Crash Team Racing (2010)
Crash Team Racing is the provisory title to what may have been a successor to the 1999 game with the same name. The game was under development at High Impact Games around 2009, a video game development studio composed (mostly) of former Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games employees.. The game was developed for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii, and was scheduled to be published in late 2010 by Activision. It was cancelled early on, with a single playable stage and four characters being created.
It was supposed to be sort of a tie-in for Crash Landed, which was another cancelled game developed by Radical Entertainment, who handled the previous three installments in the main series (Crash Tag Team Racing, Crash of the Titans and Crash Mind Over Mutant), however, after Activision pulled the plug on the main game, the production on Crash Team Racing was laid off as well.
It was supposed to be sort of a tie-in for Crash Landed, which was another cancelled game developed by Radical Entertainment, who handled the previous three installments in the main series (Crash Tag Team Racing, Crash of the Titans and Crash Mind Over Mutant), however, after Activision pulled the plug on the main game, the production on Crash Team Racing was laid off as well.
The first images of the game surfaced in February 2012, while a gameplay video captured by an unnamed developer of the game surfaced on Crash Mania later on around 2017. A complete race track based on the Wumpa Island beach theme was finished, and 4 playable characters were completely modeled and animated, including Crash Bandicoot, Dingodile, Polar and a brand new character called Land Shark, who's identity is easy to guess just by his name.
The game is somewhat based on Crash Team Racing, retaining the power-sliding mechanism, though there were some new stuff introduced to make the game distinct, including a stunt system, where certain combinations could be performed while airborne, to gain additional boost upon landing.
The races would have featured 16 racers on track and a developer's portfolio listed "25 playable characters".
The game is somewhat based on Crash Team Racing, retaining the power-sliding mechanism, though there were some new stuff introduced to make the game distinct, including a stunt system, where certain combinations could be performed while airborne, to gain additional boost upon landing.
The races would have featured 16 racers on track and a developer's portfolio listed "25 playable characters".
High Impact Games / Burbank, CA 2006 – Present
Crash Team Racing – Prototype – PS3 - Xbox 360 - Nintendo Wii
Lead Animator
§ Animated many In-game Playable Characters and Cinematics.
§ Oversaw Team of Animators.
§ Coordinated – Directed all animation for Prototype.
§ Created Toy Prototypes for Characters and Functionality within game.
- Portfolio of a now unknown developer (circa 2010).
Gameplay
The game seems to have played similarly to those of CTR and CNK, featuring powersliding and also adding a new way to gain boost, by doing various tricks while airborne.
Another interesting element of the gameplay would have been the 12 swappable car parts called mods, which were all animal themed. The tires, bumper, and engine had 4 mods each, so there were 64 possible different combinations. For example, bubblefish tires would enable the player to drive on the surface of water, octopus wheels would allow the player to drive on blended surfaces (like the anti-gravity segments in Crash Nitro Kart), and the frog engine would let you jump over huge obstacles.
Another interesting element of the gameplay would have been the 12 swappable car parts called mods, which were all animal themed. The tires, bumper, and engine had 4 mods each, so there were 64 possible different combinations. For example, bubblefish tires would enable the player to drive on the surface of water, octopus wheels would allow the player to drive on blended surfaces (like the anti-gravity segments in Crash Nitro Kart), and the frog engine would let you jump over huge obstacles.
Here's a list of all the moddable parts:
Tires:
Engines:
Bumpers:
Tires:
- Standard Tires: Regular tires with no special effects.
- Crab Tires: At home on the asphalt or sand. These tires loose (sic) no traction on beaches and dunes.
- Octopus Tires: The suctions (sic) cups on these tires allow for driving on smooth VERTICAL surfaces.
- Blowfish Tires: These tires can be used to race on water.
Engines:
- Standard Engine: A regular engine with no special effects.
- Pig Engine: An engine that belches out flames to boost your speed.
- Electric Eel Engine: Surging with electricity this engine shocks enemies on contact.
- Frog Engine: Hop to new heights with this engines(sic) powerful double jump feature.
Bumpers:
- Standard Bumper: A regular bumper with no special effects.
- Crab Bumper: This greedy kart bumper snatches power-ups and wumpa fruit from other drivers.
- Warthog Bumper: This heavy weight bumper easily rams aside all other karts with its tusks. (Also good for breaking rocks and other obstacles.)
- Armadillo Bumper: This bumper rolls into a ball that's immune to attacks when the brakes are applied.
Cancellation
Due to the cancellation of Crash Landed, this spin-off tie-in became unusable on its own, and development halted on Crash Team Racing as well.
The game was later recycled into DreamWorks' SuperStar Kartz, which was released on November 15, 2011. a mediocre kart racer featuring various DreamWorks animated feature stars such as Shrek and some characters from Madagascar.
The game was later recycled into DreamWorks' SuperStar Kartz, which was released on November 15, 2011. a mediocre kart racer featuring various DreamWorks animated feature stars such as Shrek and some characters from Madagascar.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack for the game was composed by Gabriell Mann and Rebecca Kneubuhl. It was recycled for the iOS release, Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 2.
Gallery
Videos
– Video courtesy of Crash Mania
Concept art
– Concept art couretsy of Crash Mania