In 1999, we saw Sony’s so-called mascot, Crash Bandicoot, stir up a revolution in the fantasy kart games by following the steps of Mario Kart but taking it up to eleven, with far more aggressive controls and power-ups. The game was a huge success that spawned sequels, but of course it also paved the way for more parties that could be crashed (pun not intended in any case).

For a few years, Nintendo had been releasing their Mario Party games for N64 that also set a trend for the next generations. In addition, the first installment of the then-new Smash Bros. franchise had also been released. It was decided then (just my theory, but I doubt you can prove me wrong) that Crash would declare war on these franchises by mixing them up in a game of their own, just like it had done with Crash Team Racing.

While it was the first game not to be developed by Naughty Dog, the guys at Eurocom did a good job in creating this mashup rumble. Named Crash Bandicoot Carnival in the Japanese market, a much better fitting name given what this game truly is but Bash fits better the aggressiveness of the franchise, we can select between eight characters and rumble it out in different scenarios, different rules and of course, facing against bosses in the eternal fight between good and evil present in the Crash Bandicoot games (with its own particular twist, obviously). The game’s nothing deep, as you can see, but it definitely packs a punch for some awesome time.
What you’re about to discover in this guide is an essential breakdown of the game in order to learn and master its secrets. You’ll find nothing of the story mode in here, so battling the bosses and clearing the challenges is a journey you’ll have to do alone (and I don’t think it’s dangerous to go alone, so you’ll be taking nothing with you xD).

BASICS OF THE GAME

The game features eight characters to choose from, four on each side (good or evil). There are also “types” of characters based on their performance, with two characters in each group. It is clear in certain levels that these groups exist because characters behave very differently, but in others these differences are minimal. Not sure why it was made this way, but whatever, this is the reality and we can’t modify it.

The types are as follows: Crash and Coco are the All-Rounders, Cortex and Brio are the Technicals, Tiny and Kong are the Powerhouses, Rilla Roo and Dingodile are the Stranges. The names are purely made up and won’t be used, not sure if there were ever any official ones but that’s it. Worth mentioning how Crash and Coco both belong to the good side while Cortex and Brio both belong to the evil side (I’d say more as to why Tiny and Dingodile are on the good side, but that would spoil the beginning of the story mode), meaning character types are not perfectly balanced between sides. Again, not sure why they created such unbalance in a game that focuses precisely on balance.

We have seven different scenarios, and each one has four levels. Each scenario has its own set of rules, starting with a very standard level that serves as the initial step and each further level is an advancement or a twist from the ones seen before. Technically speaking each level should be harder than the one before, but that’s not always the case. Also, only in the seventh scenario, each level is completely different from one another and have nothing in common between them, so be ready for an explosion of randomness.

Basically, that’s everything I needed to say. From here on will come a brief explanation of each scenario, the character types’ performance and then a short explanation of the changes applied to each level beyond the standard one. Of course, the seventh scenario will follow an entirely different configuration, with the scenario explained briefly and then each level will have its own explanation and detailing character types’ performance in them.

WE’RE DONE? THEN LET THE BASH BEGIN

CRATE CRUSH

If we were to ask 100 people what would the standard Crash Bandicoot level be in a game like this, 99 of them would give an answer that mostly defines Crate Crush (the remaining one hasn’t played Crash Bandicoot at all it seems). An enclosed, small, squared arena where we will need to defeat the remaining players.

The arena is filled with crates, which can be picked up and later thrown to inflict damage. The same crates can be pushed away with another command, which is a quicker way to clear the way and also surprise enemy players all the while inflicting the same damage as throwing it. This push can also be used to attack other players directly and stun them on the spot. Whenever a player takes damage, they will be invulnerable for a few seconds (though two consecutive hits are possible in certain circumstances).

Each character has a green health bar at the top of the screen, which will go down after each hit and recover as the player collects the Wumpa fruits scattered through the level. There’s obviously a time limit of 90 seconds so gameplay doesn’t extend too much, if said time runs out the player with the higher health will be declared the winner.

General controls:
-Control Stick: move character
-Circle : grab crate, press again to throw
-Square : push away
-Triangle: mock
-X : jump

Character Performance:
Crash & Coco: agile to move around and very good push away move, but they have low strength and reach
Cortex & Brio: standard in almost all areas, but they have a great reach here
Tiny & Kong: very powerful and with massive reach, but of course not very agile
Dingo & Roo: no real strength, they have the shortest reach and the lowest agility

Jungle Crush

Standard level is set, as the name implies, in a jungle (a recurring them in the series too). Besides the basic controls explained before, all you need to know here is the types of crates you can find. Regular crates, colored gray and apparently made of stone, are the most common and less damaging, while red TNT crates deal a lot more damage but will explode 3 seconds after contact (either by picking it up or pushing it away). The green Nitro crates explode upon contact, so they can’t be interacted with, and deal the same damage as TNTs, both these crates also have a habit of exploding without warning when another crate hits nearby or if they’ve been around for too long.

Space Bash

Located atop a skyscraper on a futuristic city, this level presents the first plot twist. When TNT or Nitro crates explode, they also destroy the floor!

Here you’ll start using the jump, as you’ll have to maneuver through more and more holes in the stage as the game goes by. Needless to say that falling off the stage is instant death, so it may be a good idea to push an enemy through a hole in the floor. As you’ll see, due to this stage’s particularity, there are a lot more TNT and Nitro crates than in other levels to enforce destroying the stage.

