Earlier today, the Crash Bandicoot YouTube channel released a pre-order trailer for the beta of their new multiplayer spinoff game Crash Team Rumble. This trailer was mostly a showcase of gameplay, with many fan-favorite characters such as Crash, Coco, Dr. Neo Cortex, Tawna and many more. However, there were also a few dates revealed that were important to note. Toys for Bob (the developers behind Crash Team Rumble) announced that they are officially opening pre-order access for the closed beta of the game, which is set to happen from April 20-23. Furthermore, the trailer also announced that the game is set to fully release on June 20, 2023.

According to GamesRadar, the original announcement for Crash Team Rumble, came out during The Game Awards 2022, branded as a 4v4 multiplayer game where you could play as your favorite Crash Bandicoot characters to collect as much Wumpa fruit as possible in a certain amount of time. The goal of the game is for your team to have more Wumpa fruit collected than the opposing team.  

There will be three roles to play as: Scorer, Blocker and Booster. Each role has unique powers and abilities that provide different benefits to each team when trying to either get Wumpa fruit to your bank, or keep your opponents from getting Wumpa fruit into their banks. Each name has a relatively straightforward association to what their purposes are. Scorers are better geared towards collecting Wumpa fruits and boosting their teams scores. Blockers are built to defend the opposing team’s bank, with abilities meant to prevent the opposing team from putting their Wumpa fruit in the bank to score points. Finally, Boosters are meant to aid their teammates by gathering gems and activating Relic Stations to increase their team’s score.

While there have been other Crash Bandicoot spinoffs in the past such as Crash Team Racing, this is the first Crash Bandicoot spinoff in this style, so it will be hard to say how it plays until the closed beta is released on April 20th. That being said however, it will be exciting to see the zaniness that is sure to come with a Crash Bandicoot release, which will go live on June 20th, with a standard retail price of $29.99.