Crash Bandicoot is taking a new and unexpected direction with Crash Team Rumble, available for pre-order today

Crash Bandicoot crashed at The Game Awards 2022 a few months ago Abseiling from the rafters to reveal Crash Team Rumble, the next title featuring the ever-popular marsupial. Details have been scarce since then, but that changes today as Toys For Bob reveals gameplay details, key upcoming dates, pre-order availability and more!

Crash Team Rumble is a 4v4 team-based competition featuring legendary heroes and villains from the Crash Bandicoot universe. Your goal is simple: collect more wumpa fruit than your opponents. Working together with your team, you’ll sprint, jump, slide, and hop across a variety of locations to pick up and collect the most wumpa fruit, capture key gems to increase your score, and stop the opposing team from scoring goals achieve.

The full player roster is still a secret, but we do know that Crash Bandicoot, Coco, Tawna, Neo Cortex, and Dingodile are on the starting lineup and will be available to try out during a closed beta this April. Additionally, Lou Studdert, Associate Creative Director at Toys For Bob, shared with us, “You can play as a hero or villain, and have as many heroes and villains mixed in as you like on your four-person team. For example, you can have a team with three teammates playing Neo Cortex and one as Crash Bandicoot.”

Teamwork is essential to victory, and teams that choose a balance of characters and work together will have an advantage. Each of the available Heroes is exceptional as they are either a Scorer (Collect Wumpa and add it to your team’s Wumpa Bank), Blocker (Defend your team’s Wumpa Bank and prevent the other team from scoring), or Booster (Capture Gems, to increase your team’s Wumpa Points and activate Relic Stations to give your team an advantage).

In addition to these three roles, each character also has their own set of stats, including health, wumpa carrying capacity, combat, and mobility. They will also have unique abilities and a special power that is available once your power meter is filled. If previous Crash Bandicoot games are any indication, expect to see plenty of slides, spins, slams and more!

When developing each character, Toys For Bob wanted to find a balance between competitive gameplay and fun. Studdert explains: “We play through the game again and again, test new ideas, find the right balance and set-up. We always want to make sure the end result is a fun game where no character is better or stronger than another. We want the player to be able to choose a character and have fun using their chosen character’s abilities in a strategic way to contribute to the team as a whole.”

He continued: “Part of the development process is coming up with new ideas and new skills that complement the whole squad. Heroes have abilities that can help their teammates, but we decided to keep it broad and made sure to keep team composition as flexible as possible for players.”

Another detail revealed by Toys For Bob concerns a multiplayer element important to this genre and style of online team-based games. “Crash team rumble is a competitive multiplayer strategic platform game that players can enjoy across platforms. There will be public and private games, so players can join a game with their friends or find a game in the public lobby.”

Whether you’re new to the world of Crash Bandicoot or a long-time fan of the franchise, Studdert says the team is working to create a game that appeals to everyone, regardless of their experience with previous Crash games. “When we made the game, we first wanted to make sure it was accessible so that every player could jump in. We act as a welcome point for players new to the franchise. And for Crash fans, we’re adding additional levels to the game that give them deeper strategy.”

Crash Team Rumble will be released on June 20, 2023 for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, pre-orders start today. Pre-ordering includes access to the closed beta, currently scheduled for April 20-24.

For more information about Crash Team RumbleVisit the Official Crash Bandicoot Siteand follow Crash Bandicoot on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook And tick tock.