Crashy Laps Review (PlayStation 5)

by Jim Smale · December 4, 2023

For this Crashy Laps Review, we play an arcade racing game, with all the tracks visible on the screen, designed for playing in single-player and Local Multiplayer modes. Based on classic games, there are isometric and top-down selectable camera views.

Crashy Laps Review Pros:

Nice graphics.
348.1MB download size.
Platinum trophy.
Racing gameplay.
Two views to use – isometric and top-down.
Engine sound – combustion or electric.
Three difficulties – Novice, professional, and expert.
Isometric view of the track, meaning you can see the whole track at all times.
A top-down view is a more traditional arcade view.
Sound option outputting – music and fx, music only, fx only, and engine only.
Four tunes of day to drive in – morning, midday, evening, and night.
Four race events to choose from – championship (4 races/4 cars/4 laps), time trial, quick race, and Grand Prix.
Five race locations – Candy Lands, Alpine Bridge, Silver Dunes, Frosty Way, and Around the World.
Each location has four race tracks.
You have to unlock the racing locations by earning certain cups in the championship.
Unlock race tracks by placing in the time trial.
Every track and location shows what you have to do in order to unlock it.
Online leaderboards.
Customize your car before an event and put a 3-character name or initials in.
Vibration can be set to – off, all, and collisions only.
You can zoom in on the track from within the pause menu.
You get reset onto the course if you crash too hard.
A little speedo lets you know if your speed is too fast and your grip will be bad when your speedo goes red.
Arcade presentation.
You can change the view and zoom in on the race pause menu.
The controls are simple and easy to learn with Accelerate being on the shoulder and face buttons as is the brake so you have some choice.
Nice looking locations and the track design is good.

Crashy Laps Review Cons:

Cannot rebind controls.
Doesn’t explain things like the fact you cannot play championship mode until you have done a time trial.
On the menus if you leave it too long then a credit pop-up shows.
The controls are loose and not that responsive.
Resetting onto the track is cool but it doesn’t kick in when you spin out and are going the wrong way.
You don’t get much visual feedback on your racing.
Not only is a time trial the first thing you need to do in order to do the fun stuff but you have to do the time trial on all the tracks in a location to get that unlock.
Each track in time trial only shows if you did it before and your best time, not how many laps you have done. (this is important for unlocks)
The music sounds very generic and repetitive.
You don’t get told if unlocks happen in both track and locations and events.
No zoom-in function for the top-down view.
You cannot always see the environmental hazards.
Only the one-car model.
Has limited replay value.
The difficulty of the AI just increases how much cheese and cheap moves they use.