Crash Team Rumble review: Not the Crash Bash you're looking for

Crash Team Rumble isn’t the Crash game you may have been expecting after the sequel’s fourth mainline instalment.

Eschewing its platforming roots for another venture into multiplayer, Crash Team Rumble is a mixed bag of an experience that offers some fun and tactical depth but won’t live as long in the memory as the nineties mascot deserves.

Multiplayer Online Bandicoot Arena

Crash Team Rumble takes something close to the MOBA genre but adds a point-scoring mechanic that’s closer to Pokemon Unite than it is to League of Legends.

Players compete to grab Wumpa fruit from around the arena and bank it in their home base, with four players duking it out against another quartet.

Naturally, there are more complex elements at play, like map-specific buffs and power-ups like a beachball that instantly smashes boxes, or Uka-Uka for invincibility.

There are also classes that each character falls into, with the colourful roster split between Scorers, Boosters, and Blockers. The first is self-explanatory, with the likes of Crash grabbing Wumpa and dropping them at base to score.

Boosters, on the other hand, grab Relics to earn power-ups or claim gem platforms to, well, boost your Wumpa rate. Finally, Blockers are aggressive characters, tasked with stopping enemies in their tracks through direct abilities and combat.

Learning the intricacies of each role, as with any MOBA, is key to success - but many characters can pull double duty. In fact, Blockers feel a little overpowered at launch, able to lock down the goal and squash enemies a little too easily for our liking.

Thankfully, Crash Team Rumble boasts impeccable presentation - its arenas feel like they could feasibly fit within the marsupial’s universe, and it runs buttery smooth, building on Toys for Bob’s excellent track record with platformers.

Rinse and Repeat

As we’ve already alluded to, Crash Team Rumble’s closest genre is that of the MOBA, and while that may seem a strange fit given the limited roster of characters.

While Crash Team Rumble pulls from the series’ history (here’s hoping for a surprise appearance from Spyro one day), it’s still not quite the collection of critters something like Pokemon Unite has access to.

Naturally, that can limit strategic options when there are only so many options, and while there are swappable abilities that charge over time, the variables are limited - and after a couple of hours, it’s easy to feel like you’ve seen just about everything on offer.

That’s led to some frustrating early clashes, with an entire team of N. Tropy, for example, tricky to combat due to abilities that can stun-lock the opposition. It feels like you’re constantly being pinned back, and combined with opponents that lock down the various map buffs, can cause near-constant frustration - especially as the team in question kept banking Wumpa regardless.

Even attempting to fight fire with another damage dealer, like Dingodile, led to difficult situations where N. Tropy’s faster recovery made her too capable of bouncing back.

These are likely things to be fixed post-launch, but it can be difficult to be hemmed in by another team for the duration of a match.

Platforming Icons

While there are fewer characters than in genre rivals, the ones here are beautifully realised. Whether it’s Dingo’s tailspin sending players off the map, Crash’s comedic death animations, or N. Tropy’s dive bomb, there’s a lot to like about seeing characters from early games dragged into the 4K era.

There’s reverence paid to Naughty Dog’s classics here, with N. Brio mixing potions a la Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, transforming himself into new creatures with each one, and surprise appearances from the likes of Papu Papu, too.

The Verdict

Crash Team Rumble is fun in short bursts, and if you and your friends are looking for a new multiplayer title to check out, it’ll definitely keep you entertained for a few nights.

Much of its longevity will be decided by its support, however, and while what’s here is fun at launch, it’s hard not to feel like it’s a little barebones.

3/5

Reviewed on PS5. Review code provided by the publisher.