Crash Bandicoot doesn't have the greatest pedigree regarding spin-off video games. Crash Team Racing is a bonafide classic and deserves that recognition, but titles like Crash Bash, Crash Boom Bang, and Crash Tag Team Racing are pretty forgettable. After playing the recent closed beta, while not as extreme, we feel pretty safe saying you can add Crash Team Rumble to that list.
Crash Team Rumble is a 4v4 game built on the idea of gathering 2,000 Wumpa Fruit faster than the opposition. Everyone runs around the arena breaking crates and occasionally grabbing relics that can be used to activate special pads specific to the map you're playing on. Examples include bounce pads, rolling ball power-ups, and Oxide or Uka Uka coming in to attack. Your team can also boost their Wumpa input by taking control of gem platforms.
With the above rules laid out, Crash Team Rumble isn't a bad game by any means, but it's pretty basic. This feels like a game originally envisioned as a side mode in Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time that was forced into becoming its own thing. Matches are quick, and there's a certain level of fun here, but it's not something that made us want to return to it repeatedly. At times, we forced ourselves to keep playing. Much more often than not, our games were blowouts. One team gets rolling, and it seemed nearly impossible to stop that momentum.
The same visual treats in It's About Time are here, with each character looking and behaving as you would expect, but there still feels to be a level of charm missing. Characters are split into three classes. Crash and Tawna are Scorers, characters dedicated to grabbing Wumpas and banking them. Dingodile is a Blocker looking to tank up and stop the enemy team, and Coco and Cortex are Boosters that aim to support the team through Relic use. In the early going, Dingodile was the character we dreaded seeing. If they placed themselves on your gate and you're playing Crash, you might as well run around and waste time until a teammate can come to help you. That health difference is too much for you to do anything on your own.
Being a live service game that'll cost you to get started, Crash Team Rumble might struggle to get a dedicated player base. It has a battle pass that levels up incredibly slowly. There seem to be plenty of cosmetic rewards to dress up your chosen character, but hopefully they speed up the XP gathering by launch, because it is way too slow in the beta.
Coming off of It's About Time, Crash Team Rumble is a new direction for the bandicoot that we can appreciate for the novelty. That being said, it's got limited potential to demand your time when it releases. It will have more characters and maps at launch, but nothing that looks to change anyone's opinion on it right now.
Crash Team Rumble is due to launch on PS5 and PS4 on 20th June 2023 for $29.99/£24.99. What did you think of the closed beta? Are you excited to play this multiplayer spin-off? Slide into the comments section below.
Comments 23
Sony take notes! This is how you don't do a live service game.
This looks like it’ll flop hard. Even if Activision’s sale to Microsoft finalized tomorrow and this ended up on Gamepass Day 1, I still think this one could flop. It’s a pity after Crash 4 was by and large about as good as Crash has ever been.
They really should've just done a Crash Bash Rematch, that would've gotten all relevant Crash games on current platforms.
Calling Crash Bash forgettable is sacrilege!
Sounds just right for gamepass.
Crash Bash was a classic of my childhood!
Sound like crash grab pun intended lol
@awp69 it's not F2P, it costs £25/$30
Didnt really like Crash Bash tbh.
@UltimateOtaku91 Sorry, think I was getting it confused with something else.
Oh good a live service game, said no one.
I really don’t understand the Crash Bash love, but a remake and improvement on that would have been a much better idea than this. You don’t need to be clairvoyant to see this is going to flop hard.
The lukewarm reception isn't surprising. The game doesn't appeal to me at all. Hopefully this won't be the end of Crash if this game flops, as I'd sure like more platformers.
I'm anxious that this will flop, and Activision will see it as a reason to do nothing with Crash.
I had a feeling this was going to be a very "eh" experience. It just looked very subpar from the gameplay previews.
Is anyone shocked by this? Even the most Hardcore Crash fan gave up on this the moment it was announced as multiplayer live service
Crash Bash is awesome. Despite all the iterations of Mario Party and Mario Kart , I still find Crash Bash and CTR superior.
Well, the Crash revival was good while it lasted
crash bash would be better than literally any other thing they could think of that isn’t another single player crash game .
@romando But it looks so boring the old one may be fun though.
I see it as a tester.
On one hand everyone was glad they brought Crash back for Crash 4 and they thought they would do a new Crash to see how it goes.
Also it's a new Crash game under Micro (if the deal goes through tomorrow), so they will see if it does well under a new home.
Yet it doesn't do anything for me and I'll stick to the platformer Crash games, but at least we have a new one and it hasn't ended at Crash 4
This needs to come to Game Pass and PS+ to have a chance to even make it a year before getting shut down. I watched a few people play it the other day and it is sooo lame looking.
@StrawberryWave Same zero interest in a multiplayer live service spinoff.
Wake me up when Activision announces Crash 5 or Spyro 4.
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