Crash Boom Bang!

Party games featuring characters from already-established series became a popular way, in the mid-2000s, to offer fans a different kind of fun than the main entries while also reaching casual players who wouldn't pick up a classic action platformer. Crash Bandicoot responded to this trend with a title that steered the series away from platforming toward a board-game format full of minigames, the kind popularized mainly by Japanese franchises of this type on the Nintendo DS with its two screens, stylus, and built-in microphone.

Crash Boom Bang! puts players and their friends on a virtual game board, where characters advance based on dice rolls, gather resources, and occasionally face off in short minigames that use the Nintendo DS's touch screen and microphone. Crash and Cortex are joined by a whole cast of other series characters, each with their own abilities affecting progress on the board and the outcomes of individual minigames. Compared to the classic entries, this is a completely different kind of gameplay – instead of jumping and collecting fruit through linear levels, it offers short, quickly understood challenges meant more for playing in shorter bursts or with several people around one console, which makes it a markedly different experience from the rest of the series and from its platforming roots. This shift in genre, from action platformer to turn-based party game, is the most striking change in the entire history of a title bearing Crash's name on the box, and the handheld's dual screens let it display both the game board and the minigames in a way that a single home-console screen couldn't manage with the same clarity for every player at the table.

Why play: Crash Boom Bang! is a good choice for fans of the series who want lighthearted party fun with Crash's characters instead of platforming action, ideally with other players taking turns at one console.

Why play: For Crash fans who want lighthearted party fun instead of platforming action, ideally with other players around one console, Crash Boom Bang! is a pleasant change of pace for the series.