Back in late 2000 when I decided to pledge my allegiance to Sony and the new PlayStation 2, Crash Bash was made as Sony's answer to Mario Party. I saw demos in all the stores and even got to play it a little. Although this was a game for the original PlayStation, it was still considered a must-buy game that anyone who had some sort of PlayStation needed. Since I seemed to have no opinion of my own back then, I went along with them all and bought this game, although after Sony's image had been shattered forever by their failure to get the PS2 in stores for five months after its "release date".

This anti-Nintendo game is still reviewed on the same scale of 0-4 stars, because all games are considered equal until the moment I turn them on. Well, okay, I had opinions on a few before turning them on and actually playing them, but anyway, here I go.

Graphics: *1/2

The graphics aren't anything to write home about. They're not bad, just bland. I expected the PS2 to pick up the graphics a lot; it didn't. It looks the same exact way it does on the PSone. No improvement here, I'll tell you right now.

Sound: *1/2

I like the menu music, but all of the other music is bland and stupid. If I don't hum to the music, it's not good. That's the simplest way for me to put it. As for the characters and sound effects, they aren't bad, to say the least. In fact, the sound effects are kind of good, so it kind of picks up the rating here.

Characters: ***1/2

Although at the time I really had no idea who the characters were, I like them. Yeah, they're former Nintendo-haters like Crash Bandicoot and Dr. Neo Cortex. If you can get over the non-Nintendo part of the characters, you'll like them too. Since I have no grudge against anti-Nintendo guys anymore, I like them even more. I mean, you've got to love Crash in all the commercials he used to be in, even when he made fun of Nintendo outside their headquarters. Oh, right, the game. Don't panic, I'll get back to reviewing it now...

Controls: **1/2

The controls are easy enough: they're all shown on the loading screens. No, I won't go through them here,
because they're way too many for me to tell you. They're fine, although in a few cases, I'd like some better buttons to hit than the ones given to me. That's all.

Mini-Games: ***

I'll break down the already-unlocked mini-games further below, but overall, I have to say I like them in general. Here they are...

TNT Game: *

I don't like this game that much. You try beating up or blowing up opponents, and it just isn't fun. Each
player has three lives. I didn't enjoy it that much, considering it's the first mini-game I played and supposedly the biggest one.

Pogo Stick Game: ****

This, more of a strategy-style of a game, is my favorite one of all. You move from square to square, turning each one to your color, even stealing from opponents' squares. Whoever has the most squares at the end of two minutes wins. I really enjoy this game, especially the weapons and arrow squares that give you all the squares in a line. There are some different rules for this game in different courses, but the basic game remains the same, and it's a lot of fun, trust me.

Sheep Game: **

This is a Bumper Balls-style of game. You hit a button to bump opponents, and you try to hit them off three
times each. Whoever stays alive at the end wins. Each player has three tries. It's kind of fun at the end, but
mostly boring until then, except when some items or other things are used.

Pong Game: ***1/2

This Pong-style of game in which four players play air hockey on the same rink is a ton of fun. You may not
think so at first, but once you get three to five pucks out there at once, it gets really fun. When 20 pucks are scored on a player, they're out of the competition. I like this one a lot.

Adventure Mode: *

This one-player mode really isn't that much different from just winning normal mini-games, so it's not all the game makes it out to be. I'm disappointed that not more effort could have been put into this one to make it better.

Multiplayer Modes: ***

This is the fun of Crash Bash. Playing multiplayer is all the fun to it. That's what I enjoy the most, in fact the only part of this game that I enjoy. It's good, I think.

Replayability: 1/2

This game falls flat on its face here. Although the mini-games are well-made for the most part, there aren't enough to keep you busy, and there aren't any actual boards like in Mario Party. This game really can't face up to Mario Party in this standard.

Fun Factor!: **

This game is pretty fun when playing with other live opponents, but when playing against only computers,
you won't have as much fun. So, it ends up being so-so in this category.

OVERALL: *1/2

This game isn't the Crash Bandicoot-equivalent of Mario Party. It isn't as replayable, nor as fun. It's just a collection of sophisticated mini-games, that's all. It's only worth a rent, if that, because it won't last you very long.

Want to review a game yourself? Email me!
Go back to Lemmy's Reviews.
Go back to my main page.