Crash Tag Team Racing

THE BAD:
-VERY glitchy graphics
-Way too easy
-Much too short
-Boring platforming levels
-Almost no extras
-Getting 100% is pointless
-It's nothing like the old Crash
-Everyone's personality is completely butchered

SUMMARY:
Ever since the famous red bandicoot was sold to Sierra, things haven’t been so good for Crash. Twinsanity was a disaster, so they decided to try and bring Crash back with Tag Team Racing. But were they successful? Well, it’s better than Twinsanity, but I wouldn’t say it was a star game.

Graphics: 6.4 -- There is no possible way these appalling visuals are from Crash’s world. I’ve seen some things much more horrible, but nothing nearly as glitchy. The character models are the worst. Crash’s animations are still good, but he looks so sloppy. Everyone else is like a virus-plagued robot. Sometimes the NPCs just jerk violently for no reason, while other times they randomly fly into the air and disappear. And boy, are they ugly! Their faces look like that of someone mentally *bleep*ed, and they hardly even move. The rest of their bodies are uneven, disproportioned, choppy, and very unsightly. The other characters don’t look too bad. Their details still look kind of good, but their animations are atrocious. They all move like they’re about to have a seizure, but their faces make them look like they need to sneeze. I’ve seen better models in PS1 games! The environments aren’t nearly as horrendous, but they have their share of flaws. The details are very plain; the grass and dirt textures are typically flat, and things like trees, statues, machinery, and buildings just look ugly and boring. Everything is too abstracted to be Crash Bandicoot. Some things are twisted out of shape, while others are either too big or too small. I can’t think of one thing in the levels that looked particularly good. Stuff like snow, ice, sand, and pretty much everything else look more like hardened icing on a cake. But the textures for brick and tiled surfaces aren’t bad. There are a few glitches here and there, though, like bouncing up into the air after a jump. The lighting and shading are excellent. Like, if you enter a room within a level, it suddenly becomes darker as it would in real life. Even on the racetracks, the shading kicks in. Too bad the shading on the models was all simple darkened shapes. Aside from the beautiful shading, the effects are very well done. They could have a little more light, but the explosive colors and shapes set the mood. Even the little flames and smoke on your car (after taking so much damage) look great. They don’t light up the screen or anything, but they’re still nice to look at. Even so, the overall downfall of these graphics was a huge shocker, but I guess it’s just a way of saying Crash Bandicoot is no longer Crash Bandicoot.

Sound: 7.8 -- Crash used to be known for cool music and amazing sound, but today it’s just the same as any other game. The music still maintains some of the appeal from the glory days, but it only goes so far. It still fits the environments, and I love the smooth transitions to other songs when you go to another area in the park. And a lot of the songs fit the tracks with their upbeat tunes. But most of it is either very boring or really annoying. Only a handful of songs are worth listening to. Also, the sound effects are still pretty good, but there are some problems with timing. All of the noises are realistic and everything, but it doesn’t keep up very well with the motions. When you turn on the brakes in your car, the sound doesn’t kick in right away. When you smash a crate, the sound comes out ahead of the action. After awhile you don’t notice it, though. The dialog is better than what you can expect from a platformer. Everyone sounds like they know what they’re talking about, but one or two characters really lack enthusiasm. But the NPCs are surprisingly rehearsed for such an insignificant role: leisure conversation, which actually feels like a real person talking to you. And some characters have really great voices and personalities, but I don’t like how overly feminine N. Gin turned out (it’s just creepy). I wish there were more scenes in the game, but this will have to do. The sound may not be the best in the series, but it’s a breath of fresh air compared to the rest of the game.

