1-4 PLAYERS CRASH AND HIS FRIENDS ARE BACK IN A KNOCK DOWN DRAG OUT ARENA RUMBLE. GET READY TO RACE RUMBLE JUMP THROW AND BATTLE IT OUT.

With Crash Bash, the PlayStation finally has received its official party game in the vein of Mario Party and Sonic Shuffle. Up to four players can engage in 30 minigames, provided that one of those players owns a Multitap accessory.

The games are almost as simple as the minigames that are found in Combat for the old Atari. There's Crash Ball, a four-way game of pong, and Desert Fox, in which the game characters go after each other in tanks. Adventure mode even includes boss battles in minigame form.

The beauty of Crash Bash is that anyone--and I mean anyone--can pick it up and play it, with virtually no instruction. On the other hand, playing against computer opponents is pointless. Without friends to liven things up, the premise gets old in no time.

The graphics and sounds share the same cartoonish quality of the previous Crash games, with playable bad guys. There's some graphical choppiness in multiplayer mode, but looks aren't the point of this one, anyway. --Robb Guido

Pros:

• Easy to pick up and play
• Thirty different minigames, most of which are fun when played with or against friends

Cons:

• Hard to enjoy without a Multitap and four players

Crash Bash is a multievent party game in which four people can play several minigames as characters from the Crash Bandicoot series. Characters include Coco, Brio, Dingodile, Tiny, and Neo Cortex. The games are organized from a central hub world from which spokes lead to different levels. Games include pong, in which players defend one side of the screen, and a pogo-stick game, in which players hop to change the color of squares on a board by landing on them, then earn points by collecting boxes. Another game places characters on the backs of polar bears as they try to ram each other off the sides of an iceberg, with variants that include melting ice and playfield angles that change with your location. Each game features variations; some allow for two-player teams.