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Now, before I get rolling with this review, I did want to make one thing clear: This is the first GameBoy Advance game I've ever played, and I played it on my Nintendo DS Lite. I've also never played a Crash Bandicoot game before.

So, if I'm a bit off-base with any comments about graphics or audio, keep that in mind; but I'll keep it to a minimum, and honestly, I really don't have anything bad to say about the game. It's a fun game!

Crash of the Titans is basically a platform run and jump and punch game. You're playing as Crash Bandicoot, who lives on some kind of Tropical Island. Neo Cortex, a bad guy who takes orders from some kind of diabolical flying jellyfish, has been demoted in favor of his niece (or is it daughter?) Nina Cortex to build a giant robot Doominator to kill Crash Bandicoot.

To help with that, they've started mutating the inhabitants of the islands, as well as kidnapping Crash's (sister or girlfriend or both, I really don't know) CoCo.

They say they want to lure him into a trap and kill him, but why you'd want to intentionally enrage a, uh, bandicoot that works with a floating tiki mask and has learned the ability to "jack," or take over, your mutants is beyond me.

But let's be serious here. You're not playing the game for an engaging storyline.

Basically, your goal is to get through the five different islands (well, four islands and a floating thingamajig). When you start, as the titular main character, you have the ability to jump (and do a double jump), climb ropes and chains, and punch.

There are basically two types of enemies. You'll face smaller enemies, such as little golem-like robots that just fall apart when you hit them and occasionally release DNA, or monkeys with bats. You'll also face various versions of more powerful creatures that have special abilities, such as swarms of bees making whirlwinds or causing explosions.

The latter can be knocked silly if you punch them enough. When they're silly, you can take them over — "jack" them — and their abilities are yours. Sure, you can't pick up objects or climb ropes, but you also can take more damage and smash things that you can't as Crash.

Should the bigger enemy you've commandeered be killed, you simply pop out of him and keep fighting.

Sort of morbid, but hey. Just don't think about where the mutants came from.

While you're running around, you're gathering objects. DNA strands that you get from enemies will allow you to get new abilities. Fruit gives you more lives. Gems let you buy already dazed enemies at certain vending machines. Tiki masks also are important to get.

Meanwhile, you're smashing open floors (if you're in a jacked enemy), avoiding exploding boxes and, in general, navigating the layout of each stage.

The stages are set up fairly intuitively with one or two exceptions. The exceptions can get frustrating until you realize that often it's because you have an elevator on a very long trip, so you just don't see it, or that the elevator you ride actually keeps going in the same direction after it starts. As the game goes on, you'll have to make more decisions about which way to go.

At the end of each island, there's a boss. The bosses can range from frustrating to easy — it even seemed at times to be somewhat random within a boss fight, depending on how often they use their weapons. An important part of it seems to be to remember that you can daze the bosses and jack them, too!

In between islands, you're on a motorboat or hang glider and trying to pick up crates. These sections weren't really explained and were quite annoying to me until I figured out that you can double back to get more of them.

It's not a long game — I beat it fairly quickly over the course of two (long) days, getting most but not all of the islands cleared. Trying to get to 100 percent on each island would probably give it a lot more replayability.

It's a fun game. The graphics are fine enough, the story amusing and the audio only a little bit repetitious. If you're the type of person who can play a game like this over and over (like say my kid cousin), it's definitely a better value. I had fun playing it but don't know how much I'll play it again (probably will after I let it sit for a while).