I’m not adverse to the odd endless runner. Heck, I’ve played enough of them on my phone or tablet, or even my 3DS. When done right I’ll stick with them until I’ve unlocked everything and then wait till the next one catches my eye. Sadly, Crashbots was not done right for me.
From the get-go you have a few tutorial levels to get you in the groove. Yes, more than one; it takes four levels for the game to prepare you. There are so many things you can do with your crashbot that I often found it overwhelming and difficult to find the right input at times. ‘A’ to jump, ‘B’ to slide, ‘R’ to shoot, ‘L’ for a special attack, ‘Y’ to dash. There’s too much to remember for it to feel natural reacting to the obstacles in front of you. And endless runners are all about being able to react quickly and consistently.
However, Crashbots does have a “world mode” where the levels are custom-made for the mode. Each of five worlds provides new obstacles, a sleek new look and a boss battle at the end, not that I ever reached one. The mode was too dull to keep me engrossed long enough. I earned enough stars through objectives to try a couple worlds out and it just felt like more of the same every time. I do like the mix-ups with the level objectives of each stage, but apart from that, I just didn’t find it fun.
I think my main problem with Crashbots comes down to the fact that it’s too complex for its own good. For me, an endless runner should be simple. Swipe left, swipe right, jump. That’s all you need. I go to endless runners to wind down and relax for a couple minutes. For some reason, Crashbots felt the need to stack a bunch on top that bogs it down and makes the whole thing feel slow and tedious. You have an energy meter that needs restoring with pick-ups, and it always feels bad when it runs out cause you couldn’t collect a run-saving battery. There are speed boosts, and moving obstacles, and boxes with traps, or sometimes not-traps in them. Good luck reacting to any of those things when you’re moving fast. The fact that each level always has a time trial objective makes repeating it to get a perfect run exhausting as well. It all adds up to little more than a slog to play.
On the other hand, if you want an endless runner with more depth and skill than usual, this could be perfect for you. The controls were tight and responsive, and the modes cater to high-score chasers, completionists and “people looking to play on the toilet” alike. The game looks good with its clean art-style, even in handheld, and there is more than enough content here to get around eight hours of game time. If you blitz your way through you may get four hours. One thing I massively appreciate as well is the statistics page which tracks everything. It is super useful for seeing how far you’ve come and how far you’ve got left to go. It took me just over an hour to get 15% and that was enough for me though unfortunately.
I’m just not into this sort of endless runner. If I wanted a wide range of moves and power-ups, variable running speeds, or collectables, I’d play a 3D platformer instead. Its funny how I’d probably enjoy Crashbots more if it scrapped half of its obstacles and movement options, but that’s just how I feel. I’d love to say that it’s solid endless runner, but for me it just turned out to be an endless bore.
A digital copy of Crashbots for Switch was provided by the developer.
Find Crashbots on Switch here: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/crashbots-switch/