Handling: 8 -- Unlike most Crash Bandicoot titles out there, I had few problems playing the game. The camera could use some work for platforming, but it’s easy to control, and it is usually positioned correctly. It does get sort of buggy in tight spots, but you can fix it pretty easily. The racetrack camera provides no problems, and for once it’s at the perfect distance. The controls are good as well, but many of the moves we’ve come to know and love are gone. You can jump, spin, and body-slam--that’s it. There’s no crawling, no sliding, no operating vehicles (other than race cars). On the tracks, the controls work well. You can accelerate, turn, brake, and back up (obviously), but you can also clash (or fuse) with other racers and fire weapons easily. With the basics, they were hugely improved. Acceleration and turning work right away, and for once you don’t have a huge turn radius. Braking and backing up are also effortless, meaning you no longer have to worry about a gigantic turn radius if you mess up. Using power-ups is as easy as ever; press CIRCLE and point in the direction you want it to go. But clashing is also rather straightforward. When you clash with another racer, your car and their car mesh into one, and one player drives while the other fires a special weapon. You can even switch places, and the one in control of the weapon gets even better power-ups. Sometimes there are problems with accidentally hitting TRIANGLE to clash, but that only happens before you get used to the game. However, there is a HUGE lack of difficulty. The platforming challenges are far too simple, as they offer no puzzles, no obstacles, nothing. It’s just the same regular, sometimes timed, jumping from platform to platform. But sometimes there are high platforms that you can only reach by finding a hidden path, which is a lot harder than it should be. And the goal is even easier: collect enough crystals, unlock the gem, move onto the next level. No boss battles of any kind, but you encounter plenty of those bothersome ninja penguins. Although simple to defeat, they are too small and hard to hit. Plus, sometimes they come in huge clusters at a time. But what I don’t like is how Crash’s lives were completely removed. If you fall into a hazard, you immediately pop back up above it with no damage taken. If you get hit by an enemy, Crash just moans a little and stops to grab his foot like he stubbed his toe. Without lives, the difficulty is withdrawn even more. They may as well give him an infinite health meter! But on the tracks, it’s nicely balanced. The races are only as difficult as you want them to be, without going overboard. The overall game could have been much more challenging, but it’ll have to do.

Entertainment: 7.5 -- Against all the odds, this game is kind of fun. Even though you can only explore a few small worlds or enter some races, I don’t mind playing this game every now and then. The idea of continuously jumping from platform to platform while searching for a pathway to higher points and collecting crystals will get old pretty quickly, but exploration itself is fun at first. But it’s those races that you’ll really love. These races are faster and crazier than ever before, and it takes a good while to get sick of it. Just the idea of driving around various tracks, blowing stuff up, possibly fusing with another player, and trying to make it across the finish line first can keep you hooked for a while. If that gets boring, you can also participate in battle arenas in which you use your car to attack other players, or you can enter a stunt arena to do some impressive tricks and earn points. It’s easy to learn and a lot of fun. It’s also fun to race around the tracks with a few new conditions, such as a timed race, shooting or hitting all the targets, or blasting as many of your opponents as possible. They get kind of stale since every race track does the same thing, but it’s fun if you don’t do it all at once. This game definitely isn’t the most fun one out there, but the races are worth a look.

Features: 4.2 -- What happened to Crash Bandicoot? He once had a good amount of content in every game, and now it’s very limited. For one thing, there are only five levels. Those levels all seem kind of big, but once you’ve seen the entire area (which won’t take long), you’ll be disappointed with how small they really are. But the number of tracks is okay. There are about fifteen, three for each level, all with different lengths. Some of them are much too short, and only a handful are long. Basically, everything in the game is there so you can unlock crystals. As you should already know, the goal of the game is simple; collect crystals, get a gem, move on. The point? The owner of the park you play in has lost all his gems, including his black heart power gem. Crash has to collect all the gems, put them back in their proper places, and find out who’s responsible for all this. Definitely not the best idea. Anyway, there are tons of ways to get crystals. You can buy them with Wumpa Coins (the unfortunate Wumpa Fruit replacement), find them throughout each level, win races, earn a specific score in minigames, or complete races under certain circumstances. You can also buy a costume for each racer, as well as several for yourself. Moreover, there are these Chicken Challenges in every level, in which you collect all the chickens under a time limit. Those are frustrating, boring, and pointless, as you win nothing out of it. Also, it’s not worth it to achieve 100% completion, because you get nothing, and it’s hard to do. There are a few cool cheat codes you can enter in the title screen, but those are the only real extras. You’ll be really disappointed with what you find (and don’t find) in this game.

Replay Value: Moderately Low

Overall: 6.8 -- Sierra tried its best to bring the crazy bandicoot back to life, and in the end they failed. Why can’t they just make Crash games the way they’re supposed to be? And why did they do such a poor job with the graphics and such? This is one of the worst Crash games out there, by a long shot. I guess it’s a way to say that Crash Bandicoot is no more.

THE BAD:
-Short-Not long

SUMMARY:
Basically, the game is stuff is pretty good and stuff, but some things just don't make it.