This stage also presents us exclusive power-ups that we’ll use more frequently in later scenarios: the Boots allow your character to move much faster, the Z does the opposite and slows you down heavily, and obviously the Aku Aku Mask gives you immunity, all three for a limited period of time. Also, there’s the Weight which will trigger an audible countdown and upon ending, the character possessing it will be crushed and eliminated, so be sure to make contact with another player and pass it on before it’s too late!

Snow Bash

Set in a snowy forest, the first thing to note about this level is its icy surface, which means your character will have trouble stopping or changing directions. Nitro crates are better at a safe distance in this stage xD

The second thing to note about this stage is the giant penguin sleeping right in the middle of the arena. It won’t wake up unless you throw a crate directly into it or slap it with your push away command. If it does wake up, it will spin out of control in an ellipsis, gradually covering the entire arena before reversing the maneuver and returning to its initial spot. Being slapped by it takes a good chunk of health, and of course it will push away any crate it comes across (as well as eliminate Wumpa fruits!) and explode Nitro crates upon contact without flinching. Be extremely wary of its movement and try to stay away from harm as much as you can, though CPU-controlled players have a tendency to wake it up almost constantly because chaos.

All power-ups introduced in Space Bash make a return here, and with the slippery surface some of them are an absolute pain to deal with. These power-ups will also vanish if the spinning penguin passes over them, so sometimes it’s a good riddance.

Drain Bash

This arena looks dangerous from the get go, located in some kind of sewer attached or close to a nuclear factory of sorts. Even the music sounds nasty, and it does fit this level because of its unique twist: four purple crates appearing in sets at random times.

Three of those purple crates have a Wumpa inside, but the fourth one is the real thing. It has an exclusive power-up that is different each time, apparently cycling through one another repeatedly, which you can use with the Square button upon being obtained. The Sonic Ring gives you a permanent magnetic field repelling all objects and players for a brief while when used, the Missile shoots projectiles in eight directions at once for severe damage upon impact (two shots available) and the Homing Energy Orb can fire up to three orbs that home in on the closest player and deal devastating damage.

That’s basically the big change of this level, though thanks to this matches tend to be much quicker as life is depleted faster. Standard crates are recolored here to look more like boxes from a loading dock, and Nitro crates are absent to not cause more chaos. Two more things about the power-ups: when obtained, all other purple crates disappear because the trick has been revealed, also if a character is hit before using the power-up or all its shots they will lose access to said power-up.

POLAR PUSH

We leave the squared arenas to enter circular ice rinks for a slight change in game dynamics. We need to once again be the last player standing, but instead of eliminating others through a direct battle with a life bar now we “simply” need to throw them off the arena into the ice cold water. To help us with that, specially when it comes to traction, we will ride aboard polar bear cubs. Call this a free-for-all weaponless polar joust xD

The icy arena will of course have slightly compromised grip, so be careful with skidding too much. If you get too close to the edge, your character will start losing its balance and if they’re too clumsy they will be harder to save from the inevitable fall. Of course, if you’re pushed too hard you will directly fall down, with no chance of salvation.

Characters have a green bar below their icons to showcase their stamina, so to speak. Performing a push lowers this bar more or less, giving you a hint of how often can a character use it and thus creating further openings in which they’re vulnerable to being pushed. If despite all of this more than one player is still standing after the 90 seconds time limit expires, the match will end in a tie (there’s no way of tie-breaking here, after all).

Oh, and before I forget, each level has a satellite of sorts hovering over the arena in a very errant trajectory. Every now and then it will emit a characteristic sound and flash a pink light beneath it for a while, with the first player passing through it being given a power-up. These power-ups aren’t always beneficial for the one passing under the light, so it’s a gamble whether or not you’ll get to use it to your advantage or if it will leave you even more wide open to attacks.

General Controls:
-Control Stick: move character
-Square : perform push
-Square: when falling off the edge, press repeatedly for safety.

Character Performance:
Crash & Coco: require low stamina for push, have great agility and they’re not clumsy, but they lack power to push opponents
Cortex & Brio: good push in a big leap (can be controlled mid-air), though they use up all stamina in a single push, average agility and not very clumsy
Tiny & Kong: Greatest and longest push, but consumes like 75% of the stamina and it’s hard to control, also they’re still very slow and clumsy
Dingo & Roo: Very similar to Crash and Coco, but require more stamina for their push, they aren’t as agile and they are much more clumsy

Polar Panic

The standard level is set close to either pole of the earth, under a night sky which also has an aurora. Since it’s the starting level the arena has a thin ice wall on the outside, the blocks can be removed by pushing opponents towards it and create openings to throw them off the arena effectively, but be careful not to eliminate yourself by charging recklessly or being thrown out by a lucky opponent. The errant satellite flashes a beam quite often with only four possible effects: enlarging your character for several seconds, shrinking your character for the same amount of time, award the Weight we saw in previous levels (after a countdown whoever has it will be crushed and eliminated, it can be passed on through direct contact) or award the Lightning (same as the Weight but this time lightning strikes all other players and leaves them paralyzed for several seconds, unable to defend at all).

