Crash Team Rumble Review (Xbox Series S)

For this Crash Team Rumble Review, we play this 4v4 team-based competition where the iconic heroes and villains of the crash universe battle to capture more wumpa fruit than the other to claim victory. each hero has unique skills and abilities to strategically use to work together to battle the opposing team, defend their own wumpa bank, and capture key points around the map to help their team.

Crash Team Rumble Review Pros:

  • Decent graphics.
  • 6.3GB download size.
  • 1000 Gamerscore.
  • Team battler gameplay.
  • Opening optional tutorial.
  • The goal of the game is to collect Wumpa fruit and deposit them into the bank to score, the first to 2000 wins.
  • Customizable characters from skins to emotes and hats.
  • Battle pass system for unlocks.
  • Includes songs from all the Crash Bandicoot games and you can have one of these play when you get player of the match.
  • Profile lets you customize the avatar image, banner, and avatar border.
  • End of match breakdown shows earned exp on the battle pass, earned Hero (character) exp, and any award badges you earned.
  • As you play you charge up your special ability that you have equipped. Can be a healing fridge or boss-like drops etc.
  • Plays like a Crash Bandicoot game.
  • Unlock new characters each with unique stats and attacks.
  • Characters are in one of three categories – scorer, blocker, and booster.
  • Private match option.
  • You can play against bot Ai but it doesn’t go towards hero and Battlepass exp.
  • Each character has its own reward unlocks.
  • Relics can be collected and used to activate relic stations which are location-dependent.
  • Each location has unique relic stations like lasers or beach balls and TNT droppers.
  • Jump on all the gem platforms and hold it until it charges up to boost all Wumpa fruit scores for your team.
  • Crates, fruit, and relics all spawn back over time.
  • Death drops all Wumpa and relics held.
  • The locations you play on in matchmaking are all random.
  • Locations have a lot of verticality to them.
  • Replayable learn-to-play mode.
  • Eight characters in total with three unlocked initially.
  • Anything that can be unlocked shows the unlock criteria underneath.
  • The customized character choices are – skin, emote, handheld, hat, backpack, and score effect.
  • Friends list integration.
  • Unlocks have a rarity level attached to them.
  • You can view character progression and a list of their reward challenges.
  • It can be a lot of fun.
  • The elements of a level are set as common, Epic, and legendary. The common ones are simple things like lasers or fungus to slow you down, Epic is slightly deadlier, and the big huge legendary ones require tons of relics but move around the level or do huge areas of damage/effect.

Crash Team Rumble Review Cons:

  • Cannot play the game at all without an online subscription.
  • Very sensitive camera despite turning it down.
  • Doesn’t feel like a lot of balancing is done in matchmaking.
  • Can be hard to judge where you are and makes for a lot of cheap deaths.
  • A lot of grinding is needed for the Battlepass unlocks.
  • Takes a bit of getting used to it all.
  • Just one competitive mode.
  • Cannot vote on map choices.
  • Takes ages to unlock the characters and abilities.
  • Very overwhelming for new players.
  • Cannot play the bot Ai matches without having a gold subscription.
  • Long connecting to online services screen.
  • Matchmaking is not that fast.
  • It can be extremely frustrating.
  • Spawn camping is very common and easy to pull off.

Related Post: F1 23 Review (Steam)

Crash Team Rumble:

Official website.

Developer: Toys for Bob

Publisher: Activision

Store Links –

Xbox Series S

  • 8/10
    Graphics - 8/10
  • 7/10
    Sound - 7/10
  • 7/10
    Accessibility - 7/10
  • 7/10
    Length - 7/10
  • 7/10
    Fun Factor - 7/10
7.2/10

Summary

This feels like a mini-game in a numbered Crash game that got big. I don’t quite know the point of the game and with no actual story I probably never will, it’s just a big grab and cash in Wumoa fruits before everyone else type of game. The thing is, I can’t stop going back to it and playing a fair few matches in each sitting. The game frustrates the hell out of me as it feels unbalanced, the combat is so erratic it’s not fun it’s just mash and pray you prayed the hardest so you win. The levels can get difficult to navigate with hidden platforms and dodgy angles etc but again I keep coming back. The unlocks are plentiful with an overall battle pass unlock system then you have a unique character reward bar for everyone then they usually have some event or bonus unlock rewards going on so you get a lot of satisfying bar-filling action at the end of a match, the rewards are both good and bad but the bars filling up is satisfying. If you go into the game and just stick to a plan of going for just fruit and avoiding all else or go in just to fight then the experience gets a bit better but the unbalancing can be a real headache. I just found combat never flowed or anything and it was all sneak attacks and smashing buttons. CRASH Rumble does offer a lot of Customisable options and the maps are cool but more content like characters and levels is needed. You only have one game type so that is less than ideal and could do with some variety. Honestly, fun can be had but for a full-price retail game it does sting, it plays, and has the content of a much cheaper budget game.

Jim Smale

Gaming since the Atari 2600, I enjoy the weirdness in games counting Densha De Go and RC De Go as my favourite titles of all time. I prefer gaming of old where buying games from a shop was a thing, Being social in person was a thing. Join me as I attempt to adapt to this new digital age!