Awesome Art: The concept art of the game is gorgeous to look at, and the in-game graphics showing off a tribal-punk aesthetic makes the game stand out even more from other Crash games.
Broken Base: Practically everything about this game tends to incite highly variable reactions, particularly the character redesigns (especially Tiny) and the greater focus on combat. Some people find the game itself pretty good, great even, but not exactly as a Crash Bandicoot title due to how many liberties the game takes with the series.
In Radical's previous title, Crash Tag Team Racing, Crash was made into something of a sociopathic bully, causing chaos and misery for others without a care, as well as suddenly blabbering like a moron. In this title, while still The Unintelligible, he is back to being a heroic Loon with a Heart of Gold. He also seems to have regained a lot of the IQ he lost since Crash Twinsanity, going about things (mostly) competently while still being his goofy air headed self.
Uka Uka, despite a dramatic visual makeover, is also more calculating and sinister as in his earlier appearances (while maintaining a Laughably Evil streak), having more direct involvement in schemes again and even answering to past threats and replacing Cortex when he considers him counter productive, compared to his past few appearances as an inactive Mean Boss who was did more petty harm to his minions than the bandicoots.
Critical Dissonance: Extremely polarizing among Crash fans, especially long-timers, but it was one of the better received games critically in some time.
Demonic Spiders: Many Titan types can qualify when they attack you in packs, but the most fitting are the Battlers, who can easily kill you with their combo even if you against them one-on-one, and trying to get away from them only results in them attaking with tornadoes.
A close second to the Battler is the Sludge, which has a nasty reach with its basic attacks and can sink into the ground to evade damage (while also recovering) before delivering a devastating uppercut. The devs seem to be aware of how powerful Sludges are as there's usually a Free Jack Mask or weaker Titan nearby them.
Fanon Discontinuity: This game and Mind over Mutant are often ignored by fans due to the heavily contested changes to things like the visual style, characterization and gameplay.
Good Bad Bugs: The newly implemented co-op mode comes with a rather interesting glitch known by speed runners as the “Ultra Jump”. One player presses the button to jump into the other Crash’s backpack, while the other player drops out. The animation forces Crash into the air far higher than he should be able to, allowing players to circumvent barriers and level geometry, which means most speed runs will be doing much more platforming than combat.
Nathan: Eh, no, but I'm sure they don't wear sneakers.
Low-Tier Letdown: The Stench is pretty unanimously considered the worst Titan in the game. It's a projectile-type Titan that attacks through Fartillery, but its projectiles are sluggish, it has slow firing speed, and its special attack is the same as Snipe's but effectively downgraded due to using the aforementioned stench bombs. Many players only use this Titan when absolutely necessary, as otherwise it's borderline a hinderance.
The Scrappy: Tiny's reworking, probably the most drastic one, is also far and away the most hated due to the fact he was changed into a totally different character altogether that many did not find as charming as his old Dumb Muscle appearances. He is the only character in this game that does not physically appear in Crash: Mind Over Mutant, only having a voice role in the credits in that game. Not only is this commonly pointed out when discussing characterization issues in the Radical Entertainment games, even people who like them admit they don't like their take on Tiny.
Scrappy Mechanic: There is one massive problem with the titans - they can't jump. Mind Over Mutant fixed this.
Surprisingly Improved Sequel: How improved varies wildly from person to person, but a lot of fans found Radical put a better effort into this title than their last game for the series.
That One Boss: In the console versions, Uka Uka, the second-to-last boss. He fires volleys of shots at Crash, who is usually trying to fight (or run from) Ee-lectrics and Battlers. Combined with his quick healing rate makes it extremely difficult to stun him.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: A large amount of reviews bash Crash of the Titans just because the character designs are different, and use the fact that the game is not like previous ones to dub it as bad.
The game introduces numerous major changes to the franchise, but being a Soft Reboot, acts like they've been that way all along, meaning they aren't introduced or acknowledged in any meaningful way. According to developers, a more developed story and lore building was intended, which would have delved into the mojo affecting and changing some of the characters, though had to be ditched due to time constraints.
Building off that, despite being the entire theme of the game, the mechanic of Jacking Titans has no bearing at all on the plot. The Titans themselves are no more important to the story than the Lab Assistants from previous games.