Tilt Panic

We start with the first gimmick. Under a morning sky in an area surrounded by a few icebergs stands this odd-shaped arena. This shape is intended; it’s unstable. It will constantly tilt as the weight of the players shifts as they move. Moreover, this arena has no outside wall so getting close to the edges is far more dangerous now. The satellite has its functions intact despite turning the beam clear-colored for the morning ambient, but there’s an added bonus: every now and then, a fish will jump out of the water and into the arena, and seconds after it a walrus will come out to capture it, thus shifting the balance of the arena very heavily. Be careful not to be distracted or caught off guard by its presence, or you will join it in the freezing water below!

Melt Panic

This level truly took the gimmick to a higher meaning. In an arena now enclosed by walls of ice and with no outside barrier whatsoever, players battle it out trying to be the last one standing. But that’s gonna be much harder than you think, because the satellite of previous levels has been replaced by Uka Uka, and as you might know he’s always up to no good. At first, he will aim for the edge of the arena and shoot its beam to shrink it significantly, once that is done he will try to lure characters into his beam so as to obtain goodies like in previous levels. However, his beam NEVER provides a positive power-up and touching it will deploy any kind of hazard onto the player: they’re either turned into a defenseless snowball, frozen solid on the spot, or the already known negative boosts of being shrunken to pocket size and the ever-present Weight. Kind of difficult to stay out of harm for several rounds given the shrinking arena and the dangerous beam, so endure it the best way you can.

Manic Panic

Missing Crate Crush? Look no further! Well, actually, do look further because there’s no crates here, even though there’s more interaction than previously. An arena (bigger than in previous levels, apparently) within an icy area with no outside wall and the usual satellite is back, again with its functions intact. The gimmick this time is that a special item will appear every so often around the stage: bombs. By passing over one, you can then press Circle to launch a bomb forward, and if you hit another player they’ll lose their cub and spend the rest of the round skidding on foot. This not only diminishes their ability to push, they also can’t fight to re-enter the arena when losing balance. And of course, a second hit by a bomb means said player will be sent flying and eliminated. Even though they can still benefit from the power-ups of the satellite, staying on foot is almost certain loss.

POGO PANDEMONIUM

We’re back into the square arenas to play something entirely different, and for the first time absolutely equal. The 90 seconds timer now isn’t to decide an outright winner as the last character standing, for the first time we’re not eliminating any players and just have a healthy competition to be the best.

In these levels, which as you can see have a grid of squares in the arena, each player has a color (yellow, red, green or blue) and must hop around the level to paint the tiles as their color before reaching one of the many purple ! crates that will constantly appear through the grid, which will then add the number of painted tiles to the player’s score at the cost of cleaning up the player’s path and thus needing to start all over again. As you can see, it’s gonna be a frantic race to gain points quickly.

Pay close attention to your path, because an opponent passing right behind you will “steal” the tile and paint it their color, thus lowering the score you can potentially get. I don’t see this as a good lasting strategy if playing solo because tracking three opponents is impossible, but maybe if playing on a team or co-op it can be a desperate strategy to lock the win. Still, I recommend racing for those crates and try to outscore everybody else.

All levels here, besides the usual gimmicks introduced in each level to spice things up a bit, have power-ups available. They stay relatively stable throughout all four levels, just changing very slightly and including exclusive ones for specific levels. Contrary to what we saw in Melt Panic, all power-ups here are positive, either for being offensive or for giving the character an edge.

I said at the start that we’d have an absolutely equal competition here. And that’s because all characters behave the same here, there’s literally no difference in speed or reflexes. The only difference is aesthetic: Crash and Coco use a pogo stick (only ones to play legally xD), Cortex and Brio use a jetpack, Tiny and Kong use springs attached to their soles, Rilla Roo and Dingodile use… I think it’s a regular pogo stick but stylized as Dingodile’s flamethrower, otherwise I don’t understand the heavy industry look it has.

General Controls:
-Control Stick: move character
-Square : use power-up

Pogo Painter

Starting level, and again the starting environment is the jungle. Each player starts on one corner, with the power-ups and crates scattering through the level even right before starting. The power-ups are the Missile (shoots straight into whatever direction the character faces OR the direction you tilt the Control Stick towards, leaving the character stunned for a few seconds and making them lose their power-ups) and the Boots making their return to speed up your character heavily and gain an edge over the rest of participants. The only other “power-up” is the Arrow, which spins in the ground on a specific tile and when stepped on it will automatically color all tiles in the direction it is facing right before being activated, and sometimes this massive boost in your score can mean the difference between winning or losing.

Pogo-a-Gogo

We start with the gimmicks as we move into a construction site. We actually get a few gimmicks here, starting with the form of scoring points which drops altogether the purple ! crates and the introduction of more power-ups.

First of all, the scoring system. This time around, characters need to create an enclosed square of tiles of their color and they’ll get points based on the number of tiles it comprises PLUS all other tiles of their color scattered through the level. For example, creating a 4x4 square will automatically give you 16 points because that’s the number of tiles it comprises. It can sometimes be hard to create the enclosing wall because opponents only need to steal one tile for you to disable your attempt at scoring. There’s a way around that: the outside walls of the arena do serve as areas of each player’s color, so they can be used to cover one of the sides. The walls will shift colors every now and then, so you’ll have to move along the arena with them if you want to exploit this advantage.

