Games worth discovering

The new Crash Bandicoot game has me ready to rumble for wumba - Crash Team Rumble Quick Review

2K View2023-06-29

PLAY IT OR SKIP IT?

Play it! If you’re already a fan of Crash Bandicoot, then a multiplayer online battle arena (or MOBA, like League of Legends) might sound like a strange direction for the series. But I had a blast in Crash Team Rumble.

TIME PLAYED

I clocked around five hours on the PlayStation 4 version of Crash Team Rumble. Most of my time was spent in competitive battles and building up Coco—Crash’s sister and my character of choice—in experience, outfit customizations, and special moves.

WHAT’S AWESOME

• Approachable gameplay. Crash Team Rumble does a great job of making the gameplay fun and simplistic, which is a huge win for a genre that’s known for being super complicated. The goal is simple, the first team to collect the most wumpa wins. You’ll need to run around, attack players, defend your base, gain boosts, and use relics (special stage-level abilities) to get the advantage. The simple premise of trying to collect more wumpa fruit than the opposing team gets pretty wild, with seven other players kicking up chaos at once. Matches were well-paced, so I never felt like anything dragged, and with the added incentives and collectibles, there was plenty keeping me busy.

• Role-based characters. There are eight characters in Crash Team Rumble at launch, each with a unique playstyle and battle roles. The iconic Crash himself is a scorer, a role that gains abilities from collecting wumpa fruit. Blockers like Dingodile are designed to attack other players and stop them from scoring using cool tools, such as a giant vacuum that sucks the wumpa fruit from their grasp. My favorite type was boosters, like Coco, who primarily activate gem pads. By controlling gem pads, my team gained higher scoring potential by multiplying the number of wumpa fruit each member collected. It’s a huge advantage to have during a battle.

But the best part is, unlike in most MOBAs, you don’t have to stay in your character’s assigned role. Matches change quickly; sometimes, when I was playing as Coco, I needed to focus on collecting wumpa fruit or defending the base instead of gathering gems. This was one of the best parts of Crash Team Rumble, because it forced me to familiarize myself with all of the roles and kept the gameplay shifting. Even though I focused my play time around one character, things never got stale.

• Map variety. Each battlefield has a unique theme, ranging from a serene beach to a prehistoric valley filled with a river of tar and fossils. The differences are more than just visual, though. Each stage has special features that can be utilized to tip the match to your advantage. For example, in one level my team was able to summon dragons to attack our opponents. I appreciated the change in scenery offered by the different maps, but I appreciated the way they forced me to adapt my strategy even more.

WHAT SUCKS

• Multiplayer only. And not in the sense that if you have an extra controller, you and a buddy can play together. This is strictly an online experience, which means you’ll need a PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live Gold subscription to enjoy Crash Team Rumble.

• Needs more variety. There’s not much to do in Crash Team Rumble outside of the main four-on-four team matches, which are available in competitive and private mode. I would love to see more minigames and different types of matches added in later updates. This game has some real potential for expansion, so just collecting wumpa fruit seems a bit limited.

💬 Will you play Crash Team Rumble or skip it? Let me know in the comment section below!