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Crash Boom Bang! makes a noise about DS multiplayer

You should never smile at a crocodile, but a bandicoot's a hoot

Crash Boom Bang! makes a noise about DS multiplayer
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DS
| Crash Boom Bang!

If you were one of the world's most successful bandicoots, you'd want your friends to know all about it, right? Some things are meant to be shared.

Enter Crash Boom Bang!, the just-announced Crash Bandicoot racing and mini-game outing for the DS, which showcases 'Touch Panel Communication'.

Billed by creators as of the 'never been seen before' variety, this feature will enable you to send customised speech and sounds to your multiplayer opponents without distracting your chances of winning.

The same panel will also let you bet on the outcome of multiplayer races or mini-games. Your winnings can then be used to buy points to purchase in-game items; there are over 80 to collect or trade with other players.

It certainly sounds promising, although there's only talk of local wireless play, so Crash Boom Bang! doesn't look like boosting the scanty ranks supporting Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection service.

In terms of gameplay, expect the long-running series' usual brand of love-it-or-hate it genre-spanning wackiness (think saturday morning TV cartoons crossed with Mario Kart.) You're out on a worldwide race for a magical stone, with the sinister Viscount Devil sponsoring proceedings to get his hands on it. (Really, what chance did he have being born with a name like that?)

The bandicoot's stalwart associates and enemies like Coco, Crunch and Neo Cortex will all be on-hand too; we're just hoping the game is a step on from recent Crash outings, where the words "…and burn" came all too easily to mind.

But we'll have to wait until Crash Boom Bang!'s October release to find out.