Lately it seems that Crash Bandicoot has been keeping busy racing at the track and partying with his buddies in minigames compilations. Later this year though, Sierra's marsupial mascot gets back to his platforming roots with the release of Crash of the Titans on the PS2 and Wii. I had a chance to play around with the Wii version at this year's E3, and I've got to say that this could very well be the best Crash game to date.

In Crash of the Titans, Crash teams up with Aku Aku once again to take on Dr. Neo Cortex, his niece Nina, and Aku's evil twin, Uka Uka. The game features solid co-op play with an interesting new twist. At any point, one player can jump into the other player's backpack and get carried around as needed. This is especially helpful on those particularly hard jumping or steering areas. A less experienced player can simply hop onto the back of the more experienced player and let him manage those frustrating parts of the game. According to the Sierra demo team, this mechanism will also be incorporated into some of the puzzle aspects of the game.

The biggest addition to Crash's arsenal this time around though is granted to him by Aku Aku. When taking on some of the game's enemies, Crash can use Aku Aku to "jack" the enemy and take control of it. Each of these 15 miniboss sized foes comes with its unique set of three regular moves plus one special move. On the Wii, these special moves are activated by maneuvering the Wiimote and Nunchuk in some way. For the purposes of the demo, I hopped onto an oversized armadillo type creature and, spinning the controllers around, charged up a super roll, crushing everything in my path.

Based solely on the single level I got to play through, Crash of the Titans seems like a lot of fun. The developers at Radical have worked hard to preserve the appeal of the franchise, and it shows. Crash of the Titans is due out later this year for the Wii and PS2, with handheld versions popping up on the DS and PSP around the same time.