What would be a perfect remake to the greatest kart racer of all-time was sabotaged by Activision's greed. The developers went above and beyond with adding all the Nitro Kart tracks and a few new ones too, a plethora of new characters, and tons of cosmetics for your karts and the characters. Problem is that you need to grind for a lot of that by collecting Wumpa Coins. To get lots of Wumpa Coins you either have the option of playing online or spending money on the microtransactions that Activision forced the developers to include. The online has problems with disconnecting and could be better set up in how it pits people together. I would not say I am bad at this game. I have beaten every Oxide ghost and most of them were fairly easy, but I can't count how many times I either got disconnected or got my ass kicked by people way better than me. This remake had potential to be a perfect 10/10 remake, but Activision's questionable and greedy choices prevented that. Even with it's glaring issues, this is easily worth the $40, especially if you haven't played the original.

Diferente de outros games de kart, CTR traz uma mecânica de drift & turbo que é necessário usar a todo momento na pista pra ser no mínimo competitivo, então não vejo a galera não-fã do original curtindo tanto esse remake.

Pros veteranos, é um dos melhores remakes já criados. Personagens, pistas, modo campanha... Tudo com o notável salto gráfico necessário, mas mantendo o carinho e a essência. Também é cheio de memes internos pra quem acompanhou essa franquia cheia de altos e baixos.

Temia pelas mudanças no gameplay, mas é a melhor coisa. Muito responsivo e preciso, temos total controle do kart e sentimos isso. Não é fácil devido sua complexidade, mas se você esforçar pra ser bom, você vai ser e ooh boy, it feels good... Lembra sobre ser um game competitivo? Modo online é SELVA e ali os fracos não tem vez.

The perfect kart racing game... if only they could have fixed the lengthy loading times, this would easily be a 5/5. Maybe a next-gen version would resolve the issue... They aren't atrocious, but they are long enough to detract from the overall experience and getting back on the track.

I love Mario Kart; it is my childhood kart racer... but it has to relinquish the crown to the superior racer: Crash. There is no blue shell bullshit, artificial difficulty, and "fun for all ages" Mario racing here - Crash doesn't play any games. This is your "git gud" kart racer that is purely skill based. The more time you put into it, the more you feel yourself getting better and better.

I recall mentioning to my cousin as I was playing on the Medium difficulty mode, that there would be no way I'd be able to platinum this title - Hard mode was insanity, and the time trials were even crazier... well, after a couple weeks of putting in work, I was rewarded one of my all-time favorite platinum trophies. :)

Excellent and addicting game.

• Perfeito! Melhor jogo de corrida que eu já joguei e um dos meus jogos favoritos de todos os tempos.

• Esse jogo foi minha porta de entrada para a franquia Crash. Eu gostei tanto desse jogo que eu o platinei e ainda sim tive motivos o suficiente para jogar mais 300h dessa maravilha.

• O único defeito que esse jogo tem é o modo online que é meio bugado. De resto, não tenho do que reclamar.

Never really was a big Crash Bandicoot fan back in the PS1 days, nor was I a fan of its take on the mascot racer. Just like Activision's other lineup of remakes, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is great to play and look at. This is not only a remake of the original Crash Team Racing, but one that adds content from later games in the series like Nitro Kart and Tag Team Racing.

It's obvious that CTR was meant to be a Mario Kart competitor. While its lineup of characters isn't as noteworthy as Nintendo's, CTR is superior in its actual racing department. I was quite surprised at the small differences, such as the focus on drifts/boosts and the boss races featuring unique obstacles. It was a great time, despite it being quite short and challenging.

The only thing I absolutely need to dock this rating for is Activision's use of microtransactions this time around. This feature became apparent to me when I started earning coins after accomplishing tasks and challenges, at which point I discovered a majority of the unlockable racers to be LOCKED behind these coins. By the time I finished the main story mode, I just barely had enough to redeem for one character from the absolutely absurd gacha system. This practice isn't new from Activision, but it's a surprise after seeing the Crash and Spyro trilogy remakes not have any system like it at all. (THPS 1+2 had something a bit similar, but not too the extent of unlockables.)

If you're looking for a non-Nintendo racer, this is one of the best out there right now. Just make sure you understand the cost of entry.

No other kart racer matters now that this game has completed its Grand Prix seasons. Nearly a year of free DLC (which included new maps, characters, karts and various skins/paint jobs/tires) included with the base game on top of the already wonderful Adventure mode PLUS all the tracks from Nitro Kart all redone in a beautiful HD environment with some of the best kart racing physics/item usage in a game like this makes this the best kart racer I've ever played and puts the rest of the genre to shame. Comparing it to Mario Kart which has the obvious catch up mechanics with items, items here can be obtained all over the place so if you're good, you can really shine without getting hit by some bullshit red/blue shell while you're owning.

Melhor que Mario Kart e só minha opinião importa

Como eu nunca tive a oportunidade de jogar Mario Kart entre todas as gerações que ele lançou, CTR sempre foi um dos meus jogos favoritos no PS1 e, na minha opinião, o único do gênero que conseguiu ficar de igual para igual com Mario Kart. No CTR, tudo é muito bom e bem feito, desde a gameplay extremamente precisa até a qualidade maravilhosa das pistas.

O clássico era perfeito e o remake é igualmente bom, pois não só refaz tudo com a mesma qualidade, como implementa coisas diferentes. É verdade que o jogo tem micro transação, mas essas, são apenas de elementos cosméticos e, particularmente, isso não me interessa e não é por isso que vou dar uma nota menor.

I was supposed to do a "quick replay" of this so I could use it as a refresher before I come here and gush about it. I then proceeded to 101% the story, smash each Cup Race on Hard, and get the Master Wheels over a weekend. Oops.

My various musou