Crashnauts

Genre: Action-Platformer / 2-Stick Shooter / Party Game

Players: 1-6 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)

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Review:

Crashnauts is an arena-based Action-Platformer Party game with 2-Stick Shooter mechanics first released on PC in 2017 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2021.

This game uses hand-drawn 2D artwork for its characters and backgrounds, and this artwork is reasonably detailed, but unfortunately much of this detail is lost in the dark color palette and fast-paced zoomed-out action. In the end, this game doesn’t look bad so much as it all seems jumbled and doesn’t leave a particularly strong impression. Perhaps fittingly, the game’s energetic music is pretty forgettable too, and none of the sounds or the announcer are too distinctive either.

So it goes, sadly, with the gameplay. Oh, there’s nothing outright wrong with it, but likewise there’s nothing distinctive or memorable about it either. Jump around the arena, snag weapons and fire them at enemies. There’s little nuance here. At the very least, the game gives players the ability to switch between simple controls and two-stick shooter controls on the fly – both are supported by the default control scheme.

Unfortunately, a part of the problem here is one of the few things this game does that is fairly unique – players can choose where they respawn, which just serves to add an element of chaos to the action. On top of this, while the game tries to add variety with different game modes like Capture the Flag and Team Deathmatch, these feel similarly chaotic and uneven, and players are better off just sticking with regular free-for-all with how chaotic it is.

There are plenty of Party Games and plenty of Action-Platformers on the Nintendo Switch, and in a world with great games like Towerfall, it’s hard to see much reason to recommend Crashnauts, which feels pretty generic and uninventive by comparison. While it’s not a bad game, it doesn’t really do anything to stand out either, and its chaotic elements make it hard to enjoy for any extended period of time.

tl;dr – Crashnauts is an arena-based Action-Platformer Party Game. While it works and there’s nothing especially wrong with it, it’s pretty forgettable and what few unique elements it has just serve to make it chaotic and lacking any real depth.

Grade: C

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