Crash 'N' Burn

Moby ID: 30812
PlayStation 2 Specs
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Description official descriptions

Race aggressively against 15 other cars through various courses to win races that are run through city-street circuits. You must also keep your car running by not having it damaged too severely from car crashes. You also have to dodge the wrecks of your competitors which remain on the track after they have crashed one too many times. After each race you win, you earn cash that can be used to upgrade the cars in your garage. There are four car types available: compact, pickup, muscle, and sports.Other race modes include last man standing, bomb tag, running man, and kamikaze.

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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

136 People (133 developers, 3 thanks) · View all

Producer
Lead Programmer
Lead Artist
Post-Production Producer
Chief Designer
Pre-Production Producer
Programmer: format lead and replays
Programmer: front end and game modes
Programmer: AI
Programmer: visual effects
Programmer: online
Programmer: physics
Programmer: Collision
Programmer: optimization
Programmer: sound
Programmer: networks
Programmer: game structure
Additional Programmers
Designer: vehicles
Designer: tracks
Designer: Post-Production Support / Localization
Artist: San Diego, Alcatraz, Detroit
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 67% (based on 14 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 4 ratings with 1 reviews)

FlatOut + Burnout and pinch of Need for Speed = this game.

The Good
I've been playing racing games for a long time now and truthfully they have now all become the same. Now true FlatOut and Burnout are distinctive, they are just about the same: fast cars, big wrecks and crazy action. So when I first came across this game in the used bargain bin for $3.99, I was a bit skeptical, originally without looking at the cover art I assumed by the name of the title it was a jet fighter game until I picked it up and the first thing that popped in my head was "Oh crap, a Burnout knock off". But, for $3.99 it was a bargain and I was actually surprised when I started this game.

First off when you load it up it does remind of of Burnout, most notably like Burnout 3 and even some of the cars does remind me of it, including the nitrous boosts during the game, but when you start playing the game, it vastly changes and starts to play like and resembles FlatOut, but what makes this game distinct from the other games is the wreckage that occupies the track as the race progresses. In Burnout, there are only about six cars and once they wreck they instantly appear back on the track while FlatOut features about the same amount of drivers, but their wrecked cars stay behind on the track.

However, this game has sixteen different cars and once they wreck their burned out shells and parts strewn throughout the track which can slow you down, but unlike the other games there are also oil slicks that will cause you to loose traction and gas leaks. Now these don't seem that bad, until they ignite and you have a huge trail of fire that will stay until the end of the race which can make things very interesting since these fire trails can essentially mess up your car even worse.

Plus the wrecks in this game are intense, I watched a group of five cars ahead of me beating and banging, trying to get past each other when three cars exploded at the exact same time and created a huge fire that literally engulfed the track. My first thought was "Holy crap!!" and even though I've have seen it hundred times now it never gets old.

The graphics are actually quite good, nothing spectacular on the level of Burnout, but for a game back in 2004 they are actually pretty decent. The sounds of the crunching metal and glass shattering actually give me shivers since they sound so realistic, the only problem is the headbanging metal music that does kinda get on my nerves, but luckily there is a mute option for the music.

While there are only four class of cars (Compact, Truck, Muscle and Sports) the way you can customize these vehicles through so many parts such as hoods, side skirts, wheel rims, decals, etc. (which reminds me of Need for Speed: Most Wanted) it does fix this problem a bit. Plus there really isn't that many tracks when you first look at it, but there are so many variations for these tracks that even though you can race five times at the same place, each time can be drastically different than the last.

The modes in the game are pretty fun too including just regular old races, but by the way these guys drive in the game it's should be more like bumper cars, kamikaze races where one half of the field faces off against the other in the opposite direction (which borrows from Test Drive: Eve of Destruction) and last-man standing race which is essentially a huge demolition derby with parts and cars flying through the air.

Really, there is a lot to like about this game even though it does borrow from other games, it still feels distinctive in its own way.

The Bad
Well, there are only two things that bother the hell out of me with this game, first of which being that it's cheap. I don't mean just hard, I really mean CHEAP!. As the game progresses it will get to points where I actually started to scream at the screen because of the stupid things it would do to me. Now I know what you must be thinking, that I'm just having some difficulties and the game really isn't that hard. No, trust me, I swear to you this game cheats. Now don't get me wrong I love a challenge, but this game makes you feel like it's out to stop you at all costs.

