Crash Bash

"Polar Push", an example of a mini-game in Crash Bash, featuring (from left to right) Cortex, Coco, Tiny and Dingodile

Crash Bash is a party video game featuring eight playable characters with differing powers and skills.[1][2] The game's storyline involves a contest of good vs. evil held between the twin witch doctor spirits Aku Aku and Uka Uka.[3] The gameplay consists of 28 different mini-games and three distinct modes of play: "Adventure", "Battle" and "Tournament".[4] Crash Bash includes multiplayer compatibility for up to four human players with the use of the PlayStation Multitap.[5]

In the Adventure mode, one or two human players must win all 28 mini-games and retrieve trophies, gems and crystals by accomplishing certain challenges presented for each mini-game. The mini-games are accessed from a series of "Warp Room" hub areas,[6] with the first Warp Room consisting of four mini-games.[4] A trophy is won by achieving victory in three rounds of any given mini-game, after which the player(s) can return to the mini-game and receive a gem or crystal by winning one round under special conditions. When a minimum number of trophies, gems and crystals have been won, the Warp Room's "Boss Arena" becomes accessible, in which the player(s) must defeat a boss character by depleting his health. Winning a Warp Room's Boss Arena will grant entry to the next Warp Room. When three of the game's four Boss Arenas have been won, mini-game challenges become available in which the player(s) can win gold or platinum Relics by defeating advanced computer-controlled opponents. The Adventure mode is completed when all trophies, gems, crystals and relics have been won.[6]

The Battle mode is a quick match within any mini-game that has previously been won in the Adventure mode. The mini-games within this mode can be played as a free-for-all or in teams. In the Tournament mode, players compete in four consecutive mini-games and accumulate points; the player with the most points wins the tournament. In both the Battle and Tournament modes, the number of rounds needed to win a mini-game can be adjusted between two and seven, and the skill level of computer-controlled opponents can be adjusted between "easy", "medium" and "hard".[7]

The Adventure campaign features a frame story centering on Aku Aku and Uka Uka, who seek to resolve their feud via a contest between teams who battle in their stead, as the brothers are forbidden from fighting each other directly. During the course of the campaign, Uka Uka plots to use the crystals obtained by the player, a scheme which Aku Aku becomes wise to. The ending is determined by the player's choice of character. If the player chose a character from Aku Aku's team, Aku Aku locks the crystals away and banishes Uka Uka into the vacuum of space, but if the player chose a character from Uka Uka's team, Uka Uka wields the crystals' destructive power to his own ends. If two players complete the campaign with a character from each team, the characters are subject to a special tie-breaking game to decide which team prevails.

Crash Bash is the first Crash Bandicoot title not to be designed or developed by Naughty Dog, which donated its entire Crash Bandicoot-related art database for the game.[8] The audio was created by Steve Duckworth.[9]

Crash Bash received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[10] Human Tornado of GamePro noted that the collection of minigames was built for four simultaneous players and added that the game was more fun with more people.[12] Shawn Sparks of GameRevolution praised the "solid" graphics, number of minigames and "great" multiplayer.[13] Doug Perry of IGN concluded that the game was unoriginal and shallow but worked as a "social magnet amongst the geek elite".[15] Matt Helgeson of Game Informer commended the challenge and innovative concepts provided by the minigames, but felt that the Adventure mode lacked purpose, and lamented the game's lack of depth beyond the multiplayer modes.[11] Ryan Davis of GameSpot dismissed Crash Bash as "utterly run of the mill, completely middle of the road", and criticized the unbalanced AI.[14] Daniel Erickson reviewed the PlayStation version of the game for Next Generation, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "If you're planning on playing with two or fewer people, go ahead and mentally remove a star from the rating. Otherwise, get a big group together and enjoy."[16]

The graphics were appreciated for replicating the look and feel of the Naughty Dog titles,[11][12][14][15] but Helgeson and Human Tornado were troubled by the distant camera, with the latter observing that the characters often bunched together in several games.[11][12] While Davis admired the game's explosion, particle and lighting effects, he was annoyed by their abundance distracting from the gameplay and sporadically causing slowdown.[14]

Perry summarized the music as "kooky and light and it's fun to listen to" and remarked on its resemblance to the Naughty Dog games, elaborating that "the thumping vibes and bubblegum Congo drumbeats are right on target".[15] Davis determined the audio to be "standard, with Hanna-Barbera-style background music that is appropriate to the various environments and a somewhat limited set of taunts and yelps for each character", and warned that the audio may quickly wear thin.[14]

Crash Bash received a "Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA),[17] indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom.[18]

• Crash Bash at MobyGames