With the success of Crash Bandicoot: N-Sane Trilogy, Activision is taking us back to the tracks with the long-awaited remastering of Crash Team Racing with Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled and this is easily, without a doubt, one of the best kart racers.
As there is no typical story mode in this game, we’ll be jumping right into the gameplay side and, right off the bat, the controls for the game are as tight and responsive as ever with all the intricacies one would find in a kart racer. Starting with the characters which range from the title character of Crash to his arch-nemesis Neo Cortex and even the polar bear from Crash 3 are playable right off the bat with more being unlocked from completing various challenges and the included Adventure Mode, which if you are familiar with how Diddy Kong Racing’s Adventure Mode worked in terms of progression then you’ll be right at home with this one, meaning you travel around maps completing races and collecting trophies in order to unlock the boss track and move on to the next set of tracks. Getting back to the characters, there are a few who can only be unlocked with coins you can acquire in-game from completing challenges and races, which are then spent in the newly implemented Pit Stop which has been a point of contention amongst fans of the game, with the biggest complaint being that it’s a pointless way of including microtransaction-like gameplay. However, rest assured that you can easily amass a good collection of coins without spending a penny on coin packs in the store just by playing the game so, like most microtransactions in games, it’s just there for the lazy gamer who doesn’t feel like doing actual work for their prize. I will admit that having some characters being unlockable only by the Pit Stop is a bit eye-brow raising but it didn’t really make me mad or anything, just a bit disappointed that I sometimes miss out on getting certain characters when they appear in the Pit Stop to buy. One thing I did like about the characters is that you can unlock special skins for them either by completing races or unlocking them in the Pit Stop and I love the names of some of them, although seeing Crunch as a dalmatian was a bit interesting to say the least.
Getting back on track, after choosing the character you think is right for your playstyle, you then choose what type of kart you want along with wheels and decals, which none of them affect your stats and are just there as a cosmetic thing. You then choose what track or cup you want to race on and there are a lot of tracks right out of the gate to choose from. Thirty-Nine to be precise, with eighteen coming from the original Crash Team Racing, thirteen from Crash Nitro Kart, and eight brand new tracks with more coming via the new Grand Prix. The Grand Prix’s are a series of limited time events that bring in new courses, Pit Stop items, and new characters for you to unlock, which is done by completing in-game challenges and races. A good idea though, admittedly, most of the challenges are a bit out of my league as I haven’t played kart racing games since Mario Kart 64 so I’m a bit rusty and some require you to play online against racers who are usually better than you, though thankfully you are given the option to buy all the items once the Grand Prix is over so that’s nice.
(Editor’s Note: This review was written when the game was still brand new and, as of this writing, the Grand Prix is over, but you can still unlock items in the Pit Stop)
Once you’re on the track itself, that’s when the meat of this game comes into play. Like other kart racers, you can collect power-ups from crates which will give you an edge in defeating the competition. These can be powered-up, so to speak, with this game's unique aspect: The Wumpa Fruit. Collecting ten of them will not only increase your speed, but gives you a powered up version of whatever item you got from a crate. The TNT Box becomes a Nitro Box, Green Potion becomes Red Potion, and I think the boost gets more time added to it but I’m not too sure on it as I rarely got that power up. In terms of modes to play on, you have your standard ones like Single and Time Trial races along with the expected Battle Arenas. But there are also Relic Race and CTR Challenges. In CTR Challenges, you are tasked with collecting the letters C-T-R before a race is done and Relic Race has a similar tone to Time Trial but here there are crates you can hit that can temporarily freeze time in order to help you achieve the lowest time possible on said track, which I’ll be perfectly honest and say I failed the Relic Races more often than not as this is one of the harder modes in the game if you haven’t mastered drift boosting. Battle Arenas are your typical Multiplayer fair and can be played offline with bots or online with up to four players in modes like Limit Batte (which is your typical deathmatch), Capture The Flag, Crystal Grab (Whoever has the most crystals win), and a free-for-all variant of Capture The Flag called Capture The Bacon. However, at the creation of this review, I didn’t play around with the Battle Mode online, rather I tried one standard race online and it actually took a while to find any racers so either the community is just not there or I picked a bad time to test out the online.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled is, once again, an excellent remake and return of Crash Bandicoot and probably this generation's best kart racer. Dare I say, I think this is even better than Mario Kart 8 Deluxe? Yes, the Pit Stop is a bit of an odd inclusion but that doesn’t detract from the fact that CTR:NF is without a doubt worthy of my praise and I can easily recommend this game to anyone!
Special Note: This review was done back when I used to do reviews for a radio station in 2019.
