Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled

Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled is a remake of the old 1999 PS1 racing game Crash Team Racing. A space villain named Nitros Oxide arrives on Earth and threatens to turn it into one large parking lot. Crash and company need to determine the best rider in order to defeat the main boss. And this will, of course, require a series of races.

Staying true to the original

All tracks are a perfect recreation of what we saw in the original, but with a much more lively and colorful background. The Polar Pass has a polar bear DJ with dancing penguins, Papu's Pyramid has a boatman trying to climb a waterfall, and Mystery Caves have pterodactyls flying over lava. Things that most people won't even notice as they rush past at high speed have a huge level of detail that was previously impossible to achieve due to technological limitations.

This is great work from Beenox, it really feels like you're playing the original again. The ride feels polished and responsive, and you still need to drift around every corner and keep your speed on the straight. The game is still unforgiving if you make at least one mistake on high difficulty. All aspects of the game remain the same as you remember them from the original, including the bosses.

Despite the cartoonish ambience, Crash Team Racing is not - and never was - a game for children. The beauty of these arcade races is that even if you get into corners perfectly and know the tracks by heart, some of the lagging participants can launch a rocket at you. Because of this, your cards will turn over, and you will lose speed, and sometimes you can fall off the cliff. But what a pleasant feeling when you follow the leader's tail for the whole game, and in the end you launch a shell at him and come first!

You can also protect yourself from missiles with various shields, temporary invulnerability, or drop a box with TNT into an approaching projectile. But it will be very difficult to do it all - you have a lot of opponents on your tail. And they use not only rockets - there are also fireballs that demolish everything in their path, and timers that slow down all riders, except for the one who activated the bonus. We'll have to be patient. However, the balance of buffs in Nitro Fueled is fine - if you go in front, you will more often come across opportunities for defense, if in the back - tools for attack.

Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled Customization

A completely new feature has appeared in Nitro Fueled - an in-game store where you can purchase cosmetic items. But don’t worry, donation is absolutely not required - all things here are bought for Wumpa-coins. They can be obtained for participating in races, and some of the skins are unlocked for free as you progress through the game. In the store you can buy everything for tuning your "cars", paint and stickers. All this does not give any advantages on the track, it is only needed for customization.

You can also unlock additional characters for Wumpa coins. Some of them also open during the game, for example, having defeated the boss in the main story, you can play as him in any mode. One character becomes available when you complete all time trial races. You will need coins to unlock the heroes from Crash Nitro Kart, and it's worth doing this not only for the sake of the collection. Each of them has different characteristics - speed, acceleration and agility.

New tracks

Talking about features that Crash Team Racing didn't have. Nitro Fueled has reworked levels from the Crash Nitro Kart game. And these tracks are much more interesting than the classic ones. For example, in Clockwork Wumpa, the player will have to overcome moving gears, and in an underwater map, they will have to slip between the rotating blades of a submarine engine. In other words, on these tracks, the theme of the map and the environment are actively used in races, which neither Crash Team Racing nor its remake can boast.

There are 34 tracks available in the game already at the start. That's a decent amount of trail to train and master. And with 26 playable characters, seven game modes plus adventure and multiplayer, Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled simply keeps the player alive with tons of content.

Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled Multiplayer

Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled is a family game and can be played by up to four people via split screen. There are mini tournaments, survival matches, collecting items, and even capturing flags. Mini tournaments are the same races, but the participants will have to go through 4 tracks, according to the results of which the total of the points scored is calculated.

With the transition to a modern console, online multiplayer appeared in Crash Team Racing. Up to eight players participate in the race at the same time. Playing this mode, you will gain a completely different experience - living people are much more dangerous rivals. You won't be able to relax here for a second.