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Crash Tag Team Racing for PlayStation Portable
Crash Tag Team Racing for PlayStation Portable mixes kart racing with a platform adventure in a run-down theme park. Crash becomes involved in the struggle over Ebenezer Von Clutch's park and searches for the missing Power Gems. You walk through the different areas of the park, talk to the other participants and unlock races. Familiar faces including Coco, Crunch and Neo Cortex appear on the circuits. The attractions provide the setting for corners, jumps and battles with heavily armed vehicles.
During a race, you can combine your car with another participant's vehicle. One character drives the combination while the other operates a rotating gun turret. That means choosing not only a good racing line but also when to work together, shoot or split apart again. Outside the car, you jump over obstacles and collect coins. You can spend these on upgrades and different outfits, among other things. Short minigames and hidden jokes give you reasons to explore more of the park.
You play the park campaign alone. The PSP release also offers local wireless matches for two to eight players, featuring both opponents and cooperating pairs in combined cars. Each participant needs their own PSP with wireless networking and their own copy of the game. This uses a direct ad hoc connection between nearby systems, rather than playing together on one screen. Additional PSP systems and games are not included.
Region and language
Our PlayStation Portable games are European editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
You receive the physical UMD edition. You need a PSP with a UMD drive to play it; a PSP Go cannot play this disc.
Manual
Crash Tag Team Racing for PlayStation Portable includes the manual unless the product title states otherwise. If the booklet is missing, the title says “No Manual”. This lets you see before ordering whether the game comes with a manual.
The manuals included with our games usually contain at least English and often around six European languages. The exact languages vary by edition, so Dutch is not always included. The booklet explains the controls and the main rules. You can use it to check how to control the game, which actions are available and how its different features work.
The history of Crash Tag Team Racing
Crash Tag Team Racing came out in 2005, when the Crash series had already made several visits to the racetrack. Crash Team Racing for the original PlayStation and the later Crash Nitro Kart focused mainly on kart races. Developer Radical Entertainment now added a theme park that you could explore on foot. Vivendi Universal Games published the game under its Sierra label. The PSP release arrived alongside versions for PlayStation 2, Xbox and Nintendo GameCube.
Radical had previously made The Simpsons: Hit & Run, which also combined driving and walking around. In Crash, merging two cars became the main new feature. The driver and gunner have different jobs, while the combined vehicle can split apart again during a race. That also explains the difference from Crash Team Racing: weapon crates and corners are no longer the only factors in the contest, as temporarily choosing a partner and their gun turret also matters.
The PSP adaptation received wireless matches between separate handhelds. This brought the idea of driving and shooting together from a television screen to local ad hoc matches. The solo game retained the theme park, exploration and alternation between races and short tasks. The Platinum edition is a later budget reissue of this PSP game. It is not a new version of Crash Team Racing, nor the much later remake Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.
Similar games for PlayStation Portable
Disney Pixar Cars 2 also combines colourful car races with weapons that hinder other competitors on PSP. You train with Lightning McQueen and his friends for C.H.R.O.M.E. spy missions. The camera looks down diagonally at the track and progression consists of separate racing tasks. Crash Tag Team Racing adds a theme park to explore on foot and lets two cars merge during a race into one vehicle with a driver and a gunner.
Sonic Rivals on PSP also revolves around speed, attacks and disrupting an opponent. Sonic and his rivals run along side-view platform courses, however, with jumps, loops and obstacles. Each contest pits two characters against each other. Crash Tag Team Racing uses cars and circuits where several competitors meet. Switching between driving, shooting and temporarily working together is what particularly distinguishes Crash from Sonic's continuous race to the finish.
Burnout Legends on PSP also places a strong emphasis on collisions and aggressive driving. You build up boost and try to force opponents off the road with Takedowns. It uses an urban setting with traffic and vehicles rather than Crash's talking animals. Crash Tag Team Racing features cartoon theme-park worlds, gun turrets and platform sections. In Burnout you stay in the car; in Crash you break up the races by walking around and looking for tasks.
Daxter on PSP shares the comic animal hero, three-dimensional environments and search for collectibles. Working as a pest exterminator, Daxter fights insects and also uses his spray gun to hover over gaps. His adventure takes him through buildings and work assignments in Haven City. Crash Tag Team Racing divides its attention between walking and driving. The platform action mainly connects the theme-park areas with the circuits, where combining cars takes centre stage.
Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters on PSP combines funny characters with platform action and a large arsenal of weapons. Ratchet travels between different worlds while Clank has his own sections. Crash Tag Team Racing keeps its hero working largely around a single theme park and mounts the biggest weapons on cars. Both alternate jumping and fighting, but new gadgets and weapons drive Ratchet's adventure, whereas Crash repeatedly returns to races and vehicle combinations.
