Crash Team Rumble Review – A Bandicoot Bash

The match was too close to call – 1990 to 1995 – but I wasn’t keeping track. The only thing standing between me and my team’s victory was an obese crocodile holding a vacuum. As he bounced me like catfluff with his large belly and vacuum, I jumped and danced around him. It only took a couple of moments for me to drop my Wumpa Fruit and we would have won. It was my mistake to wear blinders. After the Wumpa Fruit counter of the enemy team reached 2000, it was game over. Even though my team lost, I wanted to eat more Wumpa Fruit. 

Crash Team Rumble – like Crash Bash or Crash Team Racing Nitro – Fueled before it – is an intense multiplayer twist on the renownedly challenging 24-year-old franchise. The game pits four-person teams against each other in a race for the first team to collect and deposit 2000 Wumpa Fruit. The simple gameplay, combined with streamlined controls makes it a fun and addictive multiplayer game. 

Crash Team Rumble has a lot of appeal because it is so simple. It’s a barrel of DNA from the original Crash Bandicoot games. All the running, jumping and attacks feel just like a run around Cortex Castle. Controlling Crash – or one of nine other starting characters from the franchise – feels wonderful. 

Crash Team Rumble can be played with just these three elements. To play, you simply need to move around the map to collect Wumpa Fruit, either directly or by slamming down boxes. Then, deposit the Wumpa Fruit into the team capture point and stay away from any enemy fighters. Crash Team Rumble will teach you all of this in just a few seconds, but the game has much more to explore. 

Many of the more complex features are left behind as you leap, collect gems and hover for a couple seconds in the air using Dingodile vacuum. The three character classes – scorer, blocker, and booster – can also sometimes shift to little more than tidy organizational buckets, as any character can fill any role if used creatively. 

You may have to perform all three tasks in one game. Your team will need different things as the match goes on. Dingodile’s role is a blocking one, but I often found myself boosting Wumpa collecting teammates and not just blocking. 

Crash Bandicoot’s single player games are about execution. To conquer a map and discover all of its secrets, you have to know every square inch. Once you’ve smashed every box and defeated the boss, it is easy to progress to the next game or level. 

Crash Team Rumble was built on the same foundation as the single-player Bandicoot game, but the goal is completely different. You can only defeat other players and not bosses. Platforming matches are messy, chaotic and come to a close. 

Crash Team Rumble is a complex game with many layers. Gems, abilities, and relics are all important. Claim multiple gems, which are usually diamond-like platforms placed next to one another, and your team will receive extra Wumpa Fruit. Nearly anywhere on the map, side abilities can be dropped. Collecting relics can also be used to unlock stations on the map. 

To explain these relics, abilities and stations would take away from the enjoyment of finding them. I was ecstatic when I unlocked a spikey-vine ball and rolled onto an enemy point, like Miley Cyrus. You will probably feel that way too once you find some of these bizarre tools. Various team compositions, map-oriented squad movements, and well-timed item usage lead to considerable strategic depth – so much so that some players may find it intimidating. 

Like most games with multiplayer, these hours can be incentivized. You unlock the full cast of characters and abilities as you play and earn cosmetics as part of the game’s battle pass. Although rewarding to give Crash an entirely new outfit before sending him to the fruit picking is a great way to reward your efforts, those who don’t want to be sucked into a multiplayer battle pass grind will likely become frustrated. 

Crash Team Rumble is the next step in Crash Bandicoot’s franchise. The preparation is different and the reward also differs. Crash Team Rumble offers a new take on the multiplayer platforming game. It has enough depth for you to stay on your toes, even after long hours of gaming. It’s a great game for those looking to experience a new take on a long-running franchise.