Magmadon

"This hard shelled enemy's skin is strong enough to ignore fire and lava!"

The Magmadon is a Titan that appears in Crash of the Titans and Crash: Mind Over Mutant. It is a medium-sized mutant that resembles a muscular, bipedal tortoise covered in reddish brimstone. Magmadon is probably the fieriest titan Crash has ever controlled, capable of crossing and manipulating lava. So far, it has appeared in both Crash of the Titans and Crash: Mind Over Mutant. In Crash of the Titans they served Nina Cortex, but were created by Dr. Neo Cortex.

Biology
Magmadon is a bipedal turtle-like mutant whose skin and spiky shell are made of hardened magma. It has a flat head with small eyes, a sharp beak, and a wide mouth. It also has scales on its belly. Magmadon is often found hibernating, which makes its body even harder. It attacks with its fiery, explosive hands, and its shell by smashing it to the ground. Once Magmadon stomps the ground, the arena shakes, causing tremors and making its opponents flee. Magmadon can also create a small volcano in a straight line. Magmadon can't hide in its shell, possibly because its body is too big.

Abilities
The Magmadon is physically the strongest among the medium-sized mutants. When Magmadon is jacked and strikes a pose, its stomping causes a minor tremor. However, despite its strength, Magmadons are very slow in attacking and (in Mind over Mutant) in motion. They also land fewer hits during a single full combo, and their hits must be timed carefully in order to deal maximum damage.

In addition, Magmadons have the passive ability to endure high temperatures, allowing Crash to cross pools of lava or other hot fluids when jacked. According to Aku Aku, Magmadons like these hostile environments. Magmadons also have high defense, making them capable of tanking hits from enemies without getting pushed around.

Attacks
Regular Attack: Magmadon's regular attack consists of pounding the enemy with a burning fist, and then, on the second strike, punching them with the other hand. In both cases, Magmadon heats its fists, causing them to glow. This is physically stronger than a standard attack by the other titans of the same size, but is slow to execute and has only a two-hit combo limit. After both hits, Magmadon is grounded and takes time to get up again. In Crash of the Titans, the second strike is strong enough to break the block of titans of its size. Like the Shellephant's Infinity Combo, the second strike only happens if the light attack button is pressed as the first strike hits the ground, although the window of time for Magmadon's attack is longer.

Block-breaking Attack: Magmadon's block-breaking move differs between Crash of the Titans and Crash: Mind Over Mutant. In Crash of the Titans, Magmadon's block-breaker consists of a body-slam that, while powerful, has a long recovery period, during which Magmadon is vulnerable. It charges forward and hangs in mid-air for a brief time before landing. In Crash: Mind Over Mutant, Magmadon's block-breaker simply rams the opponent with its elbows, and functions like a standard block-breaking attack in the game.

Breakdance Raid (Block-strike): Available only in Crash: Mind Over Mutant, and executable by pressing the guard button and the attack button at the same time. This causes the Magmadon to lie on the ground and spin around the arena as if break dancing. During this time, Magmadon can't be harmed by most attacks (excluding Ratcicle's Freeze Punks and damage from TNT crates), but it's difficult to control its trajectory. Magmadon moves very fast while spinning, damaging everything it hits, but the direction in which it moves can hardly be predicted and is based on bouncing off of walls and enemies. The player can press the attack button during this attack, causing Magmadon to stand in place while spinning and try to reset its direction with the help of a spinning arrow that appears around it. The attack ends after eight seconds, or after the player releases the block button.

Hellfire Stomp (special attack): Magmadon's ultimate attack. It stomps the ground and summons a straight line of burning lava in the direction it's facing, damaging everything it touches. In Crash of the Titans, this is only a straight line, so it has to be positioned well in order to successfully hit its target. However, it is powerful enough to heavily damage (if not instantly stun) a big titan such as the Shellefant. The ability is also useful for scoring large combos on minions. In Mind Over Mutant, the Hellfire Stomp lacks its original strength, but has a broader range, creating three lines of fire instead of one.

