Crash Team Rumble Beta Impressions – Know Your Role Crash!


Crash Bandicoot is a series with a lot of versatility, being one of the big mascot franchises from the early PlayStation era. We’ve seen Crash in action-adventure games, kart racing games, and chaotic party games that can be played with friends. But now we’re going to see Crash Bandicoot and the rest of his companions in a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game, something very different for the orange bandicoot. To get a taste of what’s to come, developer Toys for Bob had a closed multiplayer beta for the game that allowed players to dive into the arena and scramble to collect wumpa fruit. And even with a small portion of the game available to play, there’s a lot to say about this new outing for Crash and friends.

In the beta for Crash Team Rumble, there’s access to five characters to play with, most of which need to be unlocked at first by playing and winning matches. You can play as Crash Bandicoot, Coco Bandicoot, Tawna Bandicoot, Neo Cortex, and Dingodile. Each character has their own role and perks for that role to help contribute to a match, by either scoring or affecting other aspects of the match. Characters like Crash and Tanwa are Scorers, whose biggest goal is to collect as much wumpa fruit and score in the goal. They are able to capture Gem points easier and multiply the score for the team faster. Coco and Neo Cortex are Boosters, characters who can gather more relics on the map are gain access to various perks that either boost the team or affect the opposing team. And Dingodile is a Blocker, whose only concern is being a menace to opponents and protecting key points to ensure victory.

Matches are 4-on-4 skirmishes on a variety of maps based on different parts of the Crash Bandicoot series. It’s very important that the whole team works together in their given roles to win a match. Collecting wumpa fruit is everyone’s concern, but not the only thing they should do when roaming around. Deviating from a character’s role can be a major issue for the team and almost guarantee a loss, especially if you play characters in the opposite way they’re intended. Dingodile is strong but moves slower than most other characters, so he’s not ideal for gathering wumpa fruit fast. In the same way, Crash can move fast but can’t take a lot of hits or deal a lot of damage against other characters. So you shouldn’t really be using him to get into a lot of fights. Finding out the pros and cons of each playable character will take some trial and error, which comes with time as you play more.

Matchmaking in the beta can be sluggish at first, but once you’re put into a match things pick up to a faster pace. Matches can either last a short while or end very quickly, depending on how well your team works together with their given roles. The biggest factor to winning quickly is getting control of the multipliers on the map, with each multiplier stacking upon one another. Fighting for points like this is where most of the skirmishes between teams will happen, which is why Blockers and Scorers need to work together well to gain the upper hand. Once a team has that, gathering wumpa fruit is the main goal to gaining a massive lead.

At the same time, everyone can pick up relics to use the various utility platforms, or Relic Stations, that are on the map. For Booster characters, this is very important because they can gather more relics faster than everyone else. You don’t need to have the exact amount of relics right away to open a platform up, you can gather and stack them up between everyone on the team. Once you have enough, getting big relic boosts can be devastating to the other team. Some of the perks include having a UFO comb the map and damage enemies, while another will unlock Uka Uka invincibility for your entire team and allow you to run through everything. By the time things like this begin to happen, matches might already be on the verge of finishing, especially if one team has been proactive in getting multipliers and wumpa fruit.

Characters also have other perks that they can use occasionally over time, such as dropping enemies to harass the opposite team or a health boost for allies. These come after an ability bar fills up over time as you play. It’s possible that some characters in the final release will have perks to make this fill up faster and drop more things on the map, but that’s not the case in the beta. Most of the abilities between characters affect gathering items on the map and how much damage they do to enemies.

When it comes to balance, the beta shows that there is a lot that still needs to be adjusted. One of the biggest issues is when a team has no answer to the opposing side camps their scoring ring using someone like Dingodile. Because a blocker can take a lot of damage and push back everyone far with ease, a group of scorers or boosters will have a lot of trouble. You can’t win a match when the team is unable to score. While it’s a good strategy to hinder a team from doing so, it shouldn’t be a nearly game-breaking option. Possibly having some of the enemies that are laid on the map adjusted to do more damage or knock characters back will help with this, giving the defending team some sort of option to prevent their score ring from being camped out constantly. But the other option would be to adjust the attributes of Blockers like Dingodile, to still allow them to be tough but not untouchable in such scenarios.

In addition to matches, players can unlock various cosmetic gear that can be equipped to characters. These are only for looks, but allow for some flair to be added to every character, giving some visual variety. New items can be unlocked by completing challenges and leveling up the Battle Pass that Crash Team Rumble has. Higher levels open up the better-looking gear, but you can also unlock more items by playing with specific characters and leveling up their rank. Luckily, items you unlock can be mixed and matched between everyone, so you’re never locked out from one item on any given character. After playing just a few matches the unlocks pop up more often, which may or may not change in the final release. Everyone on the roster looks goofy, but adding different items can give them an even more outlandish look.

Overall, the closed beta for Crash Team Rumble is very solid. The game is fun to play and can get very competitive if you get matched up with a good team. Unfortunately, the inverse can be said if you wind up with a bad group, but that is the nature of the genre that you have to expect. There will definitely be more content to explore in the final version of the game when Crash Team Rumble releases on June 20th for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, and Xbox One.

Will you be checking out Crash Team Rumble on any platform? Which character are you going to try out first or which one will you main? Let us know your thoughts about Crash Team Rumble in the comments down below!

Share this content!


ClownfishTV.com strives to be an apolitical, balanced and based pop culture news outlet. However, our contributors are entitled to their individual opinions. Author opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of our video hosts, other site contributors, site editors, affiliates, sponsors or advertisers. This website contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. We disclaim products or services we have received for review purposes, as well as sponsored posts.
Avatar photo

Jakejames Lugo

Jakejames Lugo is a writer and content creator that has been covering video games, movies, and various sides of entertainment for over a decade. He has published reviews and articles on many different outlets and continues to make content for different platforms. Jakejames also makes video content regularly for places like YouTube and TikTok, and share daily posts about gaming on social media.

View all posts

Shop Now!

Final Fantasy VII Tifa Lockhart Bring Arts Action Figure

Support Us!

Categories

Close Subscribe Card