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Crash Tag Team Racing is a racing game developed by Radical Entertainment and published by Universal Games for the GameCube. The game was released in North America on October 19, 2005 and in Europe on November 11, 2005. A DS version was planned, but was cancelled.[1]
Crash Tag Team Racing is the third racing game in the Crash Bandicoot video game series, following Crash Nitro Kart, which was an indirect sequel to Crash Team Racing. The game's story centers on the exploits of the protagonist, Crash Bandicoot, who must win the ownership of a dilapidated theme park by finding its missing Power Gems before his nemesis, Doctor Neo Cortex, can.
Content from the game was remastered as a part of Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled on June 21, 2019.
Gameplay[]
The player takes control of Crash Bandicoot, who must retrieve the Black Power Gem of Ebenezer Von Clutch, along with the missing Power Gems in each of the five themed areas of the park. The player will compete in races and minigames to earn Wumpa Coins, the park's currency, and Power Crystals, find the Power Gem needed to open up the five areas of the park, and ultimately unveil the mystery of the Power Gem thief's identity.
As the player explores the park, platforming gates can be entered to unlock new platforming, Extra Wumpa Coins and Power Crystals can be earned by playing platforming, all of which involve platforming Characters with an icon over their heads can be talked to, to unlock cars, weapon upgrades, clothing, or to play minigames. The player can smash crates and collect Wumpa Coins in order to buy rewards such as new clothing; drinking Wumpa Whip gives the player a temporary coin multiplier that earns extra money from Wumpa Coins and crates. Collecting Power Crystals is required to unlock the Power Gem at the end of a themed area, which unlocks an additional area of the theme park. Mini-cartoons, called "Die-O-Ramas", can also be unlocked; these cutscenes display Crash being "killed" off in various (or getting hurt), and largely humorous ways. Unlocking all 34 Die-O-Ramas unlocks another costume for Crash. The Die-O-Ramas can be viewed at any time under the Extras section in the main menu.
The main hook of Crash Tag Team Racing is the "clashing" feature found during the racing sections of the game. The player can "clash" with another vehicle by pressing a certain button. The player's vehicle will merge with a nearby opponent's vehicle, and the player will then take control of a powerful turret weapon to shoot at other vehicles. The turret can not only be used to shoot at enemy cars, but also to take out incoming attacks.
Plot[]
Ebenezer Von Clutch, a German-accented cyborg, has created a highly dangerous racing theme park. However, the park's Power Gems and Von Clutch's Black Heart Power Gem have been stolen. He sets up a special event for his park in which anybody who finds his Black Heart Power Gem acquires the new ownership of his park, but nobody is interested, except for Pasadena O'Possum. During the last day that Von Clutch can keep on functioning without his Black Heart Power Gem, Doctor Neo Cortex, N. Gin, and Nina are chasing Crash, Coco, and Crunch Bandicoot near a roadway that leads to Von Clutch's MotorWorld. They crash through the gates of the MotorWorld, and Von Clutch persuades them to enter. At first, Von Clutch's proposal did not catch the Bandicoots' attention, but when Cortex decides to help just so he could acquire a new base for planning schemes to crush the Bandicoots, Crash, Coco, and Crunch have no choice but to find the Black Power Gem before Cortex and his companions do. At first, they must find the Power Gems needed to power other sections of the MotorWorld and one by one. Having entered the park, Crash sees the first gem on a statue gaining him access to the Mystery Island. There, he's finds the second gem on a small pillar, with perfect timing he swaps it with a small bag then proceeding to Happily Ever Faster. The third gem is guarded by a park employee dressed as a princess trapped in a tower, Crash tugs on his wig and the employee falls tower unconscious allowing Crash to take the gem and go to Tyrannosaurus Wrecks. Seeing a cow drop in from nowhere and press itself against the ledges, Crash used it as a bridge to get the fourth gem and move on to Tomb Town. Crash sees the fifth gem in the nose of an Egyptian Von Clutch statue, then he presses a nearby button which shakes the statue releasing the gem, having picked it up Crash heads for Astro Land.
Back in the park, Cortex enters the scene with bandages on his head shouting in frustration, "Curses, some sinister force is upstaging my evil plan. Curses! Curses! CURSES!!" Coco finds a link between all the stolen Power Gems in which there was a trail of Wumpa Whip at the scene of every stolen Power Gem. Crash is drinking Wumpa Whip at the time, so everyone blames him regardless of the fact that he found the other gems in the first place. Willie Wumpa Cheeks gets out of frustration for their stupidity, then gives himself up and turns out that he is the perpetrator, but at first, nobody believed him (except Von Clutch who went into denial) until he revealed the Black Gem in his bag before running off towards Astro Land, indicating that Crash is innocent.
