Crash Bandicoot was born as a colorful platforming mascot emblematic of his era, and he's since been reinvented to suit other genres and moments in video game history. He and his wumpa fruit-chasing cohorts have been given the Mario Party treatment in Crash Bash, they went kart racing on several occasions, and he's even been dropped into an auto-runner on mobile platforms. The latest appearance for the perma-grinning orange marsupial is yet again fitting of its moment, even as it might be the most unexpected fit to date.

Crash Team Rumble is a 4v4 multiplayer game with a unique ruleset and, it seems after a weekend with the beta, a lot of potential. Rather than reskin something familiar in Crash's color palette, Crash Team Rumble finds its own competitive angle and match flow, and its depth of strategy gives it vigor, even as I worry about its life expectancy.

Players will load into matches cast as familiar characters split into one of several classes, like scorers, defenders, and more. Similar to something like Overwatch, the full game will offer multiple characters in each class, with heroes and villains spanning all of Crash's history on the roster. In the beta, only a small subset of the game's full list of heroes and villains--and their customizable abilities--was available, but it gave me an idea of what to expect.