Even more powerful versions of items can still occasionally feel lackluster, however, as the momentum of players is rarely fully stopped, with the collision with certain items still sending the player a significant amount forward, keeping those in the lead still a notable distance ahead. Meanwhile, items spread throughout the track can be compared easily to Mario Kart counterparts, but the presence of collectible wumpa fruit can not only increase the player’s speed, but juice up the power of acquired items, causing additional damage or adding length to an item’s impact on yourself and your opponents.
The resulting races feel unique and turbulent each time around, as players continue to master the quickest route possible while also dealing with opponents and track obstacles. Additionally, pressing the L1 or R1 button at the right time while holding the other button can provide up to three small but useful boosts while attempting to return to the straightaways as quickly as possible. Jumping at the highest point of a ramp or hill can provide a boost upon landing, with the boost increasing depending on the height of the leap. The tracks offer various opportunities to avoid these declines in speed, with a simple press of L1 or R1, which activates a jump that can turn into drifting while held down. While speed and acceleration each have clear advantages within a race, turn might arguably be the most important of the three, as even average characters can experience significant slowdowns while making relatively slight turns. Despite offering dozens of kart customization options, only the player’s character choice, spread across three classes of difficulties and varying levels of speed, acceleration and turn, affects the stats of their racer. Featuring an expanded adventure mode, impressively-detailed recreations of tracks, well-tuned and chaotic racing gameplay and extensive customization options, Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled is a fun and faithful aggregation of some of the strongest elements from the arcade racing series.Īt the heart of Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is its iconic racing, which relies on corner cutting and creative item usage to fully master. Sane Trilogy with another remake from the fifth generation of consoles, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.
Now, nearly fifteen years after its last entry, Activision is looking to capitalize on the success of the Crash Bandicoot N. Over the following years, two additional racing titles based around the Bandicoot and his allies and enemies were released with middling receptions, but many fans of the franchise cite the original racing title as not only the best in the series, but an arcade racer that can stand head and shoulders with some of the most well-regarded in the genre. The following year, Crash Team Racing was released to the public with a roster of fifteen characters and eighteen tracks, with an emphasis on keeping momentum through power slides and well-timed jumps. Before the American studio decided to move onto their next IP, the team had one last idea for a send-off for their biggest franchise at the time: an arcade racing title to compete with the freshly-released Mario Kart 64. Back in 1998, up and coming studio Naughty Dog had wrapped up the third entry in their highly popular Crash Bandicoot series, as the titular orange creature continued his rise in popularity to become one of the original PlayStation’s signature mascots.