In Crash Bandicoot: Mind over Mutant, a rejuvenated Neo Cortex is taking over the world one brain at a time! Cortex and N. Brio devise a new kind of evil -- a text-messaging, do-anything device which controls both mutant and bandicoot minds. Armed with his wits and lightning agility, Crash must free his friends, the titans and save the day!

Q: What sort of game is Mind over Mutant? Is it mostly a platform game, a fighting game, or a little bit of both?

RE: Can I say “Action/Adventure” without being too generic? :-) There is combat, but much less of a dominating force as it was in CoTT. Much more platforming not just for Crash, but through the creature’s unique abilities too. Our goal was a 50/50 split this time and I think we’ve come close to achieving that.

Q: In Crash Bandicoot: Mind over Mutant, will Cortex be really evil like he was in the original Crash 1 and 2?

RE: Absolutely, he’s in charge and gloriously, indeed pointlessly evil in this one. For too long he’s been sort of hanging out with other villains and not acting like that’s his N on all the evil lairs. He’s just as big a part of the franchise as Crash and it’s time people remember it! People like you! And I suppose Crash too.

Q: When are we going to learn more about N.Brio? (And could you please reveal one of his quote's so I can put it in my signature?)

RE: Well, I suppose you’ll learn something the very moment you start the game. N.Brio’s a classic Crash character so were very mindful about re-introducing him to the story. It had to make sense and be true to all the various insanities he’s known for. N.Brio after all is the guy that really invented everything! Cortex’s whole life is an evil sham based on N.Brio’s hard work. Now then, you want a quote do you?

N.Brio: Well you were wrong and I was right! As right as Betamax!

Q: Is Dingodile going to be in the new Mind over Mutant? What about any other old characters?

RE: Oh Dingodile! That character is like the white whale in my life. I really want to do him but I want to do him properly. He was almost in this game but to do him I would have really short changed the other characters. I mean it’s easy to get the humour right with him but everything we know about him suggests a lot of gameplay opportunities and difficulties we’d then pick up as well. I’ll keep pushing to get him in and his fans can keep writing letters asking for his inclusion until eventually we reach some sort of mutant crocodile tipping point.

Q: Will the PS2 version of Mind over Mutant have a lot of content removed? Any examples of how it will be different?

RE: Very little content was removed actually. The only thing we weren’t able to squeeze into the game was Coco as the second playable character in coop mode. It’s not her character model that’s the problem, but animations. To make Coco believable as a platforming, fighting character we felt she needed her own combat style and moves. It would have looked too weird if she moved the exact same way Crash does. And so she has her own animations. She looks great, but animations take a lot of memory. There’s not much you can do in code to compress them either.

Q: Will Mind over Mutant feature a "battle tutorial" where Crash could use Mario as a punching bag? With realistic noises and sounds. Such as..." Mama Mia, I suck!"

RE: Ha ha, that would be great. And I personally would love to be sued by a large corporation with unlimited resources – what could be more fun than that? We do have a battle tutorial though, just not with your favorite plumber. It will teach you how to break enemy blocks (as in CoTT) but more importantly trains you how to do Crash’s new counter attacks.

Q: Is there really going to be online play in Crash Bandicoot: Mind Over Mutant?

RE: Um, no? Was that a trick question? Who said there was? They shall be forced to eat 100 wumpa fruits and drink 100 wumpa whips while doing the Crash dance. Seriously, we are looking to find the best application for Crash online in the future, but not in MoM. We believe there are a lot of people who like playing Crash Bandicoot multiplayer together in the same room. To have any chance of online in the ever-so-brief Mind over Mutant development schedule, we would have had to sacrifice coop play, and that’s not a sacrifice we believed our players would want to make.

Q: Will there be some sort of replay value besides the rewards and achievements in Mind over Mutant?

RE: Personally I find the biggest replay value is in maxing out the upgrades for all creatures. After you’ve beat the game, you can continue to make your mutant’s stronger (it’s easier in fact, since a number of cheats become available at that point).

Crash Bandicoot: Mind over Mutant is being developed by Radical Entertainment and will be available October, 2008 at retail stores worldwide on Wii, NDS, Xbox 360, PS2 and PSP.