Crash of the Titans
Presumably the very first appearance of a Magmadon is during the opening movie of Crash of the Titans (the one that resembles shadow puppetry). After the scene that symbolizes Crash's creation and betrayal, Dr. Cortex uses the Evolvo-Ray to mutate the next thing he sees, which happened to be a turtle, planning to make the mutant work for him and obey him. However, the mutant he created was a skinny creature wearing a turtle's armour as underpants; too weak to even push a rock, let alone fight for Cortex. After making fun of his new creation, Nina snatches the Evolvo-Ray, modifies it and shoots at the mutant again, turning it large and bulky. The newly mutated creature easily lifted a large boulder and rolled it until it blew up. This was probably Magmadon, since both creatures are large, humanoid turtles, making Magmadon the first Titan ever to be created. After Nina used the Evolvo-Ray on other random creatures, thus creating new titans, the Magmadon demonstrated its Hellfire Stomp ability, only it slammed the ground with its fist rather than with its feet. One other titan from the same movie is probably the Battler, and three unknown mutants, one created out of a bunny, the other out of a crocodile, and the other out of a squirrel.

The first time Crash met the Magmadons was at the start of the episode called The Blizzard of Claws. When he and Aku Aku were on their way to reach Tiny Tiger, they came across volcanic soil with lava pools around the area when a group of Magmadons emerged from the ground and the pools. After defeating them, Crash was able to jack one of them, using it to cross a sea of lava and destroy the generators for Cortex's drills. The Magmadons were also used later in the battle against Tiny, since they could stun the big Shellefant that was needed to proceed further.

The Magmadons appeared a few more times, allowing Crash to cross lava or, in the later chapters, pools of liquid metal. Their latest appearance in the game is in Minority Rapport, where they are found in large lava cauldrons, which you use them to cross.

Crash: Mind Over Mutant
Magmadons return in Crash: Mind Over Mutant, but in this game, their stats have dropped drastically, making them much slower and weaker. They can jump in this game and perform the Breakdance Raid, but they're poor jumpers and even worse climbers. They can still walk over hot liquids, though there are few areas where this is possible to begin with.

Crash first sees the Magmadons again in Ratcicle Kingdom, on his way to the ice prison. Some Ratcicles were seen carrying cubes of ice containing Magmadons, presumably to be shipped off to the prison. They soon drop the cubes to fight Crash. Upon their defeat, the Magmadons spring to life, break free from their icy prison and attack Crash, who successfully liberates them from Cortex's control and jacks one. They reappear later in other missions; while heading to the desert, he encounters them along with Scorporilla in some ruins.

There is also a Magmadon Hero, who is as powerful as a Magmadon from Titans while keeping its improved range. It can be found in the secret sections of the Ratcicle Kingdom, after Crash and Aku Aku free Uka Uka and venture to retrieve his voodoo bones. The Magmadon Hero holds one of these bones. In the PS2 version, it is simply a darker color than regular Magmadons, but in the Wii/XBox360/PSP versions, its appearance is altered significantly. The Magmadon Hero is bulkier, much darker in color, and wears spiky armor. In order to reach it, the player must use a Grimly to jump over falling ice blocks on a nearby waterfall, then walk through a cave filled with hostile Grimlys, Brat Girls, and more Magmadons. If the Magmadon Hero is lost, it re-spawns in the same spot and can be jacked without needing to fight it again.

Etymology
Magmadon is a combination of magma and don (meaning tooth; a common taxonomic suffix applied to various reptilian species).

Appearances

 * Crash of the Titans
 * Crash: Mind Over Mutant

Trivia

 * Magmadons are physically the strongest among medium sized mutants.
 * In Crash of the Titans, the Magmadon's block-breaking attack is surprisingly useful. Usually, titans need some time to build up their stamina in order to perform one such attack, leaving them open to injury, but Magmadon simply jumps up and is already out of range of other enemies, meaning his block-breaker is a sure shot, although it takes them a while to get up again. The only titan that came close to this is Battler.
 * Strangely, although the Magmadons are mutated from tortoises, their shells are never used for cover or defense. They are only used in Mind Over Mutant, when a Magmadon performs the Breakdance Raid.
 * Generally, in Mind Over Mutant, NV-controlled mutants work together. However, when first seen in the Ratcicle Kingdom, the Magmadons are prisoners of the Ratcicles.
 * It is the only Titan that can stand in lava without losing health.
 * Though its name literally means "magma tooth", the Magmadon does not have teeth.

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