The second part comes with the power-ups. The Boots are the only one to receive no change in its effects, whereas the Arrow can now be either one or two-sided for a bigger effect, and the Missile is now four-way meaning it shoots upwards, downwards and to either side all at once for devastating effects. A new power-up steps in, called the Electro Beam (shoots an electric discharge towards the direction the character is facing to shock an opponent and leave them standing for a few seconds, but this discharge actually passes through opponents so you can shock more than one in a single use!)

El Pogo Loco

We now move into the open desert and go essentially back to basics, as the game returns to its roots with just a few minor tweaks. However, things get spiced up when a special guest joins the fray, ready to unleash chaos on the arena any second.

As in the standard level, we score points by coloring the tiles we pass by and then breaking the purple crates to clear the path and convert it into points. An added gimmick from the last level is that creating an enclosed area with your color automatically converts the center tiles in your color too, thus expanding the amount of points you can get. Power-ups go back to standard, with the missile being one-way only and the traditional speedy boots.

Our special guest, as you can see on the upper side when starting the game, is Ripper Roo. It will hop around the arena in a counter-clockwise direction, and eventually will let out a maniac burst of laughter indicating it’s up to something. It may simply be a switch of direction, but in most cases, it steps onto the playing area and converts any tile it steps over into TNT crates, which after a short countdown stun any player in the adjacent tiles to it (also diagonally!). On occasion, it may turn one into a four-way Arrow tile and if you step on it you’ll gain a massive number of tiles. Nearing the end of the match, it can also step into the arena and start shooting missiles in several directions to cause even more chaos. And of course, like happens with any mad character, sometimes it may simply cut through the arena without doing nothing, just passing by at blinding speed.

Pogo Padlock

Things get complicated in this garage. It is now possible to lose your progress, though not points, so you’ll have to be extra careful here. Beyond the introduced gimmicks exclusive to this stage, gameplay is essentially standard only with one of the power-ups missing.

The first thing you need to learn about this level is watch your step. If you step on a tile you’ve already colored, your progress will be deleted and you’ll need to start over again (the dramatic sound added when any player does this is a good reference). Therefore, try to simply go in a single direction all the time if you want to score big. It can also be good to pursue as many purple crates as possible so as to get rid of the chance of losing your progress.

You also need to watch out for the one-way missiles. Being hit by one means all your tiles will change color to that of your attacker, which in a sense is helpful to boost your score but it also hampers your maneuverability as its harder not to land on one of your own tiles. Here it may be useful the trick of shooting a missile in a direction you’re not facing so as to not step into a tile it now belongs to you if you were following the attacked player.

One last gimmick, which gives the level its name, is the Padlock. It will spawn and then slowly move through the arena, and when caught the player blocks their tiles. This means nobody can claim them by stepping on them or firing a missile, nor will the player lose its progress by stepping again on them. Blocked tiles appear of a much more solid color, as well as coloring the entire square, so it’s easy to see when it’s being applied. But be careful, the effects last just a few seconds.

All these gimmicks mean that the Arrow is now more harmful than beneficial, so it was removed for this level. The speedy boots remain, though the extra speed here may also pose a risk due to being limited to stepping on tiles not of your color. The remaining power-ups are the already explained missiles and padlocks.

BALLISTIX

We move into something entirely different now, a combination of goalkeeping with air hockey and floating machines. For the first and only time, there will be no time limit on these levels, but trust me when I say the matches won’t drag on for much longer than usual because developers had already thought of it.

Each character is lined up in one of the sides of the square arena, guarding it from the myriad of round and heavy balls that will bombard them. To do such task, they pilot an UFO-shaped open-top machine to block their path and rebound them off towards another player’s goal. At first there will only be a few balls going around, but as the match progresses their number and starting speed will also increase so in the end this will be absolute mayhem.

Besides hitting balls directly with the movement of your machine, which can be increased for faster travelling as well as hitting speed, characters have a power pulse available. This is a short pulse that propels all nearby balls around the machine to much higher speeds than simply hitting them, allowing you to hit balls at a short distance and with unexpected speed. But be careful with overusing it, because if the pulse fails to hit any ball you’ll render it unusable for a few seconds!

Each player starts with a score specific for each level. Every time they let a ball pass through their goal, the score lowers by 1, and when it reaches zero the character is eliminated. When this happens, an electric field will cover the goal so all balls will be deflected back into the playing area instead of just gone missing, creating further chaos. The last player standing will be declared the victor.

Pay attention to either the score of the character right in front of you or the sound effect played when any player receives a goal, which is unique for each side of the square. It is very easy to dispatch the opponent right in front, which will create an electric field early on that will complicate things a lot, so first try to deal with the ones at your sides if possible. It’s much harder said than done, though in one level it’s far easier, but trust me that you don’t want one or two electric fields bouncing off balls back at you when dealing with the characters right to your side.

General Controls:
-Control Stick: move ship (left/right for the top and bottom characters, up/down for the ones on the sides)
-L/R: hold for faster movement in the direction you move the Control Stick
-Square: push away
-Triangle: mock

Character Performance:
Crash & Coco: agile, but lack a bit of energy
Cortex & Brio: a bit less agile, but don’t lack energy
Tiny & Kong: even less agile, but have lots of energy to make up for it
Dingo & Roo: slightly less agile than Cortex and Brio and lack energy

Crashball

As always, we start out with a standard level. Each player defends a goal at each side of the screen with a score of 15, with balls only coming out of the pipes (almost resemble cannons embedded into the columns) at each corner, which can be somewhat foreseen with the arrows that flash green on the ground when a ball is to be thrown into the arena. No time limit, just throw the balls into your rivals’ goals and be the last one standing.

