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Younger gamers probably grew up with Crash Bandicoot, a franchise that both peaked and quickly spiraled downhill after its third entry on the PlayStation. The quirky bandicoot has went through some rough times since, but Crash of the Titans is a return to form. It manages to recreate what was so special about Crash 3, while updating the formula.

Crash of the Titans is a simple, funny, and well designed platform beat-em-up that maintains everything fans loved about Crash from the start. The linear levels mean easy passage, and the forgiving design mean you’ll rarely be frustrated. With the camera usually directly behind Crash, it’s a fun throwback to the original games in this series.

Instead of simply spinning into foes to take them out, Crash now comes with an assortment of punches and kicks. As Crash collects blue dots called mojo (wasn’t this an Austin Powers movie?), he can level up and earn new moves. Unlike so many other modern platformers, you don’t need to venture far to collect these items. Every enemy drops them, giving them game the feeling of Ratchet and Clank. Some may call it an imitator, and they’d be correct.

Aside from knocking it a few points in the originality department, Crash’s latest adventure lets him jack his bigger foes, riding them into swarms of other enemies. After successfully landing combos on these enemies, you can choose to ride them. This opens up an entirely new set of moves, and creates a few minor puzzles dependent on the beasts capabilities.

As the game moves on, this initially fresh ability does run dry in terms of its fun factor. Enemies feel the same, and only fall into a three major categories. Repetitiveness sets in, and even with a change in environments, the game shows its hand too early. Once past the opening few levels, there’s not much new to see. Enemy designs may change, but the way they’re controlled does not. It quickly becomes dull and derivative against its own design.

What salvages the title are the fun cinematics and design. Neo Cortex, the classic foe for Crash, is replaced. Crash of the Titans never loses its sense of humor, and while some of the level names are cringe-inducing movie parodies, they look great. Bold colors are inviting, and it makes players eager to see what’s coming next.

Replay value is only derived from finding all of the hidden items within a level, or completing the simple challenge rooms. Most of the latter are simple “beat X amount of enemies in this time frame” style set pieces, and hardly add to the experience. The only real incentive is some added experience (or achievement points if that’s your thing).

Most of the appeal here has to do with a longtime Crash fan finally reuniting with what made this series great. This is a fine, albeit flawed, return to form. It shows the character platformer still has legs in this generation, as does the franchise.

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