THE BAD:
-In the multiplayer mode, you only start off with Crash and Cortex...maybe also with Crunch and Coco...but there are a lot of things you have to unlock in mult. player mode: Vehicles for other characters, costumes for the characters, race tracks, battle arenas, etc.

-In the single player mode, they don't really tell you what to do and what not to do...but they give you some pointers.

-They made Crunch look like an oversized cat.

-Glitches everywhere!

-The people who made this game removed the classic TNT, nitros, Tracking missles, N.Tropy clocks, and bowling bombs that appeared in other Crash racing games...the weapons (mentioned later) are completely different. (Grr.)

SUMMARY:
This is a good Crash game for a younger and less mature crowd. If you're the type who doesn't like rated E games, this game is probably not for you. But anyways...

Clash! :When you are racing, you can "clash" with other racers. When you clash, you and another racer's car will fuse together to form a supervehicle. Sort of like in Mario Kart: Double Dash, one racer is the driver, and another racer shoots a gun and throws weapons at other racers driving along the track. Oh, and when the gunner destroys another vehicle, they get a KO. KOs are very useful when it comes to Grand prixs (Keep reading on to find about GPs).

The single player, on-foot adventure mode: It's a lot of fun. But the only character you can play as is...(guess who)...CRASH! But as Crash, you can go on missions and find things for friends. For instance, in the first level, you have to find a "Fusion Unit" and bring it to Coco, who is waiting for you in the midway level, which is where you start the real story in the adventure mode. Some of the missions are surprisingly easy. But some of them take time to complete. Also in the single player mode, you can collect coins and power crystals. The coins, you collect so you can buy things. Same with the power crystals...in a way. Some of the people who you go on missions for need power crystals. TIP: Collect lots of them by winning races and exploring levels.

Racing in single player mode: There are places where you go to to race in the single player mode. If you come in first place, you will win a cash prize and some power crystals. If you come in second or third, you still get a prize...but no power crystals.

Driving games: There are other driving games you can do, rather than racing. Like the "Rolling thunders", where you take down as many competitors as you can, and the "Crashinator", which is simply driving into and smashing targets before the time runs out.

Stunt arenas: You can race and do driving games in this game, but you can also go to stunt arenas. It's simply where you are timed, and you are in a place with all sorts of ramps and stuff, and you can go off the ramps and perform stunts to earn points and cash.

Battle arenas: These battles aren't like the ones in CNK and CTR: instead, you are clashed with another racer and shooting a gun at the other four supervehicles to earn points. The first one to reach the amount of points or KOs needed to be in first place is the winner.

Die-A-Ramas in the single player, on foot mode: As you are traveling on foot in the single player mode, you will encounter strange signs and buttons. If you go up to them and push a certain button on the controller, Crash will die in a funny way. For example, in the Die-A-Rama, "Tickle the Ivories", Crash walks up to a sign, that means "NO LOITERING", and he stands by it...and a piano falls on top of him and he dies. Collect all 34 Die-A-Ramas, and you will get something special in Single Player Mode.

Gags in the single player, on foot mode: Gags are like Die-A-Ramas, in a way that they're funny. But Crash doesn't die in them - instead, most of the time, something happens to a park worker, or another character. For instance, in "N.Gin Pancake", Crash pulls a lever nearby N.Gin, who is working on fixing a car. (N.Gin has the car raised on something and he's under it, fixing something). So when Crash pulls the lever, the car falls on top of N.Gin. There are only 12 gags, so watch out for them carefully!

Characters: in the single player, on foot mode, some of the other characters in the game are hanging out in different areas at the Midway - The midway is sort of like a "Warp room" like from the other Crash games, only it's a whole lot bigger. The characters at the midway need Crash to go on missions. If you complete the mission, you'll unlock a vehicle belonging to the character that sent you out on the mission. If you unlock the vehicle, you unlock the character, so you can race as them in the single player mode. Please note that in teh on-foot mode, you can't walk around the levels as characters other than Crash. Crash is the only on-foot character that is playeble - no Cortex, no Crunch, no Coco. The multiplayer mode is similar to the single player mode, because of the fact that you have to unlock the characters' vehicles to play as them - but you have to buy their vehicles with coins earned from battles and stunts.

