02/09/2006>> Crash Tag Team Racing (PlayStation 2)
Genre: Racing
I'm sure we've all thought of it at one time or another: "What about a shooter and a racer put together!" While Mario Kart: Double Dash tried its hand at this interesting idea, it left a bit to be desired. Crash Tag Team Racing takes the idea a bit further, where by combining two cars you get one vehicle with a powerful turret mounted on it. At this point you can either be the driver or the gunner and work as a team to better your chances at winning. Sounds like fun, yeah? It is... but the game is also full of unbalanced gameplay mechanics, weird decisions and just generally a feeling of being a game not quite complete.
You'll first notice that there is a definite single and multiplayer choice at the main menu. The two modes are very separate of each other; you even have to unlock everything in the two modes individually. So if you unlock a track in single player mode you would still have to purchase it with coins earned in multiplayer mode. An odd decision, but one advantage of it is you don't have to take a step in to single player mode unless you really want to. This is good, because the single player mode is largely a disappointment. It does a very good job of mimicking the music and atmosphere of an amusement park and gives a rich world to explore... but is marred by the fact that 3/4 of your time in the park will be spent running around on foot. That's right, on foot. In a game with "racing" in it's title. What's worse, the on-foot gameplay at one point seemed to be only a minor part of the game during development, because in the game it is very primitive. There is only one enemy type, your death animation always consists of the screen turning black and Crash falling over dead, plat-forming segments are awkward, and the camera just likes to be a pain in the ass most of the time.
Single player offers a number of hilarious characters and sub-characters (but also a near equal number of stinkers) but this doesn't offset the horrible flaw mentioned above. Not to mention the story just sort of ends, there are no boss battles or story related challenges in the entire game (a damn shame), and your only concern is earning the easily collected power crystals. And when you consider how very few rewards there are to earn in the story, one lame costume for Crash, another battle arena and weapon upgrades for all of the characters, all of which can't even be used in multiplayer, you might altogether decide not to play single player.
So then you can play multiplayer, which is a decent amount of fun that can be played for a while. And play for a while you'll have to if you want to unlock everything. Multiplayer starts out with two cars and three tracks unlocked, to earn the rest you have to gain coins by winning on these tracks over and over. There is also the battle arena and stunt course to earn coins, though these games seem like last-minute additions and are extremely barebones.
Multiplayer mode was (obviously) intended for 2-8 people to play, though you can play by yourself if you would like. This isn't suggested though; playing co-op with a friend is obviously where the most fun is to be had. Races aren't difficult by any stretch of the imagination; they focus more on the fun of the gunner and driver working together. Of course, first you have to clash two cars before you can enjoy the tag team qualities. It's as simple as pushing triangle and driving near the car you want to connect with, at which point you are thrown in to the gunner's seat but can switch to drive if you really want. The gunner has access to both his weapon and the other driver's weapon with a limited amount of ammo, but if you run out (which will take a couple of laps) you can simply unclash and clash again right away, the system seems very broken.
Both the driver and the gunner are interested in raising their boost meter so they can use a boost to propel them past the enemies. Gunners raise the boost meter by shooting down enemies and targets, drivers raise it by powersliding. The gunners do the vast majority of the boost rising here, which presents some problems. First of all, going solo will pretty much screw you. Not only do you have about 1/10 the offensive capabilities of two clashed cars, but you also don't have nearly the number of opportunities to gain boosts as they do, leaving you with only a minor speed advantage. The driver's contribution to the boost meter through power sliding is almost negligent too, meaning his only real job is to steer them through the rarely challenging courses. When you add in the fact that scores in Grand Prix's are partially determined by number of KOs (which the gunner will rack up at an insane pace and drivers will likely get none), you'll probably need to work out some sort of plan as to when driver and gunner switch places if you are clashed with a friend.
Besides your turret, there are also power-ups to pick up on the track. But honestly, they only further unbalance the gameplay. There are only four basic types of power-ups, as well as one very rare one that I don't believe I have even seen yet. One of these power-ups is a heat-seeking chicken that will hit the lead car. It can be shot down if you are lucky, but usually it will hit you and take off a huge chunk of health. The problem is that with only a few power-ups even available, it comes up continuously, so much that you can basically never pull ahead of the pack for more than twenty seconds as you are constantly being shot down.
Even worse is that clashed cars get even more of a bonus here, as both the driver and gunner get a power-up if the driver drives over one. The gunner's power-ups are all ridiculously powerful, he will either get a missile that can be locked on to an enemy from very far away and kill them in one hit, or he can get a variety of large objects that can be thrown at a car, virtually a guaranteed KO and often will net you two, three, even four KOs without even trying. How the developers could make these power-ups, when it would be far more balanced to only allow single cars to pick up power-ups, is beyond me.
Crash Tag Team Racing is very rough around the edges, and it may seem odd it scored a 7 when all I did was pick out its many flaws. It's a fairly new concept however, so I granted it some leeway. CTTR is still a very fun game with tons of replayability if you have friends willing to play. Allying with friends and then deciding when to double cross them so you can cross the finish line to claim victory makes for a great game and adds a new layer of depth, if it wasn't for so many broken aspects of the game. Hopefully we get a sequel that improves on everything introduced this game, but until then CTTR is an innovative title to have in your collection and a fine two player OR party experience.
Game Score
7.9
Reviewed By: Contributed
