Burnout Crash!

Burnout Crash! is a lighthearted spin-off of Criterion Games' Burnout series that, instead of classic racing, offers a top-down view of intersections and town squares where the goal is to cause as much traffic chaos as possible. The player drives into traffic, chains explosions, and collects power-ups that multiply the collisions even further, competing on score against their own record and leaderboards rather than against other racers on a track like the rest of the series. The individual maps depict intersections, roundabouts, or shopping centers, and each offers several game modes focused on a different type of chain destruction, from chasing the highest total damage to collecting specific types of cars. The game thus stays true to the spirit of the bonus Crash mode from the main series entries, just wrapped in an entire standalone game.

The game originally launched in September 2011 on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network as a downloadable console title. It arrived on iOS in April 2012, roughly half a year after the console versions, and the controls had to replace the gamepad with touch input - the car is steered by tilting the device or dragging a finger, and special abilities are activated by tapping icons instead of pressing buttons. The shorter, single-sitting levels also suit the way a phone is typically used for gaming in brief breaks, and the clearer top-down view works better on a smaller display than the classic in-cockpit racing view, which would be hard to read on a phone. The mobile release also targeted casual players who wouldn't buy a full racing game with a gamepad on their own, offering them a taste of the Burnout brand in a package suited to what players expect on a phone, without having to learn to control a full-fledged racing game with virtual buttons.

Why play it: The mobile version of Burnout Crash! is ideal for a spare moment - it offers the same chaining of spectacular collisions as the console version, but packaged in tilt-and-touch controls that feel more natural on a phone than a gamepad imitation.