Chaos, jumps and tons of wumpas per game. In fact, the idea on which tour Crash Team Rumble as a game can be summed up in something as simple as being the first team to collect 2,000 wumpas. Of course, the fun is not what, but how to achieve it: with Crash, Coco and the Dr. Neo Cortex you will move through very limited scenarios doing more or less the same as you already did in the platform saga, but with much more mischief.
Activision is committed to bringing the Crash Bandicoot saga to competitive multiplayer. It’s not that it’s crazy, since there we have the new Crash Team Racing, although this time it seeks to offer something more original and faithful to the spirit of its own games. Which is not to say that the result is halfway between a simplified Moba for the general public and the thug and colorful spirit of Fall Guys, with its own battle passes included.
The result: Crash Team Rumble It feels very comfortable at the controls, regardless of who you choose to play with. The dynamism of the character, the aesthetics of the new trilogy, the way of presenting the gameplay say present and very high and to the controls everything works. And yet, in a way, what is offered in the beta seems more like a multiplayer mode within a main installment than a game itself.
Crash Team Rumble: eight players, two teams and thousands of wumpas at stake
Let’s start with the most essential: Crash Team Rumble is a competitive platform game in which two teams of four players must collect 2,000 wumpas (the fruit that Crash obsesses over) before their rivals. The way to collect it is by touching them or breaking boxes that reappear every so often and take them to our base. The first of the two teams to reach the magic number wins the game. Simple, right?
From here the nuances come in: from the outset, each character has their own role in the game, so that some are better collecting and others attacking the rest of the players or, simply, making assists. For all intents and purposes, there are four main characteristics that define the role of our character: Life (or health), Ability to transport wumpas, skill for the Combat, Mobility and the Difficult which turns out to play again.
Besides, each character has their own repertoire of moves. It would be more. But of course, it will be of little use for all the members of our team to choose the easiest character to handle if in return we are easily devastated or our ability to score wumpas is very limited. And that’s when the power-ups come into play. Both the characters and the setting itself.
Starting with the wumpas, it is possible to acquire relics that activate different improvements and power-ups specific to each level. Some will put us inside a ball improving our mobility and speed, while others are more aggressive and there are even shields that we can play in our favor or against our adversaries. It is even possible to unleash a lightning storm or make powerful summons.
But, in the end, the development of the games of Crash Team Rumble it is more like a quidditch match in which there are several elements that occur chaotically and simultaneously, than a competitive sport. Above all, because what ultimately defines the success of the games are score boosters.
Depending on the scenario there is a kind of brilliant diamond shaped bases that light up depending on the team that steps on them: in case you maintain that lighting long enough, a time bonus is activated when scoring wumpas, so that it is in those areas where victory is really played and not so much in going around like crazy or beating until eliminating the opponents.
There are powers that give him greater variety, and the rhythm is very similar to that of Fall Guys in the sense that everyone does what they can at the same time so as not to be disqualified for the minimum, but in the end everything ends up taking the guidelines of a Moba in which if we are not clear about our role in the game and towards our team, the only thing we will have achieved is to advance just a little bit in the season pass. But, of course, when the plays are well coordinated, the result and the sensations of the game are very different.
A simple, crazy game full of summer sensations
Although, it is still early to talk about what will be Crash Team Rumble, especially since the beta to which we had access only offered a handful of characters and settings, it is already possible to see Activision’s intention with the game: to take over from all those summer games following that tradition inherited from titles like Fall Guys o Splatoon.
The games are resolved in just four minutes and understanding what’s going on is easy at all times: differences between characters are manifested and clear within seconds, with just three button taps, and it’s time to stick to your role when it comes to ensuring victory: Crash collects wumpas and Dingodile blocks the bases. To get out of that scheme is to sentence the game prematurely.
However, looking at what has been proven, there is one aspect that takes its toll on the whole: the lack of additional game modes and that, added to the need for a greater variety of scenarios (it is early to talk about quantity) tarnishes the whole. We insist, according to what we have had before us so far: the alternatives to learning to play go through a competitive mode or private games, so that With very few games you have already seen it and everything has been given to you.
And that’s when Crash Team Rumble stretches the replayability based on its own season pass.
Beyond the platforming madness, the reason we’ll be linking one game to the next is unlocking content. The aesthetic or the extras are given to us through the missions and objectives set through of the Battle Pass original, which includes everything from gestures to our player card; while to access all the characters we must first overcome a series of missions in which, by the way, we are asked for more specific things.
To what extent is it interesting to enter into this dynamic? Well, in this contact we have come across something curious: if we enter competitive it has become an ugly habit to see players waiting placidly at one end of the screen, leaving their entire team at a total disadvantage. When you see how others are not only coordinating, but blocking your progress, the fun fades and your priority becomes getting out of the group. If you want to continue playing.
These types of situations would be easily addressed by offering different game modes. not to convert to Crash Team Rumble in a Fall Guys, because it is not, but to give it more variety and make the level advances and unlocks more entertaining. Because in the game, chaos is a constant, but when it comes to advancing the set it manifests itself as a process. At least, and as we said, the games are not very long.
And yet Crash Team Rumble It has good wickers to give a surprise with the arrival of summer. Maybe it’s that simple but crazy tone, those sensations of platforming along Crash Bandicoot Or maybe the emotion that comes from having a good run with a team that is very well coordinated. In any case, the general idea is very well laid out and will arrive just in time to welcome the summer month.
Good weather, fresh fruit
The identity of the series Crash Bandicoot is present at the controls in each game of Crash Team Rumble, but its approach as a game is very different: neither nostalgia adds additional points, nor do you expect to find that claim for classic platforming with notes of humor and maliciously placed traps: we are facing a title that, as far as we have played, absolutely bets on it everything competitive.
And that, like it or not, will force you to measure yourself against lots of games that, without being the same, provide greater variety after the first two hours.
In any case, it will be interesting to see all the content that the final version will arrive with and, from there, how Activision and Toys For Bob plan to expand. Crash Team Rumble beyond the season passes. Because the list of characters in the Crash Bandicoot saga is not short, but it is not too long either.
It has become clear that Crash Team Rumble It does not aspire to be one of the titles aligned with the numbered and main installments, but it retains those crazy ideas and that polished gameplay from almost 30 years ago that won us back not so long ago. Although we will not deny it, it will be the players who have the last word when deciding if it is more fun to play in company or to bounce on our own as has been done up to now.
The answer, yes, it will not take too long to have it: Crash Team Rumble will make its way among the big releases of late spring, coming to PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X / S and Xbox One next June 20, 2023. In fact, just a few days before summer arrives. It cannot be denied that two months after his departure, Activision already has everything well tied up.
- Platforms: PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X /S
- Multiplayer: Yeah
- Developer: Toys For Bob
- Company: Activision Blizzard
- Launch: June 20, 2023
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