Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled - Early Production
Early name ideas
Logo design proposals show early, alternate titles for the game, such as Crash Team Racing Revved Up (alternatively spelled with an apostrophe, as Crash Team Racing Revv'd Up). The slogan "Revved up" was kept for advertisings of the game for a while.
Unused Skins
List of Unused Skins
- '60s Coco
- Ballet Dancer Brio
- Sumo Papu Papu
- Santa Claus Papu Papu
- Vampire Stew
- Angel Cortex
- Original Ninja Penta skin
Sumo Papu and Ninja Penta
In this scan of a pre-release article, there are two visible skins that did not make it in the final game, Sumo Papu Papu and Ninja Penta Penguin, though a different Penta Penguin skin was available.
ArtStation Findings
These renders were posted to ArtStation, but were later removed by the author, who we will not name.
Reveal Trailer Differences
Polar Pass Penguins
The race track Polar Pass was originally inhabited by penguins. In the final version of the game, there are no penguins present on the track. The small bridge shortly after the finish line was originally crossed by a penguin momma and 3 baby penguins, instead of polar bears as well.
Missing giant fishbone
The giant fishbone above the entrance to the cave on Polar Pass was a late addition, as it is nowhere to be seen in the trailers and early footages.
Missing tails
Both Ripper Roo and Dingodile are missing their tails in the reveal trailer and early versions of the game. This was most likely changed due to backlash from the fanbase.
Preview Demo Differences
This preview demo was playable on PlayStation 4 KIOSKs at various stores.
Character Select Screen Differences
- The background is slightly different and misses a color transition seen in the final version of the game.
- The character icons are not hand drawn and seem to be based on N. Sane Trilogy screenshots.
Different Character Select Hierarchy
- There were originally Racer and Skins subcategories to choose from. In the final version, you can access the available skins after choosing your character.
- The decals were originally accessible from a different sub-menu, called Decals. In the final product, they are accessible after choosing a kart body.
Removed Stickers
- These early stickers are carried over from N. Sane Trilogy and none of them appear in the final game.
- There is a different icon for removing the stickers than in the final game.
Crash Cove differences
The giant Crash head statues scattered around Crash Cove are missing from the level.
Polar Pass differences
The giant fishbone is missing from the entrance of the cave section of Polar Pass.
Preview Demo 2
This demo had Sewer Speedway, Papu's Pyramid, Electron Avenue and Clock Work Wumpa as playable levels.
General differences
There is always text displayed over characters heads even if they are CPU controlled (e.g. CTR-RACER-06).
Leaked screenshot
A screenshot shared over Twitter in March 2019 by a formal Beenox employee revealed that Pinstripe and Oxide had different icons late in development, with Pinstripe's icon oddly using one of his skins.
The giant Crash heads were a late addition to the race track Crash Cove.
Both Dingodile and Ripper Roo were missing their tails in early gameplay footage of the game. Users on r/CrashBandicoot showed backlash for the missing tails, and they were likely added because of it.
Polar Pass was originally inhabited by penguins.
Post-release changes
I think most of these changes were a result of the r/crashbandicoot community's voice.
Sewer Speedway had to be patched after a backlash on r/crashbandicoot, because the shortcut was too hard to take and the half-pipe karting was not possible.
The Velo mask was added to protect the CNK characters.
The character select screen was organized as Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced instead of CTR, CNK and Bonus. This was changed with the Spooky Grand Prix update in October 2019.
Originally, during the races the characters would not use their costume icons. It was later fixed to make characters with different skins more distinct from each other.
Sewer Speedway had to be patched after a backlash on r/crashbandicoot, because the shortcut was too hard to take and the half-pipe karting was not possible.
The Velo mask was added to protect the CNK characters.
The character select screen was organized as Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced instead of CTR, CNK and Bonus. This was changed with the Spooky Grand Prix update in October 2019.
Originally, during the races the characters would not use their costume icons. It was later fixed to make characters with different skins more distinct from each other.
On-Disc Findings
Unused Characters
The following characters went unused, but have data related to them in the game labeled as "Driver[Character]". They are Fasty, Willie Wumpa Cheeks, Ripto and The Sorceress, with the latter two being Spyro the Dragon antagonists. These are no longer considered to be upcoming characters, as 1.20 was confirmed by Beenox to be the final major update to the game.
Retro Stadium on Switch
Retro Stadium is an exclusive track in the PS4 version of the game, but data for it seems to exist in other versions. The file chunksinfo.pak contains track data, and this file in the Switch version includes Retro Stadium (T155_Sony_Stadium) as well.