Vindicated by History: While it was somewhat favorably received by critics on release, for a long time Crash of the Titans received massive backlash from fans who considered it alongside Mind Over Mutant the death knell of the franchise thanks to the heavily changed Beat 'em Up gameplay and the very controversial character redesigns. Following the revival of the franchise with the N. Sane Trilogy and It's About Time, quite a few fans and reviewers (Example 1 and Example 2) have started to look back on Titans with renewed fondness, with many of them considering Titans a good game in its own right despite abandoning the fast-paced precision that Crash is known for. At the very least, many will argue that Titans is far superior to Mind Over Mutant due to the latter's misguided attempts to inject nonlinearity into the formula.
The Woobie: While Crash is usually an Iron Woobie, this is among the few times he's shown visibly distressed, spending the entire game fretting over his captured sister. Surprisingly for a Crash title (and a Radical era one at that) it's not all Played for Laughs either.
YMMV examples for the portable version:
Anti-Climax Boss: The final boss itself. It only has a single attack which can be easily blocked, so the fight usually devolves into holding the Block button and throwing a few punches around until it exposes its weak point.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Each boss fight ends with a cutscene that gives it a satisfying closure. N. Gin's missile activates and sends him flying into the distance, Tiny is knocked off from his Armydillo into the pit below, and Nina glares at Crash before deciding that stopping her uncle should be top priority. And then there's Dingodile, who inexplicably spins around and vanishes like a ghost. This can't even be explained by time constraints or the console's limitations, as making him run away after his defeat would not only be easier to animate but would make MUCH more sense in context.
Breather Boss: N. Gin is generally considered to be the easiest boss in the game. His battle is fairly straightforward, the K. Modos in the arena can be possessed to safely attack from a distance, and the boss can damage himself with his own missiles.
Cult Classic: The DS version, while not as exposed as the main console version, tends to get less polarising treatment from fans of the series, due to utilising more platformer elements and references to the classic series.
All the Titans with a spinning special attack can spam it with impunity.
The simple XXX combo Crash has since the beginning of the game becomes this once you realize that following it with a guard will almost always stun a Titan.
Flicking Aku Aku in the touch screen to possess another Titan gives you a Mojo multiplier, making reaching the Mojo goals for each level a breeze.
The game itself provides you with cheats like invincibility and infinite items, which you can obtain from a particular Pachinko machine.
The enemies are fairly non-aggressive, only attacking at regular intervals and rarely ever utilizing their more threatening special moves.
Anything bigger than the Crash-sized Titans can survive a substantial amount of blows and stun opponents before they themselves can be taken down. Even if they are injured, Crash can simply jack into another Titan or use an item to restore their health to full and continue the onslaught.
Crash himself is a Glass Cannon, but can make up for his shortcomings by obtaining healing items and upgrading his health and defense at Coco's shop.
The game comes packed with cheats that can be obtained at the Pachinko minigame. Every single one of these breaks an already easy game in half.
It's Short, So It Sucks!: The DS version has a total of 9 levels and 4 bosses. A player who does not care about 100% Completion can breeze through it in under 2 hours.
The levels where Crash rides the Pandebra are entirely optional, but also one of the most fun parts of the game. It helps that it acts as a throwback to the Polar levels from Cortex Strikes Back.
The Pachinko minigame is almost always a waste of the Mojo that would be better spent upgrading Crash's skills, but this doesn't stop it from being really addicting.
Special Effect Failure: While the game's graphics are fairly solid for a DS title, the same cannot be said for the cutscenes. Characters keep cycling through the same two poses when delivering their lines and the animation looks really choppy. Nowhere is this more evident than in the cutscene where Cortex escapes Nina, as he activates a trap door into a room below, but falls in his standard, hands on hips pose, in an unrealistically slow manner.
Surprisingly Improved Sequel: The DS version is the first Crash game on a Nintendo handheld since the reviled Crash Boom Bang, but has been fairly well-received. It got better scores from professional critics than its console counterpart, and fans claim that, despite the heavier emphasis on combat, it still holds true to Crash's platforming roots.
That One Boss: After two fairly straightforward bosses, Tiny Tiger can be a surprising challenge. His gimmick is that both him and Crash fight by riding Armydillos and try to push each other out of the arena. Tiny will chase Crash for a bit, then retreat into a corner, giving the player the chance to build up momentum and knock him into the pit below. Problem is, he can and will position himself in one of the corners behind the camera, forcing the player to guess where he is hiding and hope they can guide their own Armydillo to it. Miss and Crash will fall into the pit below, leading to a Game Over. This fight's two saving graces are that Tiny's placement during vulnerability periods is randomized at every attempt, and you only need to knock him out once to end the battle.
and Example 2