the start of the game to justify me starting over AGAIN. I was exactly halfway through the game, I got to level 10, before I figured this was too much for me. But now I need to take the time to grind ALL my Mojo back again. Otherwise this is a game where you mash Square and maybe hold Triangle to break a guard once in a while, because there are not early-game combos that utilize the Triangle button mid-combo.

As an avid defender of Sonic Unleashed, they at least had the good will to give you a decent amount of starting options. Even by Mazuri, you'll have access to fun, diverse combos and a lot of combat options in general (grabbing and executes with QTEs, sprinting, light attacks, heavy attacks, all with variable range, good AOE/CC moves, a decent blocking/dodging system, a super meter for more damage and faster attacks). No offense intended to the game's fans, but for me, this game just kinda sucks no matter if you try to challenge yourself or not.

Most of the conversations I had seen of this game before really trying it said things like "Crash shouldn't look like this!!! Tribal tattoos?! That's ridiculous!!" or "Crash shouldn't be a beat-em-up!!", when the real problem is that the game isn't fun to engage with at a higher level. I am VERY receptive to change, as I've hopefully made clear by embracing the new artstyle, the rebooted continuity, and the Titans. I see what others like about it, and I understand how people who did grow up with this game without caring about pre-Radical Crash love it. Maybe when I'm having a better day, I'll give it another shot on Normal.

I give this a 2/5, but honestly, 2-star games are still ones I derive some enjoyment from even if I fundamentally dislike the game design execution or if the game drives me mad with its unfunny writing. I can understand why the biggest of Crash fans of the 00s LOATHED this game. It seemed like an indefinite replacement for the games of the original series, and especially a replacement for the classic linear, box-breaking, almost-collectathon gameplay of the PS1 games. I think now that we have the benefit of games like N. Sane Trilogy, Nitro-Fueled, and 4 that (hopefully) revived the franchise's roots, some might be able to appreciate this game as an experimental spin-off. I certainly do, even if it clearly is not made for me.

I appreciate having a version of the game with higher quality textures and FMVs, as well as natively higher resolution. The benefit of being a 360 title also means there are plenty of achievements for me to (eventually, maybe someday) accomplish to increase my gamerscore. But the Xbox 360 version is full of really ugly additional effects, like motion blur, refracting effects on the ice that traps Crunch in the first level (but like, it's not even really refracting... it just looks like glass that isn't rendering properly), and "more advanced, softer shadows" that leads to things like Coco's teeth being completely black in the intro scene. I presume it's because of these "more advanced effects" that the game runs like complete ass, too. I don't think this is even 30 FPS, let alone 60. Keep in mind, I don't use emulation for anything I own real hardware for, so I'm playing ON my 360 Slim from 2011. These aren't emulator bugs, the game's just like this.

I'll write a second review going more in-depth on my opinions of the game design and... interesting artistic liberties with this reboot; but after 3 levels on Xbox, I've decided I'm going to start over on PS2 for a more stable, better-looking experience.