Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled Review
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is a rebuilt version of the 1999 go-kart racing video game, Crash Team Racing. The game was developed by the Québec based Canadian studio, Beenox, a newcomer in the Crash Bandicoot series.
Chief among the game's quality is the colorful and varied environments. With only basic polygons and clues from the original trilogy and the original CTR's level design to build upon, Beenox did a spectacular job polishing the old race tracks to a newer generation of consoles. There is just so much going on in a race track, that you will probably easly miss if you blink. All the tracks are filled with various inhabitants, including penguins, polar bears, native tribesmen, and aircrafts and so and so.
Chief among the game's quality is the colorful and varied environments. With only basic polygons and clues from the original trilogy and the original CTR's level design to build upon, Beenox did a spectacular job polishing the old race tracks to a newer generation of consoles. There is just so much going on in a race track, that you will probably easly miss if you blink. All the tracks are filled with various inhabitants, including penguins, polar bears, native tribesmen, and aircrafts and so and so.
Though the initial release suffered from various bugs, including an overall wacky Sewer Speedway track with weird hit boxes, the various patches throughout the second half of 2019 eventually made the game a polished and close-to-the original experience.
The weakest point of the game is probably its P2P based online matchmaking system, which does not include host migration; so when the host of the lobby decides to leave the match, you have to finish the race against bots.
With over 50+ playable characters to choose from, including beloved characters, such as Crash, Coco, Cortex, Dr. N. Gin, Oxide, and also as obscure characters from the past games as Rilla Roo, Nina, Yaya Panda, etc... and Beenox's two new own characters, King Chicken and Hasty are also a welcome addition to the oversized character roster.
Compared to Mario Kart and Team Sonic Racing, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled might not be your get-go game at an afternoon party with your friends, because rather than the items, the skills and muscle memory are more likely to decide the outcome of the race. The mechanics might be difficult to master at first, but CTR really has a lot in store for those, who do master it.
The weakest point of the game is probably its P2P based online matchmaking system, which does not include host migration; so when the host of the lobby decides to leave the match, you have to finish the race against bots.
With over 50+ playable characters to choose from, including beloved characters, such as Crash, Coco, Cortex, Dr. N. Gin, Oxide, and also as obscure characters from the past games as Rilla Roo, Nina, Yaya Panda, etc... and Beenox's two new own characters, King Chicken and Hasty are also a welcome addition to the oversized character roster.
Compared to Mario Kart and Team Sonic Racing, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled might not be your get-go game at an afternoon party with your friends, because rather than the items, the skills and muscle memory are more likely to decide the outcome of the race. The mechanics might be difficult to master at first, but CTR really has a lot in store for those, who do master it.
Our score
96%
- Graphics: 5/5
- Gameplay: 5/5
- Replayability: 5/5
- Sounds: 4/5
- Tone: 5/5
Total score: 24/25
Conclusion: All in all, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is a love letter at its finest for a beloved franchise with nearly twenty five years of history and an oversized cast of characters - but everyone fits well here, and you find a huge roster of characters, each with their own colorful personalities, a lot of room for customization (including characters and karts) and precise, tight-controlling game mechanichs, requiring the utmost precision, which you might not find in neither Mario Kart or Team Sonic Racing. Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is a must buy for this generation of consoles, and a family-friendly experience, which has stood the test of time even 20 years after its initial release.
(This review was written by Wickon on December 26, 2019.)
Other sites' reviews in comparison
The game received generally favorable reviews, holding an average score of 89 on the review aggregator website Metascore, and was choosen as the best sports/racing game of 2019 at The Game Awards and as the best racing game at the Brazil Game Awards. IGN also choose CTR Nitro-Fueled as the best racing game of the year.