Toys for Bob has confirmed that Crash Team Rumble won't include a story mode of any kind, with the game instead focusing solely on multiplayer modes.
Yesterday, Activision revealed a first look at gameplay for Crash Team Rumble, giving us an idea at how the game's unique competitive platforming action looks in motion. Although we've known for some time that Team Rumble will focus on multiplayer, Crash fans have wondered if there would be any single-player options at all - it seems that won't be the case at launch, however.
As reported by WellPlayed, Toys for Bob recently confirmed in a preview that Crash Team Rumble won't have a story mode at launch. During a developer presentation with Toys for Bob associate Creative Director Lou Studdert and creative director Dan Neil, the pair were asked whether the game had any narrative components.
In response, they confirmed that Team Rumble will be entirely multiplayer-focused. When WellPlayed later asked an Activision representative for clarification on the matter, it was told that statement was correct, but that Team Rumble would "receive updates over the course of its lifetime". Whether that means a single-player mode could eventually happen further down the line isn't clear, but it does suggest that it's a possibility.
It's also possible that the Activision representative just meant that Crash Team Rumble's multiplayer modes will be updated after launch, something that Toys for Bob has previously confirmed. For now, though, it's best to assume that Team Rumble is going to be focused entirely on multiplayer.
Interestingly, Toys for Bob were also about the identity of the "Goth Bat" character that's being introduced in Crash Team Rumble, but said that it wasn't ready to announce that information yet. Although Toys for Bob has confirmed there's no story mode in Team Rumble, introducing characters like the Goth Bat suggests that there will be at least some narrative elements to the game. It'd be a bit strange to just add a character to the Crash universe without some kind of explanation as to who they are, even if Goth Bat did appear in It's About Time's ending.