Crash Team Rumble Review

Crash Team Rumble’s fighters
Even before the match begins, the character selection menu offers different approaches depending on which fighter you choose. All the classic characters from the Crash Bandicoot series are present, such as Coco, Cortex, and Crunch. When you start your rumble career only Crash, Coco and Dingodale are available. You’ll need to unlock the rest of the characters by playing the game. Unlocking these characters can take a while, but thankfully, the experience is fun, so the time invested doesn’t feel taxing.

Other characters like Dr. N. Gin and Dr. N. Brio are also in the mix, each with their own unique strengths and abilities. Every character is unique, even if they are from the same archetype category. Depending on who you pick, and their skills can get you to victory faster. Let’s explore the different player types and abilities in more detail.

Crash BandicootFlexible
The different player types in Crash Team Rumble
The game features eight familiar faces from the Crash Bandicoot universe, divided into three categories: scorers, blockers, and boosters. Scorers – Crash, Catbutt, and Tona – are good at scoring because they can carry more Wympa Fruit than other players. They also have powerful melee attacks and special movement abilities. They are the most well rounded bunch and great starts.

The big green man is ready to attack.
strong defense
The blockers — Dingodile, Dr. N. Brio and Dr. N. Tropy — are good at keeping scorers from going forward. For example, Dingodile can use his vacuum to suck away opponents and Wumpa fruits, but moves slower. Blockers have powerful defense skills and a higher level of territory control using critical strikes.

Every team needs motivation
Finally, boosters — Coco and Dr. Neocortex — can change the scale of battles by giving teammates energy. If you play as a booster, your main task is to get all the gems on the map. If you do this, your team’s Wumpa Fruit count will increase when you bank them. You can also earn extra rewards if you collect all gems in an area or the entire map.

Crash Team Rumble map
Crash Team Rumble’s map design is excellent
In addition to the fun role-playing, Bob’s Toys creates some great settings for the chaos to unfold. So far, the game has a total of nine maps, which Activision has promised to expand with future paid content updates. The initial offerings may be small, but they provide a lot of variety in the environment, and it feels fresh whenever I play. The game has open maps with lots of vertical environments, and each map offers a different path to fight or maximize Wumpa fruit collection.

optional battle pass
There’s also a paid battle pass that’s optional, offering cosmetic upgrades for each character. Thankfully, this isn’t a pay-to-win mode, but instead offers additional character customization if you want to be more talented than your opponents. Hopefully there will be more free options in the future, right now it’s either paid content through the pass, or opting for the deluxe version of the game to access even more content.

Crash against opponents.
The orange marsupial and companion look great in Crash Team Rumble
Crash Team Rumble’s brilliant colors and detailed environments are a perfect fit for the world of Bandicoot. Combined with smooth performance on the Xbox Series X, the game offers an immersive experience. The audio design perfectly complements the game’s theme, with catchy tunes and unique character sound effects adding to the overall charm. Its fun cartoon aesthetic is sure to bring a smile to your face no matter what age you are.

Final thoughts on Crash Team Rumble
Overall, Crash Team Rumble is a fun, inventive, and very unexpected game. It departs from Crash’s single-player platforming experience and offers some new content. The game offers an interesting twist on traditional fighting games, featuring 4-on-4 team-based brawls and wumpa fruit-collecting competitions. The cast of characters is diverse, offering different playstyles based on your choices. Each character can ultimately achieve the same goal, but each character is very unique. The maps are also well done, providing plenty of variety for each showdown. Add in smooth cartoony visuals and audio, and if you’re looking for some fun multiplayer action, Crash Team Rumble is definitely a brawler game worth checking out.

• Each character brings unique abilities that make the game exciting and varied
• The map design is excellent
• The game maintains the fascinating world of Crash Bandicoot
• Lack of different game modes
• Some characters are stronger than others
• Battle Pass for seasonal extras

Overall assessment of the crash team
Games: 4/5
Graphics: 3.5/5
Voice: 3/5
Lasting appeal/replayability: 3.5/5