Crash Tag Team Racing

Crash and Crunch Bandicoot in a "clashed vehicle" (two cars merged into one), with Crunch at the wheel and Crash in a rotatable turret.

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.[3] 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.[3]

As the player explores the park, platforming gates can be entered to unlock new platforming,[3] Extra Wumpa Coins and Power Crystals can be earned by playing platforming, all of which involve platforming[3] Characters with an icon over their heads can be talked to, to unlock cars, weapon upgrades, clothing, or to play minigames.[3] 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.[3] 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.[3] Mini-cartoons, called "Die-O-Ramas", can also be unlocked; these cutscenes display Crash being grievously injured or "killed" off in various, and largely humorous ways. Unlocking all 34 Die-O-Ramas unlocks another costume for Crash.[3] The Die-O-Ramas can be viewed at any time under the Extras section in the main menu.[3]

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 depending on the gaming platform.[3] 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.[3] The turret can not only be used to shoot at enemy cars, but also to take out incoming attacks.[3]

Željko Duvnjak served as the conceptual artist for Crash Tag Team Racing.[14] The story, all new characters and game script/dialogue were created by animation producer and director Jordan Reichek of Perky Pickle Studios. He was assisted by Chris Mitchell of Radical Games. Reichek based the story on a twisted hybrid story of Walt Disney's Disneyland theme park and a Scooby-Doo-type mystery. Reichek was brought into the game production as writer and creative consultant by Vivendi Universal after his successful involvement with the previous Crash Bandicoot title, Crash Twinsanity, where he offered similar creative direction. The full-motion videos were created by Red Eye Studios, who had previously animated the cutscenes for Crash Nitro Kart and Twinsanity. The environments of the game were built by Sarah Meagher and Vincent Chin, while the vehicles were built by Kevin Fink.

The game's soundtrack was composed by Marc Baril and Spiralmouth (the latter reprising their music role from Crash Twinsanity), with Michael Neilson providing additional music; Gabriel Mann of Spiralmouth doubled as the soundtrack's producer. A fifteen-track soundtrack was released on March 6, 2007, and is available in the iTunes Music Store.[15] The sound design of the game was provided by Cory Hawthorne. The game's voice actors were cast and directed by Chris Borders at Technicolor Interactive Services. Lex Lang and Debi Derryberry reprised their respective roles as Dr. Cortex and Coco, while the roles of Crash, Crunch, N. Gin and Nina were inherited by Jess Harnell, Chris Williams, Nolan North and Amy Gross. The new characters Von Clutch, Pasadena and Willie were respectively voiced by Danny Mann, Shanelle Workman and Roger L. Jackson.

Crash Tag Team Racing received mixed reviews upon release. Matthew Fisher of TeamXbox commended the clashing mechanic as a great addition, as well as the variety of tracks and weapons.[29] Alex Navarro of GameSpot concluded 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";[24] on the subject of the PSP version, Navarro added that the handheld version's loading times were "painful".[25] Greg Ford and Kathleen Sanders of Electronic Gaming Monthly both dismissed the game as being for younger players and criticized the repetitive cycle of clearing the worlds and tracks, although Ford acknowledged that the disparate gameplay elements were inoffensively competent.[20] Hector Guzman of GameSpy found the clashing mechanic to be amusing and entertaining, but derided the platforming camera for its "horrific clumsiness".[26] Justin Speer of G4 felt that while the platforming and racing elements were decent, the game was short and shallow.[23] Karl Castaneda of Nintendo World Report condemned the bland races, lack of variety in weapons and vehicles, and the presence of fetch-quests in a racing game, though he considered the stunt mode to be entertaining.[28] The low difficulty was criticized,[21][26][29] and the absence of online multiplayer play was lamented.[23][26][29]

Critics positively summarized the game's graphics as cartoonish, colorful and well-animated, albeit less than impressive.[24][27][29] Fisher, while voicing this sentiment, noted that "the overall look is only hampered by occasional bits of slowdown, and some lacking level design".[29] Charles Onyett of IGN and Ellie Gibson of Eurogamer noted the high degree of detail and extra moving parts in the game's level design, though Gibson noticed that some areas were dimly lit, and Onyett criticized the lower graphical quality of the Die-O-Rama cutscenes compared to the regular gameplay.[21][27] Navarro appraised the explosive car destruction as "one of the great joys of the game", although he noted some frame-rate drop in the Gamecube version.[24] Guzman commended the cutscenes as "admirably animated", but described the general visuals as "garish".[26] 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".[28]

The audio was largely dismissed as unremarkable and forgettable,[24][27][28][29] with the exception of Gibson, who praised the sound effects and music as "great" and "excellent".[21] However, the voice-acting was more positively received. Navarro commended the comedic quality of the voice-acting in spite of its occasional obnoxiousness, and singled out the henchmen and "woefully underutilized" chicken commentators as "great fun".[24] 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".[28] Guzman described the character banter as "rich, colorful, and amusing".[26] Fisher felt that the voice work was merely decent,[29] while Onyett found some of the character voices, particularly that of Pasadena O'Possum, to be annoying.[27]

• Crash Tag Team Racing at MobyGames