By Sam Coles:
The kart racer was once a genre that dominated the mid to
late 1990’s, this mostly stemmed from the success of Super Mario Kart in the
early 90’s. Other developers tried to replicate Nintendo’s formula, but most
were unsuccessful however Naughty Dog threw their hat in the ring with Crash
Team Racing in 1999 and almost beat Nintendo at their own game. Fast forward 20
years later and we have a full remake of the game, and I have to say it is a
truly faithful remake coupled with extra content that they didn’t have to add
but they did anyway. Is a worthwhile remake for current fans and new comers?
Absolutely, let’s get into it.
Crash Team Racing has a plot, but it’s not anything particularly
complex just something to set the adventure mode up. An alien called Nitros
Oxide wants to take over the world and turn it into a giant car park, but he
gives the characters of the Crash Bandicoot universe a chance by racing him. He
wants to race the fastest driver on the planet, and if they win they stop him
from turning the planet into a large multi-story car park. The plot is
completely unnecessary,
but the voice acting is fantastic and it doesn’t take itself seriously and got
a couple of chuckles out of me.
Gameplay takes certain ques from the Mario Kart series;
however it puts its own spin on the formula to differentiate itself from the
plumbers racing escapades. For one as I mentioned in the plot synopsis it has
an Adventure Mode, what this entails is that you complete various races to unlock
trophies, to race bosses and eventually to race Nitros Oxide. However that is
not all, you can go back to various stages and complete various challenges,
which can consist of collecting crystals, CTR tokens while winning the race at
the same time and general time trials, nothing particularly out of place for a
Kart Racer.
Crash Team Racing’s controls compared to other kart racers
rely on speed and momentum; you have to chain drifts and jumps around corners
which can make it a tricky game. I never felt that I was miles ahead of my
opponents; races would be very close every time I would cross the finish line
where they are nipping at my ankles. The controls are so tight that it feels
immensely satisfying to throw a kart around a corner with a drift, to then
accelerate with lighting speed with a boost.
Like most kart racers there are power ups, they tend to
share similar properties to similar games in genre but in CTR they are
thematically appropriate to the Crash Bandicoot universe. You have items such
as TNT crates, rockets and masks that make you invincible for a short period.
However these items can be increased in power, how you do this is by collecting
crates filled with wumpa fruit which also increases your overall top speed.
This keeps things fresh and players on their toes, as it can tip the odds in
the favour of a losing racer, all the races are always very close due to this.
Visually this game is absolutely stunning, like the Crash
Bandicoot remakes from 2017 it looks like a Pixar movie that you can play. Yes
it is clear they have reused assets from the Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy
such as character models and certain animations, but that is not a bad thing as
they look great and is a good way to cut corners to focus on other things. All
the characters look amazing with individual hair strands rendered with
exquisite detail, coupled with the bright and colourful race course to
compliment them.
The game does have some issues which bring it down, first
are the loading time they are unbearable. I thought this may have been an
isolated issue for the Xbox One, but no I asked PS4 and Nintendo Switch users
and they have the same issues. The other problem is that the A.I. opponents can
be extremely aggressive even on normal difficulty, now some will probably say
this is intentional but this is ridiculous when they are miles ahead because
you are not pixel perfect with driving. It led me to almost throwing my controller;
it’s extremely annoying and a bit of a dampener on what is a great game.
Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled is a classic brought back to
the current generation of gamers, it’s colourful, challenging and has lots of
content to keep you occupied. Yes it has some technical issues, but that
doesn’t get in the way the fact that it is a fun and light hearted game, this
is a game I highly recommend just get ready for the challenging adventure mode.
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