The new Nitro-Fueled mode allows you to play as any character on the roster and features three distinct difficulty levels. Alternatively, you can just continue to the next world to wind your way towards the final boss.Īdventure Mode is largely as it was presented in the original game, but does come in two flavours: classic functions exactly as it did on PS1, with one pre-set difficulty level and only Crash himself playable. Diddy Kong Racing nicked the concept from Mario 64's Castle, then Crash grabbed it from there, but it's as strong a concept in this iteration as in any other.Įach level presented isn't just a race, either - once all have been completed and that world's boss smashed, you can head back into races for other challenges like time trials, collectables and hidden unlocks. Rather than a series of 'cups' or races connected by story sequences alone, Crash's Adventure takes from Diddy Kong Racing and drops the player into hub worlds that you drive around, entering races and tracks in a sometimes nonlinear order. Mastering the art of a tightly-timed CTR drift will be vital if you want to stand a chance in the game's Adventure Mode. Describing how a game 'feels' to play is always a nebulous concept, but the handling here can be summed up in one word: tight. Beyond that, it also defines CTR in general, with the way this system forces you to take corners spilling over into every aspect of the game's design and how you race. Mastering the power slide and boost requires a great deal more concentration and dexterity than in Mario Kart, and feels like the sort of feature that'll define competitive races. The tighter your timing, the better the boost. It's surprisingly interactive and tactile, requiring players hold one button and steer before hitting another button in the right timing to gain the boost. Some of CTR's systems have likewise aged brilliantly the basic mechanic of power sliding to build up a bonus boost is present in pretty much every kart racer going, but in CTR the system is an absolute stand-out. I recently reviewed Sonic Team Racing, another colourful and thoroughly enjoyable kart racer, but the style of that game is generally nowhere near as distinctive as the designs here. All of that translates beautifully to a modern high-definition environment - these deliberately over-blown character designs pop in high definition in a really striking way. Things had to be big and stand-out to pop on that hardware. The designs of the characters of Crash were so over-the-top in part because of the limitations of the PS1 hardware. Instead, every visual element you see has been rebuilt and redesigned for modern hardware, and the result is actually mind-bogglingly gorgeous. This isn't a visual filter, higher resolution and some sharpened textures like you might get in some remasters. I've seen Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled referred to as a HD Remaster, and while that's technically true like the re-releases of the Crash and Spyro games before it, that doesn't really do it justice. Arguably Naughty Dog's best title for the original PlayStation, this kart racer has it all: handling to rival Mario Kart, a distinct attitude and style to match Sonic's racing efforts and a fleshed-out single-player Adventure Mode that copies the structure of the excellent and now oft-forgotten Diddy Kong Racing. Once Activision suddenly rediscovered the popularity of Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon, the return of Crash Team Racing seemed pretty much inevitable. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug - but luckily, Crash Team Racing is as excellent a kart racing experience now as it was in the nineties.
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