Crash Team Rumble is an upcoming multiplayer online battle arena video game developed by Toys for Bob and published by Activision, hitting consoles on June 20. This multiplayer party game pits two teams against each other, obviously composed of Crash Bandicoot characters, as they attempt to stockpile Wumpa Fruit.
To do so, not only will players have a selection of characters to choose from, but there are roles, powers, gem pads, relic stations, and other influences to consider, all in an effort to grab that win. Game Rant recently attended a Crash Team Rumble preview event, where creative director Dan Neil and associate creative director Lou Studdert spoke to these various aspects of gameplay.
Crash Team Rumble Character List
- Crash Bandicoot
- Coco Bandicoot
- Tawna Bandicoot
- Dingodile
- Dr. Neo Cortex
- Dr. Nitrus Brio
- Dr. Nefarious Tropy
- Catbat
“Toys for Bob loves creating playable characters,” Neil said. “It's been an absolute joy kind of coming up with the move sets for these characters and different ways to play.”
Crash Team Rumble Roles
Players can then select one of three roles for their character: scorer, blocker, or booster. These roles represent the kind of activities that best suit each Crash Bandicoot character. Scorers are designed to collect wumpa, blockers are skilled at defense and blocking enemies from getting to their own bank, and boosters are suited for collecting relics to activate relic stations, as well as turning the gem pads. Neil and Studdert explained that each of the three roles are unofficially referred to as “soft roles,” due to the fact that each character—regardless of their role—can tackle other objectives in Crash Team Rumble.
“There’s nothing stopping a scorer from capturing gem pads, and there's nothing stopping a booster from collecting wumpa and banking it,” Studdert said.
Crash Team Rumble Powers, Relic Stations, and Gem Pads
After selecting a character and a role, players move on to choosing a power that can help them in combat and scoring. These go a long way in influencing the flower of the multiplayer arena gameplay. Players can choose from a variety of powers, including the Healing Fridge, the Gasmoxian Guard, and the Wumpa Stash. Neil and Studdert stated that the Healing Fridge heals characters on the players’ home team, and that destroying an enemy’s fridge is a great combat tactic to prevent opponents from healing themselves. The Gasmoxian Guard power allows players to place the powerful guard in the level to guard banks, gem pads, or relic stations. The Wumpa Stash power, once activated and full, will allow players to drop it off their team’s bank for 100 points. According to Neil and Studdert, players can equip these powers with any hero.
“When you start a match, you're choosing a hero, and you're choosing a power. It really allows you to find a unique combinatorial play style that defines you.”
Relic stations in the Crash Team Rumble game are placed throughout each map and are activated by relics, cross-shaped items that unlock different locomotion abilities. Each map has its own unique set of relic stations. For example, one relic station in the Just Beachy map of Crash Team Rumble allows players to transport inside a beach ball and gives them extra collision power to knock over enemies. Every map also has an epic relic station, which costs more relics to activate than a regular station. Although it takes a lot of team effort to gather those relics and deposit them in an epic relic station, these can have strong match-swinging effects once activated.
“One of the things that we've seen with these relic stations, especially the epic ones, is that they can absolutely turn the tide of a match. Vying over that epic relic station can sometimes what wins or loses a match.”
In the game, players will find clusters of gem pads that players must jump on to turn them their team’s color, which will boost that team's scoring potential. These gem pad clusters have a stackable boost, meaning players can capture multiple sets of gem pads in a timely manner to stack their boost percentage. According to Neil and Studdert, both epic relic stations and gem pads will be areas of “hotly contested fights” and will end up becoming “a game of tug of war” between teams.
Crash Team Rumble will launch on June 20, 2023, for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.