A new way to Crash.
Crash Team Rumble is a Battle Royale Game in the Crash Bandicoot franchise, developed by Toys for Bob. The game was revealed at the Game Awards 2022 and released on June 20, 2023.
The gameplay involves two teams of four players competing to score the most Wumpa Fruit in their team's bank, while also performing various other tasks around the map, such as securing and activating gem pads to give their team a brief score boost, attacking enemy players to prevent them from scoring, and gathering relics to deposit in multiple relic stations scattered around each map, giving some kind of benefit for whichever team activated the relic station.
A closed beta was released from April 20-24, 2023.
A brand new permanent game mode, Party Mode, was added with Season 2 on September 12, 2023.
On February 29, 2024, due to Toys for Bob becoming an independent developer, it was announced the game would not receive any more content. A final update was released on March 4, 2024. The Battle Pass is available for free, including all the items from Season 1 to 3 alongside over a hundred new items. Additionally, microtransactions have been turned off.
Trailers: Reveal Trailer
, Pre-Order Trailer, Beta Trailer, Launch Trailer
Playable characters
Tropes present in the game:
- Ascended Extra: Catbat, who only had a brief cameo in the Golden Ending for Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, becomes a playable character in this game.
- Same goes for Ripper Roo, who had a quick blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in the level "Off Beat" and an appearance in Crash 4's secret 100% ending. Here, he finally gets to become a playable character on-foot in a platforming setting.
- Assist Character: As always, Sparx is always by Spyro's side. but instead of being a glorified health bar or having any special combat abilities, the dragonfly simply helps Spyro pick up items from further away.
- Be the Ball:
- The map "Just Beachy" has relic stations that when a character deposits five relics, they are put inside a giant Beach Ball and can knock back opponents.
- Likewise, the map "Calamity Canyon" has a similar relic station where characters are placed inside a giant Junker Ball that does damage to opponents.
- "Bogged Down" also has a similar relic station: the Bouncing Bubble. Not only does it have similar functions, but it also allows you to bounce safely across the water of the map to collect crates and relics that are otherwise unreachable.
- The Cameo:
- Like in Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, Pura appears as a parade float in the background of the "Jazz Junction" map. Spyro also appears as such, applying as this trope before he became a playable character.
- Gulp appears as the epic relic station in the "Artisans Arena" map, while the Ice Wizards from Crystal Glacier appear as another relic station.
- Likewise, Moneybags and the egg thief appear in the "Summer Forest" map, with Moneybags serving as one of the three relic stations there.
- Some other characters like Polar and Gnasty Gnorc appear on some of the unlockable player banners.
- Koala Kong appears as one of the patches on Catbat's "Cutebat" skin (on the right side of their jacket).
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Your team will always appear as blue while the opposing team always appears as red.
- Concept Art Gallery: Several of the banners and emblems serve as such as they utilise concept drawings from early development of the game, It's About Time and other works by Toys For Bob.
- Cosmetic Award: Completing certain character challenges in both Competitive and Party Mode rewards you with emotes, banners and various hats, backpacks or gear skins depending on which character you're playing as.
- Crossover: With Spyro the Dragon, as per tradition. Season Three of the game in particular is fully Spyro themed, and consists of events, content and unlockables related to that franchise.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Ripper Roo has the highest difficulty stat of the characters, having to rely on rolling on and kicking bombs for ground mobility and ranged combat. His tertiary ability launches him so he can bypass tight platforming situations and get the drop on foes, but he cannot cancel the launch once he starts so he has to commit to the launch.
- Enemy Mine: Characters who normally are enemies can potentially be put on the same team, most notably Alternate Tawna and Alternate N. Tropy, even though the latter killed the Crash and Coco of their universe. This trope is Played for Laughs in the opening intro, where the two actually fist bump.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: Well, Ripto's moveset instead has fire, water, and lightning. The first being a basic projectile, the second being a rising anti-air, and the third being a controlled strike that creates an explosion should he touch it.
- Forced Transformation: One of Cortex's abilities has him shoot out a different blast that can temporarily turn opponents into helpless non-anthro animals. They transform back after a while, but they will now suffer knockback if Cortex follows up with his headbutt attack.
- Foreshadowing: Seasons One and Two have unlockable cosmetics and cameos featuring Spyro the Dragon, culminating in Ripto becoming a playable character at the end of the second. This all set up for the full-on Spyro themed third season, which adds Spyro (and Elora) as a playable character along with a few maps and unlockables related to the series.
- Fragile Speedster: Tawna, Cortex and Spyro all qualify as they are among the least durable players in the game, but their abilities allow them to speed across maps quicker than anyone else.
- Ground Pound: Many of them used by hitting the secondary action button (circle button on PlayStation 4 controllers). Spyro can cancel his into an airdash with another tap of the button.
