Crash Tag Team Racing
Score: 72% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Vivendi Universal Games Developer: Radical Entertainment Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 8 Genre: Racing (Arcade)/ Platformer (3D)
Graphics & Sound: They are just going to milk this franchise dry, eh? Just let the poor Bandicoot rest in peace, for the love of all that is holy - please! Well, for now, my cries of anguish go unanswered, and we have another Crash Bandicoot game, brought to us by Vivendi Universal games and Radical Entertainment. Crash Tag Team Racing (or CTTR) is basically an action-heavy arcade racing game, in the vein of Mario Kart. Graphically, this is classic Crash style all around. Lots of cartoony, bubbly characters zipping around, with wide grins and equally humongous eyes. They also animate quite smoothly, very noticeable when they scamper about. It’s like Disneyland meets Nascar, if you will. Even with all this glitz, the sense of speed and frame rate stays pretty steady throughout. Oddly enough, the cut scenes seem somewhat sub-par to the ingame graphics, basically the opposite of most titles out there these days. Sound is pretty decent, but you may be looking for that ever-important volume control, sooner rather than later. There is some quirky voice work here that occasionally becomes annoying, but it presents the flavor of the game well enough. Sound effects are your standard collection of zany, off the wall boinks, zaps, beeps and so on. During hectic racing scenes, the sheer cacophony of sound can be a bit much. Lastly, the musical score fits the theme nicely, right at home on any Saturday morning.
Gameplay: So in a nutshell, there is German cyborg amusement park owner in Crash Tag Team Racing that organizes a series of kart races to gather crystals - got it? Fabulous. Now throw in 8 Crash characters, and we are off! And don’t be fooled by the racing title, you will be on foot a ton. You have to constantly wander around, searching for these damned crystals, that can be turned in for all kinds of goodies. This requires some of that age old platformin' skillz we all have from our early days of Mario and so on. Be on the lookout for hidden areas as well, always a staple in the genre. Many of these locales will grant you special power-ups and more. Once you get back in the drivers seat, though, it’s Mad Max all the way, baby! Much like the aforementioned classic Mario Kart, you will zip around the cutesy tracks picking up tools of destruction, while trying not to careen off the course. Then you add in the nifty “clash” feature, whereby your vehicle will merge with another, transforming into some freakish death-on-wheels killing machine. One guy is relegated to the gun, the other sticks to the road, and thankfully your driver is handled by capable A.I. They even come with their own fancy weapons for each pairing, not to mention the added effect of regular add-ons getting enhanced. Along with the core racing, you can also hop into different mini-game type events like stunt mode, and arena. Some are pretty inventive, but I still found myself coming back for the main event. In general, the mix of platforming and wacky racing works overall; I just thought the clash mode was a bit overpowered, especially considering the savvy A.I. The opponents don’t seem to fair quite as well in the brains department though, which I will discuss later on in regards to difficulty. I think Radical would have been better off just focusing on one or the other in terms of concept, not this odd hodgepodge of play styles. Lastly, the multiplayer aspect of CTTR lacks any support for online play, but you can play split screen, or hook up via LAN. It’s too bad, because you have to haul all this gear around, from controllers, cables and so on. And it’s more of the same mediocre gameplay seen in single player anyways, so just adding some human elements doesn’t revitalize anything.
Difficulty: Crash Tag Team Racing is plain easy. It should take no more than a few hours to blaze through the single-player mode, and if you throw in a few random events and hidden areas, maybe a few days at best. Of course, this isn’t designed for Harvard PhDs, it’s a kids game through and through, but also one that will amuse your average adult somewhat. It actually reminds me much like a recent review I did of Shrek Super Slam, which also seemed to bridge that same age threshold as well.
Game Mechanics: First off, the controls on Crash Tag Team Racing are pretty responsive, always a must for a platformer/racer to excel. It can get pretty maddening missing a ledge by mere inches, after all, or flying off the roadway. Churning around the course, you also feel a nice weight in the vehicles. They don’t seem to fly all over like you would think from an arcade game, and you can perform some nifty moves to boot. Aiming is surprisingly tight as well, something I always have issues with regards to the analog sticks; they just seem too sensitive more often than not. Overall, Crash Tag Team Racing is a fun, yet short, romp, combining much loved elements of platforming action with madcap kart challenges. The lack of online support and simplistic gameplay detract the most frankly, but it makes a great game for those looking to spend time with their kids, without resorting to buckets of blood.
-Tybo, GameVortex Communications AKA Tyler Whitney
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