In 2006, publishers thought: "We don't have enough games for parties about Crash! There, look at Nintendo - they've already got Mario Party for ten grand! Look at SEGA - even they have their own Sonic Shuffle! And we only have Crash Bash, released more than five years ago! The greed for such games is understandable - it's no secret that this genre is in high demand among the casual audience. Even if you don't like games and never took d herb virtual machine in Counter Strike, in the company of a holiday or a simple Friday night you will get a lot of lively emotions from the game. Here you will get real excitement and the opportunity to fool around. And finally, from a financial point of view, it's very profitable and pays off in a matter of hours. The collection of favorite characters of childhood can attract both a children's audience and an adult who grew up on these very heroes. By all parameters, Crash Boom Bang! should not have been a bad game. But contrary to expectations, she became one. The game was released in the summer of 2006 specifically for Nintendo DS and was coldly received by the public. It was criticized for literally everything - horrific graphics, tedious minigames, endless repetitions of the same thing, and the worst, weakest attachment to the universe. As a matter of fact, if you take Kresh and his friends and boxes out of the game, no player in his life will ever guess that this game is somehow connected to a nimble bandit. And somebody was so disappointed that they put Crash Boom Bang! on the list of worst games for Nintendo DS, noting that it couldn't even handle the basic features of the console - the stylus refused to work properly. Let's take a closer look at the Dimps product (they were, by the way, creating a couple of Sonic Advance parts, as well as the Sonic Rush Dialogues).
Plot
The story tells the story of the multimillionaire Viscount, who lost his mind on the jewels and wanted to get a huge stone. Legend has it that this stone was the first to be touched. Of course, the greedy rich man comes up with a cunning plan - he arranges a championship with the main prize of one hundred million dollars and sends letters to random people. The letter gets to Coco, who equips the team to snatch the main prize.
The story is given through static images, made in the style of a comic book. This miserable spectacle kills all the dynamics. There was still some way to understand this approach in the games for GameBoy Advance - there wasn't enough technical power to produce a first-class animation, but Nintendo DS was much more powerful! You get the impression that it's either an inept stylisation or just laziness on the part of the developers. The script at Crash Boom Bang! It's clear that these games focus on the gameplay, but no story is better than this. A new character named Scout annoys his presence every second. He looks terrifying and devoid of charisma. As for the other heroes, let me be blunt, we are offered a rather strange set. From the originally available characters we can choose Kresh, Coco, Pura (who has now learned to walk on two legs) and... Pinstripe! I love Pinstripe, but what has earned him a place in the front row? As you go through, you will have access to Dr. Neo Cortex, Crunch, Fake Crush and Tavnah! Yes, the same busty chick who was Kresh's passion in the very first part! That's who I didn't expect to see here! Well, it's nice to see the heroes forgotten for a long time, of course, but this positive thing makes you sick.
Gameplay
Crash Boom Bang! is a collection of minigames of different complexity and level of interest. Gameplay problems start at the very first second of the game. The thing is, the game doesn't try to explain how it works to you - you're just put in front of the fact and thrown into the quarry. You have to throw cubes to move your hero on the virtual board. The level consists of a heap of cells that you need to walk from point A to point B. The first person to reach the finish line is considered the winner. Getting on a particular cell, you activate a certain event, whether it's a minigame or something else. Unfortunately, before you know the rules of the game, it will kill you so much that you just don't have the patience to go through it any further. Very strangely, the game is controlled. The thing is that the game is almost completely controlled by the stylus. However, the most important element of the gameplay - throwing a cube is controlled exclusively by a button. It's awfully uncomfortable and meaningless! Why couldn't you just make a game that was controlled entirely by a stylus? Or completely with buttons? Whatever, but not like now!
I think it's no secret that these games usually make a big bet on multiplayer mode. Crash Boom Bang! But you'll have to find other people who have the same game installed, and it's a big problem for a frankly bad product. It comes down to the strange. There's a type of minigame in single player mode that you don't play at all! You just look at the computer-controlled characters and bet on the winner as if he were in a race. At the same time, computer participants often hang up and you have to watch endlessly how your game is played by virtual dummies. This alone can kill all interest in Crash Boom Bang!
The minigames themselves are terribly boring and confusing. There's a level where you have to knock your opponent over the edge of the arena while in a Crash Bandicoot: the Wrath of Cortex ball. There is a level where Crash plays baseball. There's a game where you have to race Scout out of the holes in the asphalt. There are also such levels where you will sit in the robot and will have to drag and drop with its help wooden boxes from one part of the level to another, bypassing the meetings with Nitro. I'm sure you've been imagining when reading these lines a thousand times more exciting than these games in reality. In addition to the gameplay problems we have a lot of design problems. The environment is completely ill-conceived. In some levels, because of the bad camera angle, especially when four characters are involved in a minigame, we can lose sight of our hero, or watch an obscure mess of pixels on the screen. Some other levels are arranged in such a way that you do not understand where to go and what to do. The characters themselves look awfully ugly. Kreshu made not descending smile on the floor of the face, and Pura was forced to walk on his hind legs. All models look a bit angular and the developers are not even trying to hide their joints. All this could be attributed to the style, if it had been sustained. In the pros can be written down except for the competent use of two screens. Although there is a lot of intelligence is not necessary - one screen to give the game, and the other under the statistics. Only and all.
All the above arguments make the game tasteless, vulgar and even offensive to fans of the series. I wonder what Naughty Dog would have said when he saw where their animal had taken it?
Music and sound
Music in Crash Boom Bang! It's very different from everything we've heard about bandit games before. The tracks are shamelessly short and repeated every thirty seconds, getting bored on the third lap. It's scary to think that there are people in the world who approve of this outrage. However, sometimes there are really funny tracks, which perfectly harmonize with the picture. But there are very few of them, and they can't stand the comparison with any mediocre track from Sonic Rush. As for the sound, it's disgusting. All the characters are voiced by a pack of drunkards. Background noises will make you see nightmares and wake up in cold sweat every day. There is absolutely no excuse for that.
Afterword
Crash Boom Bang! - Amazingly weak game. It would have been possible to write off some of its claims if it had been the responsibility of the newcomers, but Dimps had taken responsibility for the development and had released more than twenty games by then. Looking at the game, it looks like it was made in a week, and the budget was three sausages. The ridiculous story, thoughtless design, primitive sound and boring minigames make Crash Boom Bang! Tavna's appearance could be considered a pleasant moment, but its angular design kills all the positive spirit at the root. Well, there's nothing more to praise about the Dimps craft than that. This game can only be recommended to blind and deaf people who like to poke the stylus where they go. For people with eyes and ears Crash Boom Bang! Can a marsupial jaw fall even lower? The question remains open.