Crash Bash

If this is supposed to be Sony's answer to Mario Party and the upcoming Sonic Shuffle, Nintendo and Sega have little to worry about. Developer Eurocom decided to drop the tried-and-true board game formula in favor of turning this into a traditional action game, complete with separate bosses and levels, that just happens to feature nothing but mini-games. I guess it was done in order to keep Crash Bash from looking like a direct rip-off, but it doesn't work at all. Strike one. Then they turned around and made the four-player "Tournament" nothing but a collection of theme-based mini-games. Basically that means there's no diversity at all. Plus, in order to advance the game, one of the four players has to win at least three times on each game board. All of this makes for about 45 minutes of playing what is essentially the same game over and over again, with no hint of fun in sight. Strike two. Finally--and this is the most heinous act of all--none of the mini-games are much fun save one: the pseudo-quad-pong you see in the screenshot above this review, and the seemingly endless incarnations of said game throughout each level. I'm sure Eurocom tried hard to be unique, and bravo for that. But unfortunately in doing so they created a game that never gets above average in any category. I can't recommend Crash Bash as anything more than a rental at best. Strike three, you're out. Better luck next time.

Crash Bash doesn't have the firepower to pose a serious threat to Mario Party, but It's not a total loss either. Some of the mini-games are forced and a bit awkward to control--partly due to the chunky graphics but also the design. Most involve one objective (the way it should be), but an excessive amount of power-ups and general chaos make it tough to concentrate on the task at hand. Stilt others, like the four-way variation on Pong, are great. These particular contests keep the action clean and simple and aren't muddied by too much commotion. Overall CB isn't a bad multiplayer game but a one-night rental may be all you need to get your fill.

CB started out as a pleasantly entertaining surprise in the Mario Party/mini-game vein, but I found the game became less and less fun the longer I played. Some of the mini-games were basically carboncopies of Mario Party contests, just with different characters and in different settings. I don't necessarily have a problem with that, but the overall gaming experience seemed quite a bit more shallow than MP, with no larger game to tie all the little ones together. On its own merit, CB is a solid, passable party-style game, but I would only recommend this title to PS owners who don't also have an N64 and have had a jones to play this type of game.