At first just a single ball will appear, and will travel quite slowly. As the game progresses, more and more balls come out and at a faster speed. Plus, despite only coming out of four specific points, don’t think for a second they all enter the field in the same trajectory, they can vary a bit from going totally straight to some 30 degrees to either side. So yeah, we start feeling the absolute chaos the next levels can be.

Beach Ball

Not sure why they named this level Beach since we’re like deep in the ocean floor, but whatever. The first obvious difference is in the score, as now players can only be scored 12 goals before being eliminated. This means the game will be a bit faster, but by this point you should know that it also means way crazier, even more when the rest of differences kick in.

Balls come out from each corner too, but beyond the aesthetic differences we have no arrows preceding the ball launch so we’ll have to pay more attention to the arena. Balls are much darker and heavier than in the previous level, and for a reason: they’re now metallic and as such can be attracted and propelled by magnetism, which is the major gimmick in this level. But before expanding into that, balls are much slower in this level probably due to their increased weight, so things will start out slightly calmer before going bonkers.

So, the magnetism. Each player’s ship is equipped with a powerful magnet. By pressing and holding X the magnet will activate and any ball coming into contact with the front of your ship will remain attached to it. If you release the button, the balls are expelled at blazing speeds, much higher than the standard kick we’ve already seen (which by the way is present here, but of course almost completely overridden by this new and more powerful feature). But be careful, because you can only keep the magnet active for 6 seconds, after which it will deactivate on its own and release the balls extremely slowly into the arena. Pay attention to the zone the balls get attached to, you can attempt to attach them to the sides so to better aim towards the characters not in front of you.

N. Ballism

We move into a lab, obviously property of a specific character that many have probably missed as being playable but will get his revenge here, take that for granted. This level will be the most bonkers of all, and to prove it here’s a tip: the players’ scores start with 20, higher than ever before. No new mechanic is introduced or modified here, so overall the game is pretty much standard, but we do have two unique quirks on display.

You’ve seen the laser weapons on the pillars of the arena, below the pipes that drop the balls. From time to time, one of them will activate and produce a force field, which can then be grabbed by any of the two players that can get close to that pillar. When the force field is active it shows as a red field in front of your ship, quickly deflecting any incoming balls and so making you nigh impenetrable (the field doesn’t have lateral coverage so you’ll have a weak point there). The force field is up for grabs for a few seconds, and remains active for some 8 seconds for the player lucky and/or fast enough to nab it.

The second quirk is the sporadic appearance of another guest character, no other than the “owner” of the arena: N. Gin. He will spawn in the exact center of the arena and will start spinning around, gaining speed for a brief while. When at full speed, it will start shooting balls in several directions (one at a time), creating massive chaos as the arena is bombarded with more, faster balls. Gin himself is an obstacle while he stays there, meaning it’s even harder to divert incoming balls. After throwing 8-10 balls, he vanishes just the way he appeared, but don’t relax too much because he’ll be back for more soon.

Sky Balls

Last level and we go back to playing fair and square. We’re now on a floating platform, high above some random plot of land, in a round platform that is kept in place via four turbines which function as the pillars of previous levels. Something or someone even higher than us drops the balls onto the arena, much faster than in previous levels, and we keep the 20 points score from the last level.

Besides the fact that the platform is now round, the movement is altered somewhat both for ships (the goal is not straight but rather an arc) and for balls, because of the instability of the platform creating small drifting. On top of this, in some instances one of the turbines will temporarily fail, tilting the arena massively towards its corner and putting two players in a pinch, further altering the trajectory of the balls.

A pretty standard level overall, but the quirks of the arena itself means you rely entirely on your ability to prevail just like in the first level but with a greater amount of chaos because of the tilting platform and increased speeds.

TANK WARS

My least favorite game by far, if anybody asked my opinion. The movement is extremely sluggish (even Ballistix felt smooth despite its limitations) and the arenas are very limiting, though this last issue gets corrected in higher levels. Overall, the limitations these levels have compared to the rest of games make this one the tough pill to swallow if you want to complete the game.

The motto of these levels is that players are now in command of a tank, and must maneuver around the arena firing at the other characters to deplete their health bars like in Crate Crush within a 90 second time limit. Each character has a different weapon at their disposal with its unique properties, and I’d be in to say this is the game where character performance is most different between each other. Picking one or another could be a game changer, so you better try them all and see which one suits you better.

The arenas are all squared, like usual, and characters start in each corner. Due to the characteristics of these levels, not moving from the get go ensures being hit very early so you better get your tank going somewhere. The tank can rotate its turret independently of its movement, allowing you to fire in any direction while moving around. There are also secondary weapons at your disposal, which are either available from the start or can be collected via crates dropped by aerial support (yep, the military theme is strong here). These secondary weapons will be shown under your character’s picture on the top of screen, right below the returning health bar. Oh, and speaking of things that can spawn, Wumpa Fruits also make a return here with the same function of recovering a fraction of health to withstand the war.

