Average
A mishmash and messy hybrid of game genres all leering at you through super-cute, overly saturated game environments first popularized by Moto Toon GP back in the mid '90s, Crash Tag Team Racing attempts to throw every pre-teen kid's fantasy game elements into the mix, with almost satisfying results. While (and slightly ironically) anyone over the age of 10 -- the game's intended demographic according to the ESRB rating -- should have outgrown the limited depth each facet of the game brings, anyone younger is likely to be mesmerized for days. The racing aspect of Crash Tag Team Racing is only half the story, though; this is just as much a platforming romp, through your usual assortment of colorful and clichéd amusement park worlds.
Through some admirably animated cutscenes, two announcer chickens with sport-caster dialog (and a sight gag your nephew will find hilarious) introduce you to an instantly forgettable plot involving lost crystals, kart racing, and Crash's previous adversaries all banding together in a "kerazy" theme park run by a bulbous Teutonic head-on-legs named Von Clutch. This German-accented maniac imprisons Crash, and it's his job to retrieve these crystals while collecting enough coinage to enter races, purchase T-shirts, unlock vehicles, and interact with the denizens of the park. This is all initially confusing, as the game name mentioned "racing" on the box. Instead, you start as Crash, leaping around the main hub of a garish amusement park hued in various shades of garish primary colors not knowing what the hell you're supposed to be doing.
A Double Dash of Innovation
The controls are tight, the double-jumping (and triple-jumping) techniques ripped from the repertoire of a certain Italian plumber are all present and accounted for, including a belly bounce. You still need the depth-perception of a hawk to avoid landing slightly short or long when aiming at floating platforms, but your main tasks involve entering one of the five large "themed" areas, smashing boxes, chatting to locals, smashing more boxes, climbing various obstacles, smashing yet more boxes, and finally locating doors to different racing tracks.
Fans of previous Crash games know the platforming controls are almost always exact, and it is only the horrific clumsiness of the camera, in all its plummet-inducing glory, that leaves you wailing for bandicoot blood. Although controllable, the camera frequently decides it can't show you a head-on perspective, or maneuvers out of the way at inappropriate moments. This was fine in 1997 when the only previous 3D platformers we'd had was the atrocious Bubsy the Bobcat 3D to compare, but eight years later, it's really time to get 3D cameras right.
