The game includes a collection of 28 mini-games playable within three modes of gameplay, as well as eight playable characters from the Crash Bandicoot series. It is the fifth title in the Crash Bandicoot series and the first entry in the series in the party genre.

The Story Behind Crash Bash

Dixon credited the character's concept to Cerny and the design to lead character artist Bamford. While all the game's levels are available, the Adventure mode's final hub area is missing, necessitating use of a GameShark to access its levels. It is the final Crash Bandicoot game to be released exclusively for a Sony console, with subsequent installments being released on the Xbox and PlayStation 2.

Following the release of Crash Team Racing in 1999, Crash Bandicoot creator Naughty Dog began development on Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy for the PlayStation 2, and were soon acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment, with Universal Interactive retaining control of the Crash Bandicoot intellectual property. The Japanese version of the game features Fake Crash – an odd doppelganger of Crash who had made cameos in previous Crash Bandicoot games – as an unlockable character. Eurocom's Jon Williams, Sony's Grady Hunt, and Universal's Vijay Lakshman served as producers.

How Crash Bash Plays

The Adventure mode is completed when all trophies, gems, crystals and relics have been won. When three of the game's four Boss Arenas have been won, mini-game challenges become available in which the player(s) can win gold or platinum Relics by defeating advanced computer-controlled opponents. Crash Bash features three distinct modes of play: "Adventure", "Battle" and "Tournament".

A trophy is won by achieving victory in three rounds of any given mini-game. When a minimum number of trophies, gems and crystals have been won, the Warp Room's "Boss Arena" becomes accessible, in which the player(s) must defeat a boss character by depleting his health. In the Adventure mode, one or two human players must win all 28 mini-games and retrieve trophies, gems and crystals by accomplishing certain challenges presented for each mini-game.

Why Players Still Load It Up

Greg Sewart of Electronic Gaming Monthly interpreted Eurocom's eschewing of the board game formula established by Mario Party in favor of a more action-based format as an attempt to not appear completely derivative, which he deemed unsuccessful. Although Doug Perry of IGN appreciated the different variations of the mini-games, he and Daniel Erickson of Next Generation found them generally repetitive. The graphics were appreciated for replicating the look and feel of the Naughty Dog titles, but Helgeson and Human Tornado of GamePro were troubled by the distant camera, with the latter observing that the characters often bunched together in several games.

Davis determined the audio to be "standard, with Hanna-Barbera-style background music that is appropriate to the various environments and a somewhat limited set of taunts and yelps for each character", and warned that the audio may quickly wear thin. Ryan Davis of GameSpot dismissed Crash Bash as "utterly run of the mill, completely middle of the road", and criticized the unbalanced AI. In the United Kingdom, the game received a "Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies.

Crash Bash — Frequently Asked Questions