Burnout CRASH! ‘always our intention’, says Criterion

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Those who were upset to discover that Burnout: Paradise had no Crash mode, a popular staple of the series, have been offered an explanation from the game’s developer, Criterion.

It’s because they were saving it for its very own spin-off title.

On Friday, Criterion announced Burnout CRASH!, a top-down arcade game where the aim is to create as much chaos as possible by orchestrating traffic pile-ups.

“This has been a small team of guys working for about a year at Criterion on a small downloadable game,” Alex Ward, creative director of Criterion told Eurogamer.

“If you played Burnout Paradise, everybody asked me at the time why we didn’t put Crash mode in. This was why.”

“It was always our intention.”

Burnout Paradise omitted the fan-favourite mini-game in favour of Showtime, which tasked players with throwing and bouncing their car about the road, earning more points the longer they’re able to do so.

In CRASH!, players are rewarded for crashing into cars, triggering explosions and generally causing as much vehicular mayhem as possible. It’s been revealed the game will have three game modes, 18 crash junctions and six locations.

Burnout CRASH! is heading to Xbox LIVE Arcade and PlayStation Network this autumn.

The internet response to Burnout CRASH! hasn’t been great. Perhaps the trailer above doesn’t sell it well – but there’s something about the teaser that looks a bit, well, rubbish. Knowing that it’s Criterion, however, which has a very respectable track record, it’s probably best to reserve judgement until the autumn.

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Burnout CRASH!

  • Platform(s): PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
  • Genre(s): Racing

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