Crash, bang, wallop, thump, here comes a deranged fox-like creature in a cannon-armed go-kart. Not the best rhyme to open with, but it does explain the explosive entrance and drug like surprise that you get when first exposed to a Crash Bandicoot title. Since Crash first hit our consoles back in 1996, Naughty Dog's muted creation has enjoyed record sales that have caused the four-legged superstar to achieve an international cult status. Since the original conception, the Crash series has been hosted by a number of development teams (Vivendi Universal at present) but love him or hate him, like Chris Evans, this annoying ginge is here to stay.

Already dubbed as Sony's answer to Mario Kart, the latest incarnation in the Crash Bandicoot series is Tag Team Racing, conveniently released to rival the launch of Mario Kart on the Nintendo DS. But with the consoles comes more opportunity and Crash will have to exploit this to its full capabilities in order to eclipse the return of Nintendo's most loveable set of tiny racers.

Crash has an interesting array of characters, and we're introduced to each of these within the opening sequence. Although a little presumptuous in explaining who the characters are, the popularity of this series can afford a few assumptions in our level of familiarity with its cast. Two new additions are the commentators, a fantastic parody of the many commentary pairings that are synonymous with American televised sport. They add their own sharp wit and humour that has become a major selling point of the Crash series, as well as providing detailed in-game hints on the various controls of the game. These are very concise, with clear instructions that are easily bypassed by experienced players, whilst being very informative for those users who are new to the Crash titles.

But wait; let's not get over excited and start mindlessly tapping away to skip through all the hints and tips. I may adhere to the majority of idiosyncratic behaviour of the modern male, but I have been known to occasionally glance at instructions. In this particular situation, this rare blip in my usual behaviour made me realise that there a few new features embedded within this iteration of Crash Bandicoot. Firstly, the most apparent addition is the ability to merge characters and their vehicles during a race. By hitting the triangle button, two characters become fused, freeing one of them to fire from a variety of cannon like weapons that leave other racers smouldering in a pile of destroyed kart parts. You can also easily switch between the two roles, depending on your preference for road rage or gun crime; personally I'm a drive-bys man. With this mastered, the only other trick to racing our ginger friend to cup glory is learning to power-slide. Once again, any seasoned Crash players will be familiar with this feature and even if you've had some contact with Mario Kart at some point, you'll have an idea of what this entails.

The races are action packed, with a wide variety of courses and some truly masterful themes and backgrounds. At times things seem to move a little slowly and the items that can be picked up along the way are a little two-dimensional. Although racing includes a number of varieties, including a Crashinator section, where I was expecting some kind of animals in kart-based take on Burnout's Crash events; imagine my horror when I realised that the main theme of this game was to drive around the track running down innocent over grown plants! But this title is much more than just driving. Crash spends the majority of his time dragging his ginger arse around a mix of fully explorable worlds. Each of these offer not only a number of characters to interact with, but also all manner of weird and wonderful games that can be played. From bowling to shooting wooden discs at pigs that are flown across the screen (note to self; do not take any mind altering drugs whilst playing this game) you're never short of an alternative to kart racing. Playing these games and exploring the environments allows you to collect gold pieces and crystals that can be used to purchase items from other inhabitants of the world you are in, as well as new vehicles to use in races.

The animation and general presentation of the game is awesome. Crash and his various friends and foes have taken on whole new caricatures that are all warming in their own way. Even the evil Nitro has taken a slightly dopier, camper representation than his predecessors, which gives him a more loveable feel. The actions as you guide Crash around are very smooth, accompanied by all kinds of noises that spout from our carrot-topped companion, along with everything he can interact with or perform actions upon. It has to be said, the developers of Crash won't shy away from any form of interaction with the environment we can explore. Any action that can be performed on an object, person, or place is prompted by the appearance of the corresponding button being shown nearby. You'll notice that on entering a world, you are presented with a sea of these button symbols and I can strongly suggest taking the time to press all that you can find, for in particular lies a theme that has remained unexplored until now. Crash has an endless stream of lives; in fact, there are several unique ways in which you can cause him to die. Somewhat of a collectable feature in the game, these short animations of Crash coming to a painful end become more hilarious with each one.

One irritating factor that I always seem to find with these games is that with all the bounding about and leaping from increasingly size-restricted platforms, the camera always struggles to pick the perfect angle to allow you the best view. In certain areas this has been brilliantly combated, but it's in no way consistent, and despite the fact that falling to your death isn't really an issue, it's still a frustrating factor. Also, to be brutally honest, the general wackiness has tipped over into the insane. I love various aspects of this title, but I would be telling porky-pies if I tried to claim that I knew what on Earth was going on half the time. Running around like a crazy redheaded lunatic seems to be the main theme of this title.

But you can't deny that Crash Bandicoot's graphical qualities are one of the best we've seen from a game of this genre. The characters are fastly becoming a representation for Sony in the way that Sonic has for Sega and Mario has for Nintendo. Each edition of this series grows in success and for its millions of fans, this most recent venture will not disappoint. A happy title in a world of uncertainty for parents wondering what games are suitable for their children, Crash Tag Team Racing promotes fun, as well as trying to dispel any feelings of animosity towards the ginger community. Buy it as a gift for a child, niece or nephew, then spend Christmas day pushing them away as you hog the control pad!

Reviewed by Rob Byron for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).