Game of the Week: Burnout CRASH! for iPhone and iPad

This Memorial Day weekend is rife with games on sale, but even with the "Because we May" promotion offering up a bunch of options, Burnout CRASH! is our game of the week. It's on sale for $0.99, down from $4.99, and offers a fun, fast-paced destruction derby consistent with the great franchise. You lead your car by pressing the screen down in front of it with the express goal of blowing up as much stuff as possible. Your first crash blocks off traffic, and as more cars pile in, your Crashbreaker meter climbs, allowing you to flick your wreck across the road and explode it next to neighboring buildings.

There are three game modes spanning six themed locations and 18 intersections, all with online leaderboards. Dramatic power-ups are available if you cause enough damage or crash the right cars; they're all goofy, including spinning the Pizza of Fortune wheel to win a prize, or calling in an alien UFO to cause some destruction to the neighborhood. In the end, you're scored based on the dollar amount of damage you cause, and earn bonus stars for accomplishing particular tasks in the level, like blowing up particular structures. As you amass stars, you unlock new levels and new cars with varying crashing power and Crashbreaker ability.

Burnout CRASH! is the perfect game for players with short attention spans; there's always a lot of explosions, goofy sound effects, snappy one-liners, and seemingly random prizes. It's an entertaining time-waster for sure, especially if you've spent any time with the console Burnout games. I find the bass on the audio maxes out every once in awhile, and the leaderboards, for all of their prominence, aren't particularly interesting if you don't have a lot of friends that play it. No dice on cloud saving or Retina iPad textures, but at least it's universal.