General Controls:
-Control Stick: move tank
-L/R: rotate turret
-Circle : drop mine
-Square : fire main weapon

Character Performance:
Crash & Coco: average agility. They shoot a fire ball, which is mostly average in all aspects except in speed because it’s quite slow
Cortex & Brio: average as well. They shoot a laser bolt, which is very quick to pull out and travel but it’s not very damaging
Tiny & Kong: very slow to move around. They shoot a spiked bomb, which travels slowly but deals devastating damage.
Dingo & Roo: for once they’re not the baddest on the block. Decent agility and shoot two small fireballs in succession, though they don’t deal much damage

Desert Fox

No better way to start than setting the arena in the desert. The several blocks scattered through the level show that mobility here is going to be hampered by quite a lot, even with the limited movement of the tanks.

As the standard level, gameplay is quite generic. Move around, rotate the turret when necessary and fire at the other characters. Be careful with the rebound off the walls and blocks, and remember that no shot overpowers another, they both continue ahead without issue. It’s fairly easy to gang up on another player or be entangled in a close fight with another player because of the limited mobility and the infinite ammunition of your main weapon, so try to always be in movement and not be predictable in your actions.

In this stage the secondary weapons are mines, which can be dropped on the spot by pressing Circle. They make a characteristic sound and characters even do some kind of animation to further showcase what was laid (though the animation doesn’t happen if the button is pressed while the tank moves, playing only the sound). The mines work as if this was Bomberman, after a few seconds they’ll flash red and explode by creating a trail spreading in all possible directions. However, the trail doesn’t trespass characters, meaning it can only hit the first one which inadvertently saved the others who could be in line for a hit too.

Characters start with three mines, but at random times an helicopter will drop extra mines to replenish a player’s stack (but be careful, they disappear if they’re in the way of a fired shot). Wumpa Fruit also spawns from time to time, though their quantity is quite scarce given the limited space they have to spawn.

Metal Fox

A more darker theme as we step into some kind of aircraft graveyard but the stage isn’t very different. This time, however, only the 12 starting blocks are static, the rest are actually mobile and can be raised or lowered at random to alter the display of the stage, opening and blocking routes as the battle rages on. Therefore, mobility is greatly affected in the stage as the battle wages on.

The mobile blocks add a bit of randomness to this level, meaning there’s no clear way of moving at all times. The only path that will be clear at all times is the outside line, everything else is filled with metal blocks that raise and lower at random creating curious patterns. You’ll need to move around a lot in order to clear the way for shooting enemies, and be careful for blocks suddenly appearing in front of you and bouncing back your shot straight to your face.

Mines and Wumpa Fruit appear just in the same way as in the previous level, just spawning randomly instead of being dropped by an helicopter, but we have one more quirk in the form of the bomb thrower. This item changes your main weapon and allows up to two bombs to be thrown in a parabolic trajectory, thus jumping over the blocks in the way of an enemy. These bombs take away a massive chunk of life, so be extremely careful when facing these and be quick to unload them into your enemies if you have it.

Jungle Fox

The return to the jungle brings a big surprise: the layout of the stage is now open! Too bad the tank is heavily clumsy to move around, even though it can now move diagonally in the open field. This also means the rebound effect is completely lost, so better tune up your accuracy for this one.

Beyond the changes done to tank mobility and such, the mines have also been changed. They now create just an explosion on the spot instead of the massive burst seen before, so their usefulness in this open field is reduced drastically. Aerial support makes a successful return, dropping mines and this level’s exclusive weapon: missiles. Your main weapon changes into a dual missile launcher, shooting twin missiles towards an opponent (and the open field means you can hit two in a single shot!). You get two shots with these bad guys, and they deal similar damage to the bombs we saw in the previous level. Of course, they’re also much faster than standard shots, and they don’t rebound off anything but in this level that’s not an issue.

One last quirk to note is the totem in the middle of the arena. At some point, the totem reveals to be two separate pieces with legs, so they will detach and drop into the playing area. They create a shockwave that can damage nearby characters, so pay attention when these two start roaming wild. They don’t activate themselves until the first 30 seconds or so have gone by, so it’s possible to win rounds without these two entering play at all.

Swamp Fox

For the last level we are dropped into a swamp with very dark waters. Our tanks are now oddly-shaped hovercrafts equipped with the same cannons, and with this change also comes the increased mobility. The field is again open, but these guys are much more potent and, as a result, faster.

The gameplay changes enormously here. Now you can choose with the Control Stick the direction to face, and holding R1 is what lets you accelerate in the direction you’re facing. As such, we have faster and more maneuverable ships at our disposal. The change in controls can be quite confusing at first, but you’ll get used to it. Weapons are not affected, for some reason the spiked bombs of Kong and Tiny rebound off the water surface so no change in that field. Mines have been affected, however, as they’re now the usual submarine mine that floats adrift. No countdown whatsoever, they simply float around until somebody crashes into them, creating a somewhat permanent hazard that isn’t easy to avoid due to speeds (and in the way recovering the stardom they were deprived off in previous levels).

If all these changes brought about by only changing machine and surface, we have an additional quirk. By pressing X, you can raise a brief shield to protect yourself from attacks. It’s very very brief, so better use it only when you’re about to be hit.

CRASH DASH

No party game is complete without a racing minigame, so here’s the one to fulfill the requirements. We race in very short, circular tracks in clockwise direction, and while the four characters can line their ships side by side without problems, you’ll see that the arenas are actually narrow when you go at racing speed.

As in all races, character performance here relies on character weight, with the lighter ones being faster and more agile and the heavier ones slower, but at the same time harder to push away from the arena as well as being more powerful in close contact. The tracks aren’t designed for blazing speed either, mark my words when I say it’s better to go slow and safe than simply trying to break the sound barrier.

