Phantom Crash

Are you ready to Rumble? Well go get on your Scoobie
and let’s fight… In Phantom Crash where it’s 2025 and the
Japanese government has moved the capital to “Neo Tokyo”
because of a very bad air pollution problem. In “Old Tokyo”
there is a new sport called Rumbling where there are mech like
vehicles called Scoobies that battle it out in four different arenas to claim
the pride of victory. So climb on in your Scoobie
and let’s check out the fast-paced action title Phantom Crash
…..

Phantom Crash is a third person shooter where you pilot a mech,
called a scoobie through different courses against other pilots in the Tokyo
setting. Unlike some of the popular mech games like Microsoft’s MechAssault
for the Xbox, there are many gameplay elements that give the game an RPG feel,
such as going through a 60 day schedule, and having many customizations available
for your mech. You have a Quest mode, and a Versus
mode. Versus mode simply pits you against other scoobies to see who can come
out the winner, but where you’ll get the majority of your play is the Quest
Mode, which encompassed many different options as well as an engaging storyline.

After
you pop in the disk and see an extremely well done FMV sequence, you’ll head
straight for the Quest mode, where you create a rider profile. After you register
as a rider with Club Wired, you’ll see Pepper and
her Chip, Salsa. They’ll provide you with all sorts of background
information. . . What you can do. What you should do. The registration
process in itself is quite entertaining as the characters introduce themselves
and crack jokes about each other throughout the process, and throughout
the game this is continued. You leave Club Wired and you’re faced with the town
map. There are many options available and you’ll visit each of them many times
over the course of a game.

You
start out the game with a bit of cash, which you’ll need to either buy or rent
a scoobie. There a three major manufacturers of scoobies, Ventuno,
Kojima, and American Stars. If you’re a little
more frugal you can rent a scoobie at Wild Machines. The cash
you get can buy a decent scoobie, but you’ll need to customize it to remain
competitive in later stages of the game. Wild Machines offers parts for your
scoobie, and you can fine tune it by visiting Plus Tech. Head
on over to Sonic Amp to purchase different tunes for your listening
pleasure throughout battle. The Garage is basically your home, where you keep
your scoobies and do a bunch of other things, including sleep. Ready
to Fight? Head back over to Club Wired after you’ve checked the
Schedule and begin Rumbling!

The
game will be a mix between fighting, and customizing your mech. The time in
between the fights is a nice break from the action, and adds a whole lot of
depth to Phantom Crash, but the real excitement resides in the Rumblings themselves,
where you’ll compete in four different arenas against about a dozen other scoobies.
Before you go in to battle, you’ll see a map, usually with four entry points,
detailing the moving locations of the other scoobies in the arena. Choose
wisely, a subtle entrance can be key to a good start. Once you enter the
arena you’re up against about six other scoobies, all out to make it out number
one, and make it out in one piece. The gameplay is fast and furious, and the
‘mechs‘ handle rather well considering their mechanical
makeup. It plays similar to a first person shooter in the sense that you navigate
with the left thumb stick, and look in different directions with the right thumb
sticks. On screen radar and aiming devices ease the finding and destruction
of the other scoobies. You have weapons attached to your arms and shoulders,
up to four total, two on each side ranging from machine guns to homing missiles.

Once
you’ve located a scoobie, take ‘em out! Finding one,
or one finding you should come extremely quick and the battle ensues rapidly,
often with up to 6 scoobies engaged in battle at once in plain view. Lending
itself the name Phantom Crash, is the ability to cloak, or disguise the scoobie
with the surrounding environment through the use of your Optic Camouflage,
making your scoobie nearly invisible for a short amount of time, an extremely
impressive and useful effect. You’ll notice that the scoobies are colored differently,
indicating their rank in the current arena, this is helpful in determining which
opponents you NEED to destroy to increase your ranking. Without a doubt
you’ll take on quite a bit of damage in battle, that’s were the supply team
comes in handy, dropping down packages containing Armor, Money,
and Ammo. As we said before, you’ll need the money to upgrade
your scoobie. Ending the current Rumbling session is done in one of two ways,
the most obvious is to be destroyed. A better way to end the day is to wait
by one of the exits to open and get out of dodge!
Either way you earn money for the battle and move on to the next day.

The graphics in Phantom Crash are a mixed bag of stills and incredibly
animated sequences and effects. The environments are drab, as they should appear
in a mech style post-apocalyptic looking title, and can be deceptive to the
title’s true technical prowess. Most of the weapon animations are solid but
basic, the stealth effect through the Optical Camouflage is top notch, and really
adds a finished feel to the graphics. It would have been nice to have a bit
more variety when it comes to the available arenas and scoobies in general,
but takes nothing away from the fast paced intensity of the game.

A very unique soundtrack, and a very unique presentation through
Dolby Digital makes Phantom Crash sound very good. The weapon effects and effects
of the scoobies movement are convincing, but perhaps there could have been more
elaborate sounds relating the the huge machines. Voice overs are done very well,
and add to the RPG themed action title, although they can be a bit boring if
you’re just playing for the all out action battles.

This is really an awesome title that will keep you coming
back. There are 60 days of matches in the main Quest mode, and completing the
full circuit should get you the bang for the buck! The countless options and
customizations available are amazing, going through the game with a different
chip installed isn’t just placing a different tag on the machine, it makes you’re
scoobie react differently, very nice. Multiplayer is solid and offers tons of
hours with friends. Excellent replay value!

Overall Score: 8.0/10 [Not an Average] Highly
Recommended

It is unfortunate that Phantom Crash was released
just before MechAssault,
since it seems to have been overshadowed by the massive appeal for online gaming
and more straight forward gameplay. None the less, Phantom Crash is certainly
a title that everyone can enjoy, offering one of the best developed games around
in comparison to some of the more shallow titles available. I have no choice
but to Highly Recommend this to anyone who’s looking
for great action play, and a good, engaging story to boot!

• Official Game Site
• Encore
• Genki
• Phantagram Interactive
• Phantom
  Crash Screenshots (Temporarily Unavailable, Sorry.)
• Phantom
  Crash Hints and Cheats

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