Crash Bandicoot: On The Run, out for today iOS and Android, is a game in which Crash Bandicoot runs through narrow corridors, breaks boxes and collects Wumpa Fruit, just like any other Crash Bandicoot game. While mobile spin-offs go, it’s pretty on the nose.
Looking at the landscape screen images developer King.com of Candy Crush fame prompted the game’s launch, despite my phone only playing it in portrait mode, you could easily be mistaken On the run for a crash console connection. The game looks great. Crash does its signature spin move to bash enemies and break things. The difference is this game is a three lane car runner so you don’t have to tell Crash or his sister Coco to move forward. They just do it.
Crash Bandicoot: On The Run isn’t an endless runner, however. Crash and Coco go through finite levels to take out a boss at the end, usually by dodging the obstacles they throw while getting close enough to extinguish them with various crafted concoctions. Clearing out four sub bosses will allow the bandicoot siblings to take on a slightly tougher boss, then unlock a new set of bad guys.
The free to play catch Crash Bandicoot: On The Run is that fighting bosses require the aforementioned concoctions to be made. Crafting requires materials, which are harvested through special collection levels. Once the materials are collected you can make the potions and which is not necessary to fight bosses, but there is a timer (boo) that can be sped up with in-game currency. You can collect anything you want, but to progress in the game you have to create the random stuff. In-game currency can also be used to buy skins, buy potion reagents, or purchase additional tickets to take part in the game’s asynchronous multiplayer, where you compete against a few AI-controlled opponents to see who survives the longest.
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There is a lot of mobile free to play fluff going on, however Crash Bandicoot: On The Run combines all that nonsense with a sense of fun and foolishness that characterizes Crash. Once I get deeper into the game I can imagine those timers getting pretty damn annoying, but for now it’s nice to have that crazy bandicoot in my pocket.