Crash soon finds him about to blast off with the Black Gem in a rocket (which is actually a Rocket Simulator attraction) and pulls a lever to stop it from supposedly taking off. Crunch picks Willie up by his nose and Pasadena demands that Willie return the Power Gem, but Willie refuses. Cortex then shoots Willie from a simple flying machine, turning him into a blob, and then targets the Bandicoots and fires the trigger, but Crunch pulls up a piece of metal from the ground to block the shots. Then, Crash throws a chicken into the motor of the machine, causing it to fly out of control and off the MotorWorld. The Bandicoots are given the park's ownership as the reward but Coco decides to return it to Von Clutch, only to learn from a devastated Pasadena that he had stopped functioning. Pasadena sadly puts her hands on Von Clutch's back, making two doors open in his chest while Crunch weeps. Meanwhile, Crash is drinking some Wumpa Whip from Willie's nose and accidentally gulps something. He coughs up the Black Gem, which somewhat lands conveniently inside Von Clutch. He comes back to life and starts singing, giving unlimited free passes to the MotorWorld to the Bandicoots from then on. Von Clutch pats Crash on the back numerous times. Crash then pats him on the back and the gem falls out of Von Clutch's body. He then rushes back to the car he had at the beginning, smiles and drives away by himself before anyone could take action against him, leaving Coco and Crunch standing there. Coco then slaps her head while Crunch shrugs at a shocked Pasadena.
Reception[]
Upon release, Crash Tag Team Racing received mixed to mostly average reviews.
TeamXbox's Matthew Fisher praised the clashing mechanics as an addition to the gameplay and the variety in the tracks and weapons. GameSpot's Alex Navarro echoed similar sentiments, stating that "the racing isn't exactly the star of the show, but Crash Tag Team Racing 's supplemental elements pull the whole thing together into a unique and most enjoyable experience." By contrast, Navarro criticized the PSP version's loading times, referring to them as "painful."
Greg Ford and Kathleen Sanders, two reviewers from Electronic Gaming Monthly, criticized the repetition of completing tracks and worlds to unlock new things and dismissed the game being for younger players. Ford, on the other hand, said that the gameplay's different elements were "inoffensively competent."
GameSpy's Hector Guzman praised the game's clashing mechanic, but criticized the platforming camera for its "horrific clumsiness." G4's Justin Speer felt that Crash Tag Team Racing was short and shallow despite the platforming and racing elements being decent. Nintendo World Report's Karl Castaneda criticized the racing, lack of weapon variety, vehicles, and the fetch-quests, labeling them as "bland." However, he found the game's Stunt mode to be entertaining. The overall difficulty was criticized for being too easy, and a lack of online multiplayer, especially in the PS2, Xbox, and PSP versions, was also criticized.
The game's graphics drew in positive remarks, noticing the cartoonish, colorful, and well-animated, but less than impressive landscapes. Fisher, who voiced this sentiment, said that "the overall look is only hampered by occasional bits of slowdown, and some lacking level design." IGN's Charles Onyett and Eurogamer's Ellie Gibson noted the game's high degree detail and extra moving parts, but Gibson noticed that some levels were dimly lit and Onyett criticized the graphics in the Die-O-Rama cutscenes compared to those in regular gameplay. Navarro praised the explosive car destruction as "one of the great joys in the game", but noticed that the Nintendo GameCube version had some frame-rate drops. Guzamn praised the cutscenes as "admirably animated", but described the overall visuals as "garish". Castaneda considered the presentation to be passable, elaborating that "The frame-rate is a tad buggy at times, but never during races, so it isn't much of a bother. The character models fit the cast well enough, but it still doesn't look that much better than the 32-bit version of the last game.
The game's overall audio received mostly negative remarks, but Gibson praised the sound effects and music as "great" and "excellent". The overall voice-acting received a more positive response. Navarro praised the comedic quality of the voice-acting despite the occasional obnoxiousness, and singled out the henchmen and the "woefully underutilized" chicken commentators Chick and Stew as "great fun". Castaneda was also impressed by the voice-acting, and claimed that the "clever writing and dynamite delivery will definitely make you laugh out loud a couple times". Guzman described the character banter as "rich, colorful, and amusing". Fisher felt that the voice work was merely decent, while Onyett found some of the character voices, particularly that of Pasadena O'Possum, to be annoying.
References[]
External links[]
- Crash Tag Team Racing at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Crash Tag Team Racing at GameFAQs
| Crash Bandicoot series | |
|---|---|
| Main series | The Wrath of Cortex • The Huge Adventure • N-Tranced • Purple: Ripto's Rampage • Crash of the Titans • Crash: Mind Over Mutant • Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy • It's About Time |
| Racing/Spin-offs | Crash Nitro Kart • Crash Tag Team Racing • Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled Crash Boom Bang! • Skylanders: Imaginators |
| Related | Crash Bandicoot • Dr. Neo Cortex • Spyro Sony • Activision • TT Games • Vicarious Visions • Radical Entertainment • Toys for Bob |