CRASH

Crash is one of those arcade titles that proliferated by the thousands in the nineties and which hardly anyone remembers today—except maybe a few devoted fans. And yet, when you actually give it a shot, there's no good reason why it should be forgotten.

It's a fairly straightforward arcade action game from 1996, stripped of almost any frills. You control a character moving around the game area, collecting items while various obstacles and enemies try to mow you down. The game takes place across fixed levels with gradually increasing difficulty. No deep complexity, no grand strategies—just pure arcade in its most primitive form.

Playing it is pretty mechanistic. You move, dodge incoming projectiles or falling objects if you're quick enough. The controls respond adequately, nothing more. The graphics are basic—more of an afterthought than something that'll keep you mesmerized. Sound? Classic beeping that you'll tune out after a few minutes. This isn't presented as some essential experience, just a way to kill time at your computer when there's nothing better to do.

For its era, it was what it was—DOS arcades were pretty ubiquitous, and Crash remains stubbornly average among them. It doesn't stand out from the pack, offers nothing new or particularly original. Those who remember it will be the ones who happened to have it on a disk next to Lemmings and Prince of Persia.

If you're still curious about a tiny slice of nineties arcade without any pretensions to glory, firing it up via emulator or online takes just minutes. You won't waste your time on it, but you won't exactly treasure it as a landmark experience either. It's simply a game—without frills and without grand ambitions.