Consoles are often measured by the strength of their launch line-ups. So what does it say for the 3DO when it only had one game at release? Well first of all was it any good? That’s what we’re going to take a look at today. The game in question is Crash N’ Burn, and it’s this that Panasonic was trying to sell their $700 for. I never had a chance to play it back in its heyday, but I have no problem returning to this era for some good old fashioned gaming. Is Crash N’ Burn worth tracking down a 3DO for? Well, let’s dive in and take a look!
The story of Crash N’ Burn takes us into the future where combat racing is the #1 sport. You begin by choosing a game mode, and then selecting from one of six cyber punk esque racers, and then you’re off to battle. Crash N’ Burn predates games such as Twisted Metal by a few years, and that’s probably what it’s most comparable to. It’s a vehicular combat title, but rather than being pitted against foes in arena style environments you’re actually racing as you go. You can gain a multitude of different projectile attacks that can be used against your enemies. When they take enough damage they’re out of the race, but the same goes for you.
What’s interesting here is that you have a damage diagram in the upper right hand section of the screen. This shows where you’ve been hit the most, and as you’re hurt parts of the vehicle will start flashing yellow and red. Should one section take too much damage you’re out of the race. Should you be in dire straights you can head into the pit stop (each track has just one). This does two things. First of all it recovers your health, and it also replenishes your weapons. Normally pit stops are the kiss of death in any racer, but Crash N’ Burn does it smart. You can choose the amount of time you spend in it. Leaving early will reduce its efficiency, but sometimes you just need a little.
Crash N’ Burn features some of the best 3D environments on the platform. The arenas are fully three dimensional, but the vehicles themselves are sprite based. This means that they have very few frames of animation, and even things like turning slightly looks a bit jarring. That’s no matter because the action is fast and furious. Crash N’ Burn offers up a great sense of speed and that’s one thing I really like about it. You have only six different competitors per race, but Crash N’ Burn throws in some drones to keep the action up even when you’re in the lead. These are other vehicles that are unrelated to the competition. Their sole purpose is to get in your way.
I touched upon the fact that you only have six racers to choose from, but let’s take a deeper look at them. First of all they each have their own real video introductions. The character select screen has real photos that suddenly start animating when you choose them. It’s definitely a product of its time, and the acting is bad. It’s so awful it’s actually entertaining, and the actors’ costumes are just as cheesy. Each of the characters have their own strengths and weaknesses. Some are fast and fragile like glass while others are slow but have reinforced armor. The problem is the game doesn’t have status screens to tell you this information. You sort of have to just guess at it.
This game offers not one but two different modes of play. You have both rally and tournament. Those of you hoping for multiplayer will be left disappointed, but it’s an early 3D release so you can’t fault it too much. Rally is a barebones series of races, but tournament mode is far more interesting. Here you earn money after completing each exhibition, and this is spent in the shop to upgrade your vehicle. Attributes such as speed and handling can be increased, but you also have access to additional weapons as well. What’s nice is you can save your progress in this mode and continue later. This is the real meat and potatoes of Crash N’ Burn.
You also have thirty different tracks to race on. Unfortunately these don’t offer a lot of diversity. For the most part each race has you climbing hills, dropping down, and flying through water and mud. There are tunnels to mix things up a bit, but by and large, they feel recycled. After the first few races you’ve seen just about everything Crash N’ Burn has to offer in this regard. I wish they had spent some time designing some creative obstacles because this is the game’s biggest weakness in my opinion. The weapons are also pretty uninspired and range from missiles and machine guns to flash bangs and mines. I’ll tell you now that the most annoying thing that can happen is an enemy is hitting you from behind and you’re out of mines.
Crash N’ Burn has some of the best graphics on the 3DO. Sure, the environments have that typical pixelated 32-bit jank to them, but they’re mighty impressive given the time of release. It’s surprising then that the vehicles themselves are pre-rendered sprites. They animate very oddly and feature only a small number of frames. It’s off-putting, but I suppose it’s serviceable. The rest of the game is kinda weird visually. The full motion video is cheesy and has aged poorly, and the interface is cluttered and looks like something you’d see in an interactive video disc. The soundtrack consists of grungy midi tunes that fit the atmosphere but it’s really nothing special. Audio-wise it’s okay, but this is not a memorable soundtrack in the least.
As the only launch title for the platform it’s easy to imagine the disappointment early adopters suffered. Crash N’ Burn isn’t a bad game per-se, but it’s nothing special. It’s certainly not enough to carry a platform by itself, and definitely not one that cost seven hundred bucks in the early 90s. Just typing that made me throw up in my mouth a little.
