Crash Commando (PS3)
With its adrenaline fueled trailer boasting about over the top action with a deliberate lack of plot and much of its marketing describing the action as comedic or slapstick, you’d think the 2D multiplayer shooter Crash Commando would be a much funnier game than it is. Perhaps I’m a little desensitized to the red clouds of mist that appear when a character is shot or the frequent explosions accompanying the jetpack combat, but such an embrace of cartoonish gore hardly stands out in the console generation where video games in general trended towards a Mature rating and many took the chance to be a bit ridiculous about it. With no actual jokes told during the game, a lack of any in-game announcer to pep things up, and many surprisingly quiet moments when you’ve spawned somewhere away from the action, Crash Commando might not actually register as something trying to be too ridiculous.
Crash Commando’s battles involve up to twelve players fighting in large platforming levels, but rather than needing to navigate carefully to get around, your ever helpful jetpack lets you fly around the level until it runs out of fuel and needs to briefly recharge. Even the cars and tanks in this game feature some form of flight, so the levels take the opportunity to not only be fairly tall but also split into two layers players can pass through at special doors. Having two fields for the action to take place in does mean each level is able to have a bit more arena variety in a single match, but it also plays into one of the game’s frequent issues. Finding other players can involve a lot of flying about or moving between layers, especially in the smaller matches where the arenas retain their expansive design.
When you do find another player and start trading shots, the movement and shooting are fairly easy with one stick handling movement and the other aim. Whenever you spawn into the level you get to pick a loadout, so it comes down to who brought the right weapon to the fight to better respond to how the opponent dodges and how their own accuracy plays out. Something like a rocket launcher, sniper rifle, or grenade launcher only needs to hit once to defeat almost anyone, vehicles and heavy armor the only way a character has hope of surviving a direct hit. These fire slower than options like the machine gun and laser gun though, the machine gun’s rapid shots and CAB laser’s sustained beam more about sacrificing that one shot gambit in favor of having a bit more options if the battle isn’t immediately decided. I almost forgot the shotgun was part of the weapon’s list admittedly, mainly because its focus on close range doesn’t do it many favors when broad level designs and weapons that are equally effective at any range are the norm. It’s not too hard for a good player to line up an explosive or sniper shot and end things quickly, so most confrontations can end before one side’s even really realized they’re in the crosshairs. When things are a bit more even and combatants are buzzing about the air with their jetpacks it can be a bit more exciting, but it does seem like the game is mostly designed around conflict ending suddenly, making it easy for a chain of uneventful lives if you’re a frequent victim to explosive crossfire.
Every player is given a few side options besides their primary weapon, not that this really takes away from the heavy focus on quick kills. Grenades are the smartest choice for your explosive slot, these easy to toss in for a quick kill. The other explosive options are underwhelming though, mines hardly going to make a difference in a game where most people travel by jetpack and even then they’re too lenient in letting people come close without a deadly detonation. The remote explosives add the idea you need to time the detonation yourself, which again raises the question of how an enemy is even going to fall for the trap in the first place, let alone having things timed well so you activate them while they’re near it. Your secondary weapons mostly feel like desperation options, the pistol weak but simple and the knife relying on the unlikely situation of close quarters combat, but it is better than being without an attack method if you drain your weapon and can’t find the floating ammo refills.
If you do rack up a string of kills without dying yourself, you can earn a few boons that are similar in concept to Call of Duty’s killstreak rewards but without the inherent issue of rewarding a winning player by helping them win more. These bonuses are minor, a health regen that is barely felt, a small speed boost, and a death roll that’s hard to hit with examples of why you won’t be too miffed if a player is able to utilize these boons. The normal version of the jetpack roll is one of the few non-flying options for movement in a fight in that it can throw you across the ground at high speed, this making for a decent means of fleeing a battle if you recognize you’re outgunned or in the weaker position.
Some attack options do break the mold a bit, especially the vehicles. The jeep and tank both can take a few hits and fire back, and as mentioned earlier they can fly, but they also have rails built into the level that let you climb up walls and attack from unique angles. Since they’re big targets they often can’t survive a sustained offensive, but if you line up their slower weapons right you can build up a few kills before you need to abandon ship. Similarly, stationary weapons exist in the world, the turret that lets you fire into the other layer the most interesting as it helps bridge the areas that are otherwise so separate it more often slows down the action than enhances it. A guided rocket can interrupt nearby combat as well, and if you can find the two floating weapon pickups, you can briefly go on a tear with a fast firing beam weapon or a minigun. Adding this touch of variety does help Crash Commando add a little more depth to its action, but it still feels like the flow of play is slow exploration as you try to find where other players even are followed by a quick skirmish better described as a swift kill rather than a back and forth gunfight.
