If Burnout Crash could exist in a vacuum, it'd be awesome. A combustible mix of pinball, destruction-derby racing, and a bizarre Japanese game show, it challenges you to ram one of several cars of varying sizes and weights into a vehicle-filled intersection, causing as much property damage as possible. Of course, Crash exists in the real world, and thus we can't shake our disappointment over the fact that we haven't seen a bigbudget Burnout since 2008's Paradise.

Still, this top-down, unabashedly whimsical take on Crash mode offers core mechanics similar to those in its third-person predecessors, alongside lots of familiar fun. Ramming your whip into other cars -- and then repeatedly blowing it up to cause additional mayhem -- simply never gets old across three game modes, even if your inner Burnout-fanboy might roll his eyes when a lobster monster or UFO comes in at the end of the scene. It's goofy, but never at the expense of the series' heritage -- though we do miss the ground-level view of the carnage that the previous titles provided. It's also too bad that all 18 of Crash's stages are largely the same, unlike the old Burnouts. And where are the instant replays of our best, most catastrophic wrecks?

Also, if you own a Kinect, unplug it here. Kinect-ified Crash offers nothing a controller can't do in a fraction of the time: every action becomes slower to input and with a less precise result. It's no way to maximize your high score -- or your fun. It's like playing Halo with both hands in full casts.

We can't help but wonder if Crash would get our hackles up so much if it didn't sport the Burnout moniker. As is, though, it's a tasty appetizer that, while offering plenty of meat for the $10 asking price, only serves to intensify our hunger for the real thing.

On Xbox Live Arcade (Kinect-compatible)

+ Mindless, arcade-y fun; challenging friends via Autolog is a great use of Live.

- Kinect controls ruin the game; Burnout label is misleading.

? Did Microsoft pay Criterion to add Kinect support? Seriously...

7.5