Crash Team Rumble Review
“A Smash Team Rumble” Written by: Ethan (@ChaoticAether)
It’s been a couple of years since we’ve returned to the world of Crash Bandicoot. After 2020’s brilliant Crash Bandicoot 4, I was eagerly waiting to see what was next for the franchise, and for a while that was nothing. After rumours of Toys for Bob being engulfed into the Call of Duty machine, things were looking bleak for a second, and many wondered if we were ever going to see a new game from them ever again, let alone something in the Crash or Spyro universes. But in December last year, we were finally given hope that something new was around the corner.
Enter Crash Team Rumble; a game rumoured for years as “Wumpa League” and a brand new multiplayer take on the franchise. I won’t lie and say that a 4v4 multiplayer brawler was something I was asking for out of the franchise, but I was willing to give it a try. I’m glad I did. Crash Team Rumble is a chaotic cacophony of platforming action whose simple premise blends class based combat and platforming prowess culminating in a genuinely fun game I couldn’t put down. But is it worth the $30 price of entry? Well… it’s complicated.
Image Credit: Toys for Bob, Activision
Before we begin, I should probably state that this review assumes you have played the main story of It’s hard to classify Crash Team Rumble into a typical genre, but I’ll try my best. Rumble is a 4v4 platformer brawler (a platbrawler if you will) that has you and three other players team up to collect Wumpa Fruit from crates scattered around the map and deposit them in your bank. The first team to score 2000 Wumpa in the bank is victorious. It sounds simple at first and in some ways it is, but it’s the various side objectives found within each of the maps that adds depth and chaos to the experience. One of these is the gem platforms that must be jumped on and captured (similar to a control objective) to successfully grant a percentage boost of Wumpa for your team. Another one is the Relic Stations that require you to gather relics and deposit them to unlock abilities for your team. These scale from smaller stations (Roller Balls, Bandicootapults, Masks) to the larger relic stations, which grant you potentially game altering abilities like invincibility or a second bank. Do you want to know the best part? Gem platforms and relic stations differ from map to map, leading to some crazy combinations and each map feeling truly unique.
Mix this in with collecting Wumpa, attacking the enemy’s base and defending yours; it constantly feels like there is the work of six people available to a group of four. You never have enough teammates to cover every possible outcome, and it leads to utter chaos. This is Crash Team Rumbles greatest strength, the insanity of it all. There’s never any down time when playing a match of rumble. Whether it’s a 90 second game or 10 minute game, the action never lets up and it’s a constant riot from start to finish.
Image Credit: Toys for Bob, Activision
Some of this chaos is alleviated by your character class, as although all of these tasks are available to every member of the team; you can enhance your specific skills based on the character you pick prior to the match starting. These characters are split into three classes: Scorers, Boosters and Blockers. Scorers are made for collecting Wumpa and getting into quick bouts with enemies. Boosters are more agile, often being able to carry far less Wumpa, but make up for it by having a faster moveset, activating gem platforms quicker and collecting more frequent relics than scorers. Finally, Blockers are your tanks, having higher damage, slower movesets and are made to be aggressive fighters and objective holders.
Despite everyone being tied to a class, there’s plenty of nuance between members of the same class as every character has a unique moveset that takes core ideas from the class and expands upon them. For example Crash has a triple spin and a run in air to make traversal easier, while Catbat is far slower but has a support heal and a dive. Boosters have different playstyles entirely, for example Coco feels like a halfway between a Scorer and a Booster; sharing similar moves to Crash but with more defensive capabilities like a shield wall. Cortex on the other hand with his blaster and various ranged moves allow for a long distance approach, but he’s more of a glass cannon.
This isn’t to say the game is perfectly balanced, as from my first few days with the game one class seems to dominate over others: the blockers. From N-Brio with his transformation that allows you to dominate foes easily and throw beakers from above, to N-Tropy with her ranged attacks and Housemarque-esque explosions; they seem to dominate every game I play. Heck, I even had folks at Toys for Bob watching me play and I’m ashamed to admit they saw me bully as Dingodile in a game that lasted nearly 15 minutes. They are a ton of fun to play, but man do I feel like they need to find a balance as a team of all blockers is truly overpowering.
This also goes for your power ups: selectable abilities that grant you bonuses over time for contributing to your specific role. There are seven in the game at launch, and they range from underwhelming to what feels a tad overpowered. Some abilities like the Bounce Crates and Fly Trap are a fun distraction that doesn’t add too much to the game. Others like the Gasmoxian Guard and Healing Fridge can be game-changing and overbearing for the enemy team, especially when used to camp enemy bases. I still think these need a little work, but I like the idea as a concept and feel it can work with a little tuning.