When you’re in a free for all or a team deathmatch you can expect the frequent shifting between 0 and 100, the loadout system making powerful options too accessible and leading to easy domination by players with decent aim. However there are a few other modes on offer such as the post-release Heist mode where you compete to safely deliver money bags to your base and the objective focused challenges where one team defends computer consoles as the other tries to snag data off them and take them home. With clearer roles you can at least start to implement a bit more strategy into the action than firing once you see the enemy. The eight maps are rather distinct in layout, but the twitchy action feels like it’s literally hit or miss and it makes for a mix of low substance battles with a small selection of viable options.
Multiplayer is the main draw of Crash Commando, but there is a single player component called Boot Camp. Boot Camp is worse than the multiplayer though, its mission structure unexciting and not even able to establish interesting goals. Each one takes you to a level and sets a kill quota you need to reach, and if you aren’t killing enemies quickly enough, your overall score will drain. So long as you keep it above the right threshold though you’ll get the gold medal for the level, and beating it unlocks the next one regardless of your performance. Getting gold medals is easy so long as you remain active, and even a late game surge of kills will more than do the job, but unsurprisingly Boot Camp has many of the issues of multiplayer but with AI players being a bit worse at keeping the action exciting. They buzz about without clear purpose until you come into the picture and can even start firing towards you when they’re off screen and can’t have seen you yet, but they’re still easy to take down because your weapons are made for quick kills. Getting a multiplayer game together for this game from 2008 isn’t going to be easy for most either, so this is how many would experience Crash Commando now and it certainly lacks the punch to keep you coming back for more.
THE VERDICT: While perhaps enjoyable enough for a low investment session where the quick kills won’t rankle you much, Crash Commando’s combat structure leads to quick skirmishes that end abruptly thanks to a few incredibly powerful options dominating the weapon landscape. Jetpack flight and vehicles can add a bit more life to a firefight if you’re in a battle where the opening volley didn’t immediately decide it, but the tall two layer maps make many battles involve slowly getting around before things ramp up to an immediate life or death exchange without that much substance. Boot Camp is a bust because of its low estimation of the player’s ability to put up a fight, so outside the objective modes that add some much needed structure so it’s not a constant string of quick, formless encounters, Crash Commando feels like its concept crashes and burns.
And so, I give Crash Commando for PlayStation 3…
A BAD rating. I was able to wrangle some online matches out of Crash Commando despite it being over 12 years old and long forgotten by most of its player base, but the game doesn’t feel like it has a sweet spot where its weapon and level design can come together to make for the exciting multiplayer contest the trailer brags about. Too few players and it’s a leisurely scavenger hunt that quickly turns to a rushed confrontation before things repeat, and even with more players in the mix it can still take some time to reach the hot zone for the fighting and then a quick death means you have to hustle back in the hopes you’ll better aim your instant kill weapon this time. The loadout system doesn’t feel like it mixes well with the freedom of movement and level design well, the less powerful options easy to hide from as you reload your better tools and those strong killers not making for the kind of skirmishes that stick with a player. Things grow rote quickly as everyone trends towards the most effective options and things like vehicles and special pickups aren’t able to upset that flow enough, and with Boot Camp being in its sorry state, you either have to learn to love the constant bombing or move onto a game where gunfights have more variety to them.
Crash Commando could really use some of that levity is boasts about having. Even if the exaggerated but not exactly spectacular bloody effects tickle your fancy, they’ll lose their luster after the twentieth time you see them, and that’s likely to happen in your first match. The game could have embraced greater weapon balance to make fights more interactive and tense, but if Crash Commando did want to be ridiculous it really should have steered into the insanity with all sorts of strange and unusual options to make battles at least conceptually appealing beyond jetpacks being involved. If you want something a little mindless it might have its appeals, although most every battle boils down two both players appearing on screen together and the one who shot a bit better walks away alive, but getting a multiplayer game of it going is not possible locally and increasingly unlikely online. When its online component is finally snuffed out fully, you’ll be consigned to Boot Camp where the problems are even more apparent. If you’re looking for a twitchy 2D shooter you’d be better off looking elsewhere, and if you were looking for something exciting with over the top comedic action, you shouldn’t have been looking at Crash Commando in the first place.