The announcement of Crash Team Rumble was somewhat of a relief, as fans feared that Toys for Bob had been indefinitely put to work on Call of Duty Warzone.

　　Of course, the upcoming game may not be exactly what they were hoping for, either, since it'll be a multiplayer-only installment with no campaign or story. However, a recent press presentation that Wccftech joined remotely fueled hopes that the game could retain the DNA of Crash Bandicoot.

　　During the presentation, the developers noted that the idea behind Crash Team Rumble began while the studio made Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time. The franchise is no stranger to multiplayer outings, but they all brought Crash into spin-offs that belonged to far different genres.

　　With Crash Team Rumble, the primary goal is to bring the core platforming the IP is known for in a competitive multiplayer game. One thing they were eager to clarify is that this won't be a MOBA at all; they're calling it a strategic multiplayer platforming game, which admittedly is a pretty generic description.

　　In this game, two teams of four players each will face off. The playable characters all have unique abilities, locomotion, and even stats like Health, Wumpa Capacity, Combat, Mobility, and Difficulty, making for interesting choices. Matches are said to be pretty fast-paced, taking between four and five minutes to complete, and their flow is also wildly dependent on the selected arena since maps will be very different from one another.

　　The basic goal in a Crash Team Rumble match will be to gather more Wumpa fruit than the rival team. You'll have to wander through the maps to break boxes, collect Wumpa, and get it back to your bank to 'score'. There are two types of crates; the standard one contains 5 Wumpa, while the 3x crate has 15 Wumpa. The first team to fill the bar with 2K Wumpa wins the match.

　　Naturally, CTR includes combat, but the developers stressed this isn't the focus of the multiplayer action. Combat is how you can prevent the other team from scoring, but playing the objective (gathering Wumpa) is what players should really be doing most of the time.

　　There are also additional mechanics that experienced players can take advantage of. For example, teams can capture Gem Pads, which boost their scoring potential by 30%. The boost is stackable, too, which means that capturing multiple Gem Pads will further increase your scoring potential. The Gem Pads areas are likely to be hotly contested spots where lots of combat takes place.

　　Then there's another strategic layer, the so-called Relic Stations, which Toys for Bob described as map-changing events activated by collecting Relics. One example of these events is the Beach Ball that players can use to literally smash through opponents.

　　There are multiple Relic Stations on each map. One of them has the 'Epic' label, though, and will take a lot more Relics to activate. On the other hand, the resulting event will be even more dramatic and can entirely turn the tide of a match in Crash Team Rumble.

　　Each playable character in the game excels at one of three roles: Booster, Blocker, or Scorer. That's not to say a Booster or a Blocker cannot score; it's just what they are optimal at. The explanation is pretty straightforward: the Scorers are great at collecting Wumpa and quickly bringing it back to their team's bank; the Blockers' job is to defend the bank and otherwise fight with the other team to prevent them from scoring; lastly, the Boosters are well-suited to capturing Gem Pads and/or Relic Stations.

　　Toys for Bob also confirmed the existence of a Practice Mode against AI on all maps. Moreover, bots can fill in multiplayer matches when a player suddenly leaves.

　　Pre-orders for Crash Team Rumble are open now. Getting one will secure your entry into the upcoming beta, scheduled between April 20 and 24, with a full launch due on June 20th.

　　The game is priced at $29.99 for the Standard Edition, which comes with the Premium Battle Pass for Season 1. There's also a $39.99 Deluxe Edition with extra perks, such as:

　　Premium Battle Pass for Season 1 and 2Digital Proto Pack (8 'Blocky' hero skins, 'Pixelated' Shadow, 'Get On My Level' In-Game Victory Music, 'Blocky' Hat, 'Blocky' Backpack, 'Blocky' Score FX, Unique Banner)25 Tier Instant Unlock for the Season 1 Premium Battle PassCrash Team Rumble will be released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S|X with cross-platform play. During the Q&A session, I asked about PC, but unfortunately, they wouldn't answer why this version is missing (and was missing from the Crash Team Racing remake as well).