Crash 'n' Burn

Scene 1: All's quiet on a serene plain. Suddenly, a blinding flash of light obliterates the view. There's a tremendous roar, and an ominous dark mushroom cloud mars the vista. Scene 2: The streets of a futuristic city sit in antiseptic silence. Then the A-bomb's shock wave sends a million jagged shards of glass slicing through the air!

Armageddon? Nuclear terrorists? Extraterrestrial invaders? No way! It's just the 3DO equivalent of the starter's flag for Crystal Dynamic's radioactive auto racing game, Crash 'n Burn. However, despite an atomic story line cooked by the heat of a thousand suns, the disc and its features run from hot to lukewarm.

A Race in Your Face

Crash 'n Burn is the first 3DO game to hit the market...that's because it comes bundled with Panasonic's 3DO REAL Multiplayer! Buckle up to experience the most outrageous racing graphics you've ever seen in a home system!

You can use two views to race: behind-the-car and behind-the-wheel. Lose the behind-the-car racing as soon as you can. The car movement from this angle is stilted and distracting. However, put yourself in the driver's seat and you're in for a slick ride. You sit low, right down on the roadway, and with the awesome 3DO graphics, you can practically feel the ground whizzing just a few inches below you.

The blood-and-guts driving burns rubber across six circuits, consisting of 30 tracks. As in most racing games, you take your best shot...but expect someone to shoot back here! Winning strategies require sharp driving skills and a sharpshooter's eye.

Keep Your Eyes on this Road

As expected, Crash 'N Burn's 3DO graphics will make your eyes bug out. The car designs are killers. Also, the expansive outdoor horizons are knockouts, with brilliant colors and beautiful cloud patterns! Hey, nuclear fallout looks good in the atmosphere anyway.

Every track features a unique look. For example, on the transparent tracks, you can look right through the road surface! The quick animation makes the roadway race past you, but wait until you hit the banks and loops! You fight centrifugal force and your sense of balance as the view turns 180 or 360 degrees.

Unsafe at any Speed

Unfortunately, this is a singleplayer game, and Crystal Dynamics really missed the bus there. At least they make up for your lonesome ride by supplying six weirded-out CPU raceheads. These wacked-out road warriors are straight from the Weirdo School of Driving. You pick one and drive against the others.

The creative character selection screen puts on a mini-show of its own. Actors in bizzare costumes (and off-Broadway makeup) play the digitized competitors with over-the-top performances. Radiation levels must really play havoc with the hormones because these ego-maniacal nuts are in a foaming-at-the-mouth frenzy to drive you into the dirt. At least their rantings are crystal CD clear, and you can plan your strategy by what they say.

The sounds are curiously subdued for a high-powered CD game. C & B doesn't push the effects, outside of some cool weapons fire. Moreover, the disc's music doesn't rock beyond the ordinary.

Rough Riding

Once you make it onto the track, the ride gets a little bumpy. Mastering the controls and the car's heads-up displays (HUDs) is a breeze for anyone who's ever run a video racer, thanks to the game's simple, intuitive design. However, hard-core drivers will crave more sophisticated road racing action.

Basically, you just stomp on the accelerator button and go. There are no brakes (any decent race driver shouldn't need them anyway), but you can't drive off the road, so there's no danger of crashing to spice up the challenge. The car-versus-car fighting's all right, but maneuvering your racer and jamming the trigger button is definitely a thumb-spraining experience.

Let the Buyer Beware

Placing in the top three earns you cash and the right to race on another track. Ending up in the money is critical, so you can fortify your racer with exotic weapons and shields.

The 3DO graphics shine at Floyd's Auto Shop, where you purchase new gear. You can score Guns, Energy Weapons, Missiles, Hazards (mines), and Shields, 35 individual pieces in all. Check out the Hellfire Rotogun, the Plasma Sun Gun, and the self-repairing body armor. Of course, prices vary according to individual firepower. To help you make your buying decisions, the Auto Shop screen displays a beautiful graphic of your potential purchase, which automatically rotates for a 360-degree view and shows the weapon in action.

Periodically, the shopkeeper, a sort of pirate-parts sales-cyborg, breaks in on Floyd's screen. He can smell your dough, and he always has awesome stuff, naturally at awesome prices. However, he won't guarantee how long the goods will last.

Take a Free Ride

This CD game scores as the first of its kind. It's a radical ride, a tantalizing look at the potential of 3DO gaming, and a satisfactory workout. Crash 'N Burn definitely sets your imagination on fire.