- Healing Shiv: Catbat's tertiary ability is the Heal Burger, which has them throw out a burger that homes in on targets. Catbat and their allies will heal upon touching it, while enemies will take damage upon contact.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: Crash's trademark affinity for Wumpa fruit is translated as such, as it inevitably gives him the largest Wumpa capacity of the roster note , making him an extremely efficient Scorer.
- Hulking Out: N. Brio's tertiary ability has him transform in his monster form, allowing him to damage foes on contact. However, he's left vulnerable when drinking the potion and upon transforming back to normal.
- Kick Chick: Elora's offensive abilities are all about kicking. She even uses those legss to kick up tornadoes that home in on opponents.
- Large-Ham Announcer: The announcer provides color commentary all throughout each match, reacting to things such as which teams gets boosted, or when your character gets a KO on an enemy player."Catbat... WHAAAAT??!"
"Woah!"
"[Coco] must've researched that move on her tablet!"
"Cleanup on aisle three!"
"Aaaaand lights out for them." - Loophole Abuse: The gem pads can only be activated by an actual character standing on them, meaning landing a projectile on one will not claim it. Landing power-ups that apply as characters however will set a gem pad to your team, such as the Gasmoxian Guard or N Brio's slime monsters.
- The Medic: Catbat and Elora both have abilities which can refill their team's health meter.
- Mighty Glacier: Dingodile has the highest health and combat rating, but tied with N. Brio with the worst mobility rating.
- Moveset Clone: Much like other games, Crash and Coco have similar abilites. Both siblings have their spin attacks that can be stacked onto each other thrice as well as a slam attack that can turn into a super slam with another button tap. However, Crash has a higher carrying capacity at a time and can perform slides, Coco has a higher mobility rating by using the Quantum Walls to speed up allies or slow down enemies, as well as a more powerful air dash.
- Mythology Gag: Not just of Crash but the Spyro series as well:
- One of Cortex's abilities is to drop a piano onto players. Not only does this mirror a weapon in Crash Tag Team Racing, but Cortex was shown to have an affinity for piano playing in Crash of the Titans.
- Ripto's moveset consists of elemental based powers, alluding to his boss strategies in Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly and Spyro 2: Season of Flame.
- One of the announcer's lines when Cortex gets a KO is "Feel the wrath of Cortex!".
- Similarly, when Ripto gets a KO, sometimes the announcer will say, "Say hello to your new king!"
- Likewise, for Elora, sometimes the announcer will say, "She's a faun, you dork!"
- Some lines of dialogue in Catbat's backstory comic when they encounter Cortex on the battlefield were taken directly from one of the cutscenes in Crash Twinsanity.Cortex: "I've ruined the lives of so many. I can't be expected to remember them all."
Catbat: (thinking) "Such a big head, such a tiny brain." - Likewise, in the comic focusing on N. Gin and Ripper Roo that teases Ripto's inclusion, some lines were taken directly from Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage.N. Gin: "Ugh... thought I was about to become the world's smartest pile of ashes..."
Ripto: (from within the portal that Ripper Roo accidentally opened up) "Well, well. Someone forgot to invite me to the party." - From the "Ripto Arrives" comic, Ripto, upon arriving, comments "No dragons? Wonderful." before going off to cause chaos, just like he did upon arriving in Avalar in Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage.
- Some of the Spyro-themed skins in Season 3's battle pass reference Toasty (for Female N. Tropy), Hunter (for Ripper Roo) and Moneybags (for Dingodile).
- Score Multiplier: Securing and activating a cluster of Gem Pads on any stage grants your team a limited-time multiplier based on how many gem pads you activated (30% for three Gem Pads, 40% for four Gem Pads)
- Likewise, activating the Bonus Bank relic station in "Just Beachy" doubles the amount of Wumpa Fruit deposited into said bank.
- Self-Deprecation: One of the fun facts shown during loading screens is targeted at Toys for Bob, that says they no longer make toys or have anyone named Bob working there, so what gives?
- Shrink Ray: The map "Waste Deep" has one as its Epic Relic Station. Activating it shrinks everyone in the enemy team and halves their health meter.
- Starter Mon: When you first boot up the game, there are only three available characters for you, one for each category. Crash for Scorers, Dingodile for Blockers, and Coco for Boosters.
- Suicide Attack: The player can use the Sticky TNT as one against enemy players if they decide not to pass it on to them before the timer reaches zero.
- Take That!: One of the fun facts shown during loading screens takes a jab at NFTs, claiming that, "thankfully", Wumpa Fruit are totally fungible tokens.
- Taunt Button: Pressing any button on the D-Pad will cause your character to perform an emote of their choosing. In later updates you can emote in lobbies for kicks.
- Three Approach System: Playable characters are divided into Scorers, Boosters, and Blockers. Committing to your role charges your power faster.