When it first starts out it isn't bad, it's a bit challenging, but when you get used to it and you start to upgrade your cars it real fun. There are times where I didn't do well in a race, tried it a couple of more times with a better car and beat it, but once I unlocked the Muscle Car division, it went from "Lets give him some good competition" to "Now let's f*** with him" mode. At first I just thought it was being difficult, but once I started to play the same tracks over and over and over and over, it felt like anything it could do to stop me it was trying.

In some races you will have ramps, either just something like speed bumps that will give you a little jump to ramps mounted to the sides of the wall that will flip your car. During these races is where it feels like the game shines at messing with you, especially towards the end of a race. On one, I was leading that last couple of laps and on the last lap I came into the last turn and there was a small bump there. Now for the last seven laps I hit that thing without a problem, but this time I barely even hit it, my car when flying sideways, rolled several times before finally landing on my hood just inches from the finish line and of course by the time I had my car up right, every last freakin' car had passed me.

I thought that maybe it was a freak occurrence, but when I tried it again...boom, it did it again. No problem, I restarted and of course on the last lap I slowed down enough to hit it without flying too high up, but this time the front of my car barely when forward and it started flipping end over end, once again landing just inches from the finish line. So after a few moments of cursing and trying to calm my nerves, I tried her again with a new game plan. This time around I stayed a bit back behind a few other cars, figuring it might have something to do with that and I could just hold back, make the jump and pass the cars at the last second. So when the last lap came, I was fourth and hit the jump....landed without a problem. Finally, so I started to hit the nitrous when lo and behold a car landed on top of me, directly on top of me, bounced off and landed and flipped my car to the left. Yes, I'm serious, it actually landed flat on top of me and yet somehow it caused by car to flip sideways.

This isn't the only thing that will get you, on the figure eight races, I can't count the number of times I've been t-boned and had my car destroyed and yet the car that hit me has actually kept going without a problem. To make matters worse there are many of times where I have hit other cars to try to make them wreck and it will hurt me instead. I have had cars barely hit me and caused me to flip over and over and yet I hit their back end as hard as I can through a nitrous boost and it actually will drive them forwards and cause my car to go forwards and damn near flip while they can do the same thing and virtually destroy me.

Plus, the burned out wrecks scattered throughout the course can be a pain in the ass as well. These cars will literally cause you to stop dead in your tracks even if your in a boost at over 130 MPH. Now at first this didn't bother me, even though it seemed that every time I turned around there was always a wreck popping up in front of me to stop me, but then I realized that it seemed like another way to cheat me. During one race I slammed into the hull of a car and knocked it in front of a rival trying to get third, thinking that this will help me out, but instead the rival hits the hull and never slows down a bit, in fact it seemed like it was actually making him go faster.

Just to reassure myself and the voices in my head that the game wasn't trying to screw with me, I handed it off to my buddy who has played just about every racing game since the dawn of the 8-bit era. Sure enough at first the game seemed simple enough then became challenging, making my friend chuckle a bit and go into his "You just don't know how to play a racing game properly" lecture until 20 minutes later when the muscle cars became available, this is where the fun began for me and made me realize, "Yeah, this game is messing with me". The same things were happening to him and actually had him screaming, ranting and cursing and broke a controller (which he still owes me for). It then dawned on me that it seems that the game has become self aware and is out to have fun at my expense, especially since I went back to the beginner races and they have started to mess with me in the same manner.

Whew, sadly that is one problem, the second to me actually hurts the game overall feel and that is the total lack of a two-player split screen option. A two-player split screen has been in racing games for years now since around SNES so it was a little shocking that something that basic wasn't included on this game. It's actually disappointing, this type of game begs for a two-player option, even though it does feature 16 players online, I've wondered how many people actually played online back in the days since I only learned of this game after five years on the market. It's still fun to play this game in a single mode, but a two-player mode would have greatly enhanced the fun of this game.

The Bottom Line
Overall, Crash 'n Burn is a fun racing game despite being a combination of a few other well known titles. The graphics and sounds along with the many playable modes and the fact that there is a ton of carnage on the track at once makes you want to come back for more. Sadly, the cheapness of the A.I. really angers the hell out of me and makes me turn the game off after 15 minutes and no two player option kinda takes the fun away. But still, it's an interesting game and if you're into crashing and bashing racing games it's a fun game to pick up, just try not to pull your hair out in frustration.

PlayStation 2 · by Big John WV (26955) · 2009

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Game added by Alaka.

Additional contributors: Jeanne.

Game added November 13, 2007. Last modified March 21, 2023.