Tracks will be filled with Wumpa Fruits, this time they recharge the ship’s boost levels (nope, it’s not a health bar what lies below the character’s icon) allowing us to deploy said boost as a massive increase in speed. While boosting we can push away other drivers for good, but of course we lose control over our ship making it harder to turn (and in a round track, that’s quite an issue). Ten laps must be completed in total, the sound effects from Ballistix serve to know when a player crosses the line to complete a lap and the number of remaining laps appears below the boost bar, meaning it’s easy to keep track of who’s in front.

While it’s very hard to master this game, because finding the right balance between speed and control throughout the ten laps is no easy task, I don’t see it as hard as Tank Wars. Eventually you’ll learn how to masterly lap each track even if it takes some tries, and since it’s perfectly possible to depend only in yourself to win I see it as a more affordable choice.

General Controls:
-Control Stick: direct hovercraft
-R1: hold to accelerate
-Square : hold for turbo boost

Character Performance:
Crash & Coco: fast and agile, but their lightweight makes them easy to push away
Cortex & Brio: quite the same, though they have greater push despite being lighter and as such more easily pushed away
Tiny & Kong: slow but steadfast, almost nothing kicks them away and they can blast off in the distance
Dingo & Roo: agile, but easily pushed away and lacking power

Dot Dash

The initial level takes place in the rooftop of a skyscraper, because why not. It has a clear racing theme with the grey asphalt, the arrows and the kerbs. The track is mostly open, save the northern part which you can see has a solid wall on the outside.

The gameplay, as always, is fairly basic. Try to go as fast as possible without falling off and be careful with the massive speed increase of the boost, it’s most useful when used alongside the wall. This starting level also has missiles, which upon collected can be fired with Circle. They can rebound twice off the walls, both outer and inner, and if they hit a character they’ll be sent flying and thus disabled for several seconds, so pay close attention to opponents that might have them equipped.

Toxic Dash

A very fitting game, for this arena is set amidst a toxic waste swamp. Much rounder than before and with no outer wall (there’s an inner wall, invisible but it’s there), this track starts posing a bit of a challenge.

The first thing to note are the waste barrels that are in the track at the beginning. They’re obstacles which disappear upon contact, but their effect on the player that crashes against them is the same as the missile seen previously so avoid them at all costs if possible. The second thing is the red stars lying around, which substitute the missiles for this level. When pressing Circle, a very brief force field is created around your ship which pushes opponents aside. You could say it’s a mix of the Sonic Ring from Drain Bash and the push available in Ballistix.

One last quirk of the track is the slime monster. It bursts out from the toxic liquid in the center of the arena from time to time, and after a few seconds of showing off drops three small blobs onto the track at a certain point. These blobs will then form a semicircle in the opposite direction to racing before dropping back to the toxic liquid on the outside. Being hit by one of this blobs means the same as hitting the waste barrels at the beginning, so try to avoid them the best way you can.

Dante’s Dash

A very literary name for a level that takes place in a fiery setting. We’re apparently in a jungle, amidst a small ground-level volcano that protrudes from the center platform. This track is also very round and with no outer walls, so more or less you have the gist of it from the previous level.

It’s mainly back to basics with this one. No obstacles on the track and missiles as the secondary weapon, though here you’ll have a harder time aiming because they can only rebound from the inner wall. Given the easier layout and apparently wider track, this one could perfectly be the easiest level even beyond the starting one.

The volcano in the inner platform of course has a role in here. From time to time it will erupt and spit three small fireballs in separate directions that cross the track in a linear trajectory until they fall off into the lava again on the outside. They’re easy to avoid, but if you happen to be hit by one their effect is slightly similar to missiles.

Splash Dash

We go underwater for this last level and we make a special change in our rides. Crash and Coco now ride a beautiful pink dolphin, Cortex and Brio ride a robotic fish, Tiny and Kong ride a killer whale, Dingodile and Roo ride what seems to be a blue swordfish. Picturesque, quite a bit.

A round but tight track amidst a maelstrom is what we’re faced with here. There’s no secondary weapon, so it all relies on your pure speed and ability. However, being the last level there should be a difficulty, more than the gimmick of the rides, and you’re absolutely true; the central platform.
This time, the platform rotates opposite to the racing direction and it has a secret weapon ready for you. It’s equipped with several rods, which activate at random and in different patterns: just one is extended, two opposite from each other, or even it starts pushing them off one by one in quick succession. Being pushed away by an extending rod more than probably will push you off the arena and into the maelstrom, so be careful with what the central platform is preparing.

In the case you encounter an extended rod, you have the ability to jump over it by pressing X. This is useful for keeping your line as tight as possible without having to maneuver around it, and can sometimes make a difference between victory and defeat. Jumping won’t save you from being pushed by an extending rod, though, so keep it just for when needed. Also, the boost won’t make you jump that much farther, so don’t worry of using it in conjunction with the jump.

MEDIEVAL MAYHEM

Probably one of the most fitting names, as it is indeed mayhem. Contrary to the first six, this one consists of four entirely different levels that have nothing to do with one another, meaning that each time you’re playing entirely new games with specific rules and controls. This is the reason why you’ll see I skipped the General Controls and Character Performance subsections, since levels share nothing in common.