In regards to the levels themselves, there are over 10 for you to play at launch and they all feel fast and frantic. From vertical maps like Tiki Towers and Surreal Summit, to more open maps like Just Beachy and Tar Valley, all feel unique and satisfying to play. This is thanks to unique Relic Stations situated on each map to give each one a distinctive feel, but also from the designs themselves. Some like Surreal Summit have the banks right next to each other creating a more aggressive match. Others like Just Beachy have banks on opposite sides but have movement mechanics like balls to create a frantic collection race in the centre of the map. They aren’t all winners (looking at you Rusted Refinery) but there isn’t a single map I don’t enjoy playing when they show up in rotation.
Image Credit: Toys for Bob, Activision
As for the presentation, the whole game is largely built off the work done on their previous title Crash Bandicoot 4. All the maps have themes taken straight from that game, but I still stand by what I said when Crash 4 originally released: the art style rules. These are my favourite designs of these characters, and to see them evolving with new skins and designs makes me really happy that they stuck to this style. This also extends to the voice work and music, which is pretty much copy-pasted from Crash Bandicoot 4 and the prior Activision remakes. It’s not bad in any way, but the lack of inclusion of older music leaves a lot to be desired.
Which leads me to my biggest gripe with the game: cosmetics and progression. Progression in Crash Team Rumble is tied to both character levels and the battle pass. The character levels are a great idea, have cosmetics that are simple, and are a reward for spending time on your character. I honestly like this system as it promotes swapping to new characters from time to time. The battle pass on the other hand is a slog. It takes forever to complete, has over 100 tiers of progression and has cosmetics and rewards I couldn’t care less for. Considering this is the main reason to be constantly playing this game for the incredibly long 3 month seasons, it’s a bit much, especially when the cosmetics are not particularly stunning in the first place. Sticking hats and backpacks and characters is fun, but it doesn’t really give me a reason for playing, especially if the game is going to have content droughts of up to 3 months at a time.
I really like the game on the whole, but man does this scare me in regards to its longevity. If someone like me who’s a lifelong Crash fan can’t find a single thing he really wants to grind for in your game as a service; I have no clue how newcomers are supposed to feel differently. With this and the $30 price tag, I can’t help but feel that maybe the pricing model is wrong for this game. The mixture of free to play aspects and lack of content outside of the main mode makes me feel like the game will inevitably go free-to-play. Not that that’s a bad thing, it would probably be for the best. Especially when gameplay footage doesn’t convey how good the gameplay of Crash Team Rumble, maybe a lower price would be a benefit. I don’t regret buying it in the slightest, it’s well worth the money for me, but I’d also be lying if I didn’t think free-to-play would be more beneficial for newcomers.
Performance again is very similar to that of Crash 4 on previous consoles, running at the same resolutions and a more stable framerate. What’s less stable is the game itself however, as I have had dozens of crashes and a few visual bugs throughout the course of the game. Luckily it seems that most of my issues seem to be unique, as Toys for Bob staff were kind enough to watch my launch day stream and troubleshoot some potential fixes. Most of these bugs will likely be patched and are fixed on restarting the app, but it’s something to note.
Image Credit: Toys for Bob, Activision
Summary
I won’t lie to you, at the start of this review process I was coming in with a very cynical view. I initially believed Crash Team Rumble to be a soulless cash-grab attempting to profit off the overexposed games as a service genre. But as I dove into the actual experience I found myself pleasantly surprised. There’s a lot to like about Crash Team Rumble and you can tell that it was made with a lot of love. It’s hard to explain and footage really doesn’t sell it, but there’s a chaotic brilliance to Rumble’s mechanics; where every character feels fun to play and the gameplay is addictive whether playing in a party and solo. Maps are varied, mechanics are well designed, and I have genuinely loved my time with it so far.
That being said, I still struggle to see a successful future for Rumble. It’s $30 price point makes it a tougher sell for newcomers and its lackluster cosmetics aren’t going to fuel consistent engagement. These issues could easily be resolved in the future with more seasons and discounts. I just hope Activision gives the game enough of a chance for them to get that far, as many games in this genre barely make it to the one year mark.
Despite all this I can still safely recommend Crash Team Rumble if you’re interested, whether that be right now or in a potentially free-to-play future. Its mechanics are solid, gameplay is fun and I can honestly say I haven’t played a game quite like it. It can feel slightly cheap in its overuse of prior assets from Crash 4 and the earlier remakes, but it’s a fun brawler with a ton of interesting characters and concepts. It doesn’t always hit the mark, but there’s plenty of fun to be had and I’m hopeful for its potential future. It may not be a perfect smash, but it’s far, far from a stumble.