Crash Bandicoot has been in a lot of different gaming genres. He started off his life on the original PlayStation as a platforming game. Eventually he grew up and like all “teenagers” the allure of a car got into his mind, so there has been plenty of racing games that Crash has participated in as well. Now there is a new game that Crash stars in entitled Crash Tag Team Racing. This game takes a new spin on the Crash franchise by combining two of the genres that he has been in recently: platforming and car racing. Read on to find out more about this game.

Crash Tag Team Racing takes place in Von Clutch giant amusement park. A recent tragedy has happened with all of the park's power gems being stolen, including the Black Heart Power Gem. Without these gems, he is slowly losing the ability to maintain composure and control the park. Since he is a cyborg, Von Clutch cannot live without his Black Heart Power Gem much longer, so he recruits Crash and his friends to help him find the power crystals and his Gem somewhere in the park. As a reward for helping him collect the gems he is offering the deed to the park to the winner. It is up to you to find the power gems to save Von Clutch’s park and his life. Are you up to this challenge?

What makes this game really unique and fun to play is that it combines several different game genres into one. First players can get their platforming fix by running around with Crash, collecting various times to purchase upgrades for his cars. Next there is the racing element that players will get to partake in trying to get to the finish line first. Lastly there is car combat when you “clash” with an enemy as you two try to take down everyone else in the race. The mixture of the game play is done really nicely and it is quite fun to play though.

The best thing about this game is the unique “clashing” feature that is this game is advertising. Clashing means that during a race, all you have to do is press one button and players can combine their car with an opponent’s car during the race. The result of this merger is that the two cars become one supercar with a powerful onboard turret gun. Players can then either man the turret gun to take out any foe that comes along or they can do the driving. This new element in the game really is fun because it is exciting to see what all the cars will look like, and the special powers they have once the cars are combined.

Another thing that is nice about the clash feature is that each character has a unique weapon to be used against unsuspecting cars. A good thing about each of the weapons is that they fit all of the characters personality. For instance Crash has a Wumpa Gun while Von Clutch has Radioactive Bomblets. While they each do nice damage to the enemy it is really fun to use each of the weapons to see what they do. There are also powerups on the track that will help characters when there is no one to clash with. There are the usual bombs, dynamite, and missiles to help stop them. Another powerup are “one shot KO” items which will blow up an enemy's car with one shot. These are very nice and help turn the tide of a race.

One of the biggest faults with this game is the sheer ease of it. The game is overly easy, even on the hardest difficulty setting. I found myself racing on the hardest modes expecting some of the hardest races when those turned out to be a complete breeze to win. This is especially true with the clashing, because you can just clash with a person and use them to beat up one in the lead then just “unclash” and hit them with a bomb before proceeding to get the win.

Crash Tag Team Racing has a really nice look and feel to it. The world itself still has the cartoony feel to it that players have become accustomed to. Another good thing about this is that the animations are nicely done as well. Also the action, while you are on the track, is nicely done, especially when an enemy’s car is destroyed.  Players will also get a nice sense of speed as you are racing though the game. What is bad, though, is that I noticed that the framerate drops while you are playing it. While this is not a constant thing, it happens enough to get annoying.

The audio for this game is pretty good. One good thing is that the voice acting is really solid and added to that fact is that some of the dialog is pretty funny. What is not so good is that the sound effects are really generic and the worst thing is the music in the game. There doesn’t seem to be a variety of game music in this game so players are treated to the same sounding music over and over again, which will grate on players nerves as they are looking for the mute button.

This game also has a decent multiplayer mode but it isn’t as fleshed out as one might think it might be, especially since it has the really neat Clash feature. The modes players can play is a simple race. Next up is a Battle Arena mode where you battle each other to be the last person standing. Then there is a Grand Prix where players race a series of races to see who the best is. Last is the Stunt Track where players compete each other for stunt points.

Crash Tag Team Racing is rated E10+ for cartoon violence and crude humor. It requires 2 blocks on your memory card for game saves.

Gameplay: 7.1
The game is sort of confused at what it wants to be. When I got this game I had no idea that there were platforming elements to it. While this is a welcomed change of pace, it took quite a long time before I was actually on a race track. The racing also doesn’t seem as refined as other games in the same genre. While the clashing adds new depth to the racing, this game just isn’t as refined as it could have been.

Graphics: 7.4
The game retains the cartoonish feel to it that gamers have grown accustomed to. What is bad about this game is that the framerate occasionally drops, and this is not good for a game of this nature, or any game for that fact. Younger players will not notice it as much as more experienced players, but it still gets annoying to come across.

Sound: 7.5
The voice acting in this game is really nice, but the music is not varied enough and will get annoying quickly.

Difficulty: Easy
This game hardly provides any challenge to gamers at all even on the hardest difficulty setting, especially if you have played any game similar to this.

Concept: 8.5
I really liked how the developers mixed in three genres: racing, platforming, and car combat while making sure the game has a nice flow to it. Also being able to clash two racers into one super car is a lot of fun and expands the game.

Multiplayer: 6.5
The multiplayer for this game is really lacking, which is disappointing because with this unique elements you would think that the developers would exploit these and make a really fun multiplayer game, yet this is not what happened. Don’t get me wrong the multiplayer is decent just not what it should have been.

Overall: 7.5
Crash Tag Team Racing is a good game to get if you have younger gamers in the household because it is a nice safe game with little to no violence. Another good thing about this game is that it is also on the easy side so younger players will have a decent challenge presented to them. Other than that unless you are a huge Crash fan, this game is best served as a weekend rental.