The only thing I can add in this odd presentation is that all levels are point based, which means the 90 seconds time limit will always expire like in Pogo Pandemonium so the one with most points scored emerges as the victor. They all apparently also share a medieval-like background, and the only differences between characters is an aesthetic change in just one of the levels.

Ring Ding

We start the mayhem by popping balloons. We’re located inside a giant clock tower, with a round arena reminiscent of Crash Dash from which we can’t fall over. Soon, right above us we’ll see tons of balloons appearing, and the fun can begin.

Each player must only pop the balloons of their color. And your color is only shown briefly under your character’s feet, so you won’t know until you start. Popping a balloon of your color nets you a point, popping someone else’s stuns you for a brief while. Also, the disk where the arena is located rotates either right or left, affecting your mobility.

Move around with the Control Stick and press X to jump and pop the balloons in your trajectory. You can attack other players with Square, just like in Crate Crush. There are purple crates available in the ground as well, granting one of two power-ups: the blue Hover Boots allow you to not be affected for the disk’s rotation for nearly 10 seconds, and the Vacuum Cleaner attracts the balloons of your color towards you making it much easier to score points. Be careful, though, being hit by another player disables the power-up immediately.

If this wasn’t enough, beyond the four colors belonging to players there are also black balloons. Their color is a warning, but they don’t trigger anything bad for the one who pops them. They can have one of three effects: turn all balloons to your color for a brief while, pop all balloons not your color or, more interestingly, change the rotation of the disk to the opposite direction.

In all, this level surely is mayhem. Scores probably won’t be very high as there’s always something in the way of scoring.

Dragon Drop

How about target shooting, but you ride a dragon that catches the jewels lying around and spits it towards a rolling target? Then, this minigame is perfect for you xD

That’s basically the gist of it. You’ll have to battle it out to collect one of the jewels and then throw it into the target to score points. By pressing Square you can attack other players, and when you have a jewel pressing Square will shoot it. You can hold the button to somewhat charge up the shot, but it makes little difference really.

The gimmick, besides the rolling target moving like a pendulum, is that the points scored depend not on the zone of the target you hit but rather from where you shoot. The ground of the arena showcases different multipliers in colored zones, which means you can get from 1 to 5 points per successful shot depending on the position you shot from. Jewels can rebound the northern invisible wall or even touch the ground before successfully hitting the target, so aim only for it and forget how the jewel will make it there.

To spice things up a bit, at halfway into the game a third jewel will spawn. While it means it will be easier to score points now, or at least to rack up more shots, you can only have one jewel at a time and more people will be attempting a shot thus lowering the chances of having a big multiplier.

Mayhem as always, and while scores can rise significantly in certain cases they’re still rather low.

Mallet Mash

Whack-a-mole meets mushrooms. Yep, we’re dropped into a grassy field from which mushrooms sprout en masse, and our mission will be to whack them with our hammer to score points. Sounds great and fun, right?

We can freely move around and mash mushrooms by pressing Square. If we hold it, however, we can charge a small shockwave upon hit to stun nearby players and more importantly, mash nearby mushrooms! You can’t hit other players directly, only through the shockwave, so charging up slightly the hit can be beneficial.

Mushrooms award 2 points when mashed. After a while they’ll start shaking, at which point they’re worth 3 points now. And after a longer while they’ll shake even more, and now they’ll be worth 5 points. However, waiting too much means the mushrooms go poof, and nearby players can be briefly stunned by it. Don’t waste time waiting for mushrooms to shake as other characters may step in and mash it before you if you’re not careful. Also, every now and then a special sound effect will announce a golden mushroom, which is worth 10 points instead (15 when shaking, 20 when shaking even more) so pay attention to these rarities and be quick to mash them.

Purple crates make one last return here. They contain one of two power-ups: the Sonic Ring returns to heavily amplify the shockwave of your next hit, and the Speedy Boots return one final time to grant you blinding speed to mash ever more mushrooms.

A very funny mayhem and scores this time go relatively high. Try to not remain on the spot and be on the move to keep scoring as many points as possible.

Keg Kaboom

Last, but not least, playing with fire will get you burnt. Two flames run in circles in the outer part of the arena, while the arena itself is filled with powder kegs and players each hold a powder keg of their own.

The point here is using the flames to ignite the powder trail you leave behind, then bring the flames to explode the powder kegs you pass by. Sounds easy, but keeping the flame alive isn’t that easy and you can be easily overtaken by other characters with faster flames for dropping more powder than you.

Holding Square allows you to drop powder into the arena as you move. Once you ignite it, go towards the arena’s kegs and blast them for points. Silver kegs are worth 10 points and gold kegs are worth 20 points. The standard brown kegs have a point scale; the first one starts at 2, then if you keep the flame alive they’ll then escalate to 4 for the second, 6 for the third, 8 for the fourth and the fifth and beyond will be worth 10 points, like the silver kegs. As you can see, keeping the flame alive is a massive boost as is constantly roaming in search of kegs to blast.

With the X button you can jump, but it has no positive effect here because you lose the flame. There’s also a power-up in the form of the Sonic Ring, which now allows you to blast kegs from a distance and any player stunned by the hit will also lose the flame. Avoid any of these instances to keep the bonus points for brown kegs and amass points like crazy.

For this game, scores skyrocket to several hundred. It’s the least mayhem, but points difference can be quite heavy due to the brown keg combo and those big scores are always an interesting sight.