Crash Bash

Gameplay

Crash Bash is a multiplayer party game that pits up to four human players against each other, requiring a PlayStation Multitap for that many participants. The roster includes eight characters, each with unique abilities: Crash, Coco, Tiny, Dingodile, Cortex, Brio, Koala Kong, and the new addition Rilla Roo. The core gameplay revolves around 28 distinct mini-games, which are grouped into seven categories, each with several variations. These categories are Ballistix, where players use hovercraft to knock steel balls away from their own goal; Polar Push, which has riders on polar bear cubs trying to shove opponents off an icy platform; Pogo Pandemonium, a contest of hopping on pogo sticks across a grid to paint squares in one's own color; Crate Crush, a battle where players throw or kick stone crates to drain opponents' health and eliminate them; Tank Wars, a tank duel using mines and missiles; Crash Dash, a multi-lap race around a circular track; and Medieval Mayhem, a set of challenges held inside a circular arena.

The game offers three modes: Adventure, Battle, and Tournament. In Adventure mode, one or two players must conquer all 28 mini-games to collect trophies, gems, and crystals by meeting specific objectives for each game. Players access these mini-games through a series of Warp Room hubs, with the first Warp Room containing four games. Earning a trophy requires winning three rounds of a given mini-game. Once a trophy is obtained, players can revisit that mini-game to earn a gem or crystal by winning a single round under special conditions. After collecting a required number of trophies, gems, and crystals, the Warp Room's Boss Arena unlocks, where players must deplete a boss character's health to win. Clearing a Boss Arena opens the next Warp Room. Once three of the four Boss Arenas are beaten, new mini-game challenges appear, allowing players to earn gold or platinum Relics by defeating highly skilled computer opponents. The Adventure mode is fully completed only after every trophy, gem, crystal, and relic has been secured.

Plot

The Adventure mode's plot revolves around Aku Aku and Uka Uka, who are barred from directly fighting one another and instead settle their dispute through a competition between their chosen teams. As the campaign progresses, Uka Aku secretly intends to use the crystals the player collects, a plan that Aku Aku eventually uncovers. Which ending plays out depends on the character the player selects. Picking a member of Aku Aku's team results in him sealing the crystals and sending Uka Uka flying into space. Choosing a character from Uka Uka's team lets him harness the crystals' destructive force for his own purposes. When two players finish the campaign each controlling a character from opposing teams, a special tie-breaking match is held to determine the winner.

Development and release

After 1999's Crash Team Racing, Naughty Dog, the original creators of Crash Bandicoot, shifted focus to Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy for the PlayStation 2. Sony Computer Entertainment soon acquired Naughty Dog, but Universal Interactive kept the Crash Bandicoot rights. When Naughty Dog's contract with Universal ended, Universal president Mark Cerny left to start Cerny Games, an independent consultancy that maintained ties with Naughty Dog and Sony. The first Crash game made without Naughty Dog was Crash Bash, developed by Eurocom, with Cerny and Michael John of Cerny Games serving as designers. Despite not making the game, Naughty Dog contributed its entire Crash Bandicoot art database. Producers included Eurocom's Jon Williams, Sony's Grady Hunt, and Universal's Vijay Lakshman. The programming team consisted of Dave Pridmore, Stuart Johnson, Julian Walshaw-Vaughn, Steve Bak, and Kris Adcock. Graphics were handled by Matt Dixon, Steve Bamford, Clive Stevenson, and Jon Parr, while Steve Duckworth created the audio. Universal's Sean Krankel and Ricci Rukavina added extra mini-game designs. The character Rilla Roo was introduced because there weren't enough suitable player characters from Naughty Dog's games. Dixon said Cerny came up with the concept, and lead character artist Bamford designed it. The game appeared at E3 2000, reached North American stores on November 8, 2000, and arrived in Europe on November 29. It was the last Crash Bandicoot title released only for a Sony console; later games came out on both Xbox and PlayStation 2. A demo of Spyro: Year of the Dragon can be accessed by entering a cheat code on the title screen. Similarly, a Crash Bash demo is available from Spyro: Year of the Dragon's title screen, and entering an alternate input on that demo's title screen reveals a debug menu that unlocks a nearly complete beta version. Although all levels are playable, the Adventure mode's final hub area is missing, requiring a GameShark to reach those levels. In the Japanese version, Fake Crash—a strange doppelganger who appeared in earlier Crash games—is an unlockable character.

Reception

Crash Bash was met with mixed or average reviews according to Metacritic. Critics often compared it to Mario Party and the upcoming Sonic Shuffle. While many felt the game lacked depth and originality, they still found the multiplayer experience fun. Shawn Sparks from GameRevolution liked the variety of mini-games but disliked having to play Adventure mode to unlock them for multiplayer. Matt Helgeson of Game Informer praised the challenge and creative ideas in the mini-games, though he found Adventure mode boring and aimless. Greg Sewart of Electronic Gaming Monthly thought Eurocom tried to avoid copying Mario Party by skipping its board game structure for a more action-focused approach, but he felt this failed. He also criticized the Tournament mode for grouping similar mini-games together, making the requirement to win at least three rounds feel tedious. Dean Hager, also from Electronic Gaming Monthly, said some mini-games felt forced and awkward to control, and that too many power-ups and general chaos made it hard to concentrate. Both Sewart and Hager agreed the "Ballistix" mini-games were the most enjoyable. Doug Perry of IGN appreciated the different mini-game variations, but he and Daniel Erickson of Next Generation found them mostly repetitive. Ryan Davis of GameSpot called Crash Bash "utterly run of the mill, completely middle of the road" and complained about unbalanced AI. The graphics were praised for capturing the look of the Naughty Dog games, but Helgeson and Human Tornado of GamePro were bothered by the distant camera, with Human Tornado noting characters often clumped together in several games. Davis admired the explosion, particle, and lighting effects but found their abundance distracting and noted they occasionally caused slowdown.