Gift Shop in Multiplayer mode: The coins you earn from multiplayer stunt arenas, battle arenas, and races will be saved up so you can go to the gift shop. At the gift shop, you can buy vehicles for other playable characters, costumes for playable characters, race tracks, and other really neat items. Some of the items are edxtremely expencive - so save up your cash!

Grand Prix - These are only available in Multiplayer mode. You have to buy the grand prixs at the guft shop. They are around...meh, maybe $10,000...but anyways, what they are: There are three racetracks in every level in the single player mode. You remember the names of the levels? (Mystery Island, Happily Ever Faster, Tyranosaurus Wrecks, Tomb Town and Astro Land)? Well, there are 3 racetracks in each of those levels. so, those three tracks put together = a Grand Prix tournament. Grand Prixs are similar to the Arcade Cup tournaments from Crash Team Racing and Crash Nitro Kart. But, like in races and stuff, you win cash prizes (No power crystals - those are only in Single player mode). But everybody wins something in the grand prixs. Doesn't matter if you come in 8th place - you still get some cash. Whoever has the most money from racing on the three tracks at the end will be the first place winner. Like I said before, KOs are very useful in the GPs. Because...if you get, say 19 Kos, multiply 19 by 25, and that's how many extra coins you get! Haha! Cute, isn't it? The amount of KOs you get, multiplied by 25, is the amount of extra coins you will receive. So get as many KOs as you can on each of the three racetracks in a GP when you're the gunner in a supervehicle!

Costumes: You can also purchase costumes for the playable characters, in both the single, on foot and multiplayer modes. Crash has the most outfits...everyone else has 2, including the outfit that they start out with, and the other costume you can buy for them.

Beating the adventure mode: The adventure mode was pretty easy to beat (not 100 %, but beating the final "boss"). It can probably take at least a day. It took 3 days for me, but when I played it again, I beat it in a day. but getting everything and getting 100% is harder.

Mini games: you can play special mini games in the single player, on foot mode only. Some are bowling. Some are "Shoot the targets". Some are extremely easy, but others require practice until you get better at them. Like races and battles and stunts, for playing the mini games, you earn coins. But if you get a certain score, you get a power crystal.

Chicken challenges: You can play these only in single player, on foot mode. They require collecting somewhere over 150 chickens (in one of the 5 levels) in a set time. There are lots of problems with these, because you aren't given enough time to collect all of the chickens in a level. But A friend gave me a tip once - activate all the special platforms that go up and down, side to side, and whatever in one of the five levels BEFORE doing a chicken challenge.

Weapons: There are a bunch of new racetrack weapons in the game. Depending on whether you're clashed with another vehicle, or by yourself, the kind of weapon you will get varies.

The "solo" wepaons include:

chicken bomb - throw it at another car and it explodes in a flurry of feathers.

monkey dynamite - They grab onto the nearest behicle and explode after a short time. But if you bump into another vehicle, the monkey dynamity will hop onto the other vehicle. It's sort of like a "pass-it-on" type of thing.

fire guy - They track down first place and hit them, causing a LOT of damage.

tracking swarm missle - This is a very rare weapon. It fires a missle at every racer on the track.

And for the 1 hit KO wepons you get when you're clashed...

Robot dog - A robot dog that tracks down a nearby car, and bites their bumper, slowing them down, and then the dog blows up, and the car gets KO'd.

Shark missle - I call them "torpedos". Simply aim it at another racer and it will KO them.

Piano - You can throw this piano either behind you or in front of you. Right after it hits the ground, it blows up, and some of the smoke from the explosion remains. If your opponents drive into the smoke, just the SMOKE, there's a good chance they'll get KO'd.

Submarine - Same exact thing as the piano.

Cow - Same exact thing as the Submarine and piano.

Yes, if you're wondering, there are no TNTs and nitros, and no wumpa fruit crates, so you can't "Juice up your weapons to make them stronger". They took out a lot of the good weapons from CTR and CNK.-_-

Last, not not least, in races, every car has a "health meter". When you are hit with a weapon, this meter shows how much health you have remaining. The more you get hit with weapons, the more health you lose. Usually, when you're in the red zone...you can ket KO'd with one hit.

That's basically it. If you're a true Crash fan, this game is to die for and will keep you playing it for quite a while. But if you aren't very fond of Crash games, you probably wouldn't want this game. But to all you Crash fans, GET THE GAME. You'll be glad you have it.