Crash Nitro Kart
Quick Information
- Released on November 11, 2003 for PlayStation 2
- Re-released on ??? for Xbox
- Re-released on ??? for GameCube
- Game modes: Singleplayer, Multiplayer (PS2: 2 players, Xbox and GC: 2-4 players)
- Developed by Vicarious Visions, in association with Naughty Dog
- Published by: Universal Interactive Studios (international) and Konami (Japan)
- Also available on Game Boy Advance, JAVA mobile and N-Gage
Overview
Crash Nitro Kart is an indirect follow-up to the 1999 game, Crash Team Racing. In Crash Nitro Kart, the mischievous marsupial finds himself kidnapped by the ruthless Emperor Velo, who forces both Crash and Cortex to race inside a gigantic galactic coliseum for the fate of their planet.
Story
Emperor Velo and the entertainment-obsessed aliens of his empire have kidnapped Crash and his friends to race in the Galactic Circus! But they won’t be alone, because he’s also nabbed Dr. Neo Cortex and his cronies.
Faced with the threat of Earth’s destruction, both teams submit to his whims. Dr. Cortex and his team of evil plan to defeat Velo in the final showdown and return to Earth as its conquerors. But they’ll need to get past Crash and Team Bandicoot, who are on a mission to thwart Team Evil - and return home in time for a nap. (Offcial story summary)
Faced with the threat of Earth’s destruction, both teams submit to his whims. Dr. Cortex and his team of evil plan to defeat Velo in the final showdown and return to Earth as its conquerors. But they’ll need to get past Crash and Team Bandicoot, who are on a mission to thwart Team Evil - and return home in time for a nap. (Offcial story summary)
Trivia
- The Komodo Bros, Rilla Roo, and Nina Cortex were all originally intended to be playable characters, but were scrapped for unknown reasons. In the latter's case, it would have been her second Early-Bird Cameo before her official debut in Twinsanity.
- Velo and the other bosses have unused voice clips suggesting they were originally intended to be playable in the console versions as well. The Velo Mask also has unused dialogue that implies it was originally intended to speak like Aku Aku and Uka Uka do.
- Data of a "Virtual Lobby" exists within the game's files in a fairly comprehensive state, implying it had a lot of work done before it ultimately got cut. Apparently, it would have allowed players to race or battle each other online in an early form of online multiplayer, predating Mario Kart Wii and its online multiplayer by almost half a decade.
- Early trailers and data mines imply the game would have been larger, with 17 race tracks and at least 2 more battle arenas, essentially making it the same size as CTR. Yellow token/gem data also exists inside the final game, implying tracks were going to be made to correspond to the missing colour cup.
- There was considerations to put the tracks from Crash Team Racing into the game with enhanced graphics, but the idea was ultimately cut. Ironically, the idea was essentially done in reverse in CTR's remake, Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled, putting the levels from this game into the original CTR.