You've got to love quirky Japanese video games. Tokyo Crash Mobs most recently won me over with its unhinged premise and presentation. Now it's the turn of Crash City Mayhem to tug at my silly bone.
Crash City Mayhem is thoroughly strange, and quite entertaining in small doses, as long as you don't expect to genuinely enjoy the gameplay.
Crash timeYou play as a courier who has a fetish for daring missions and doesn't mind smashing through pretty much everything in his way to get from A to B.
Once you've trudged through the awful tutorial, it's time to hit the streets and drive like a maniac, stopping occasionally to watch ridiculous cutscenes in which two men stand and talk at each other in a manner reminiscent of House of the Dead 2.
Crash City Mayhem is deeply quirky. As you collide with other cars they go flying, as though you've picked up a classic Carmageddon "bouncy bouncy" power-up.
Elsewhere you'll gather insane amounts of cash for simply blasting through anything and everything, and the game's story is just too weird and wonderful not to enjoy.
All the game asks is that you don't mess your car up too much, or you'll be unable to continue the insanity.
BSoDThe problem is that Crash City Mayhem is just too haywire and freewheeling for its own good.
You've given cash and "bonus tips", but it's never really explained what the point of these is, or whether you should actually be crashing into other cars on purpose.
The game is oddly linear, too. There's obviously a sizeable gameworld, but you're only ever allowed to follow a set path or two that has been allotted to you for each particular mission.
The missions themselves are pretty dull. Smash into these things, collect theses, tail this person. It's basically the same scenarios as Driver Renegade 3D.
There are also some serious frame-rate issues at times, which cause the game to grind along at an unforgivable pace.
Crash City Mayhem is decent, especially if you like your crazy Japanese games, but you'll probably want to wait until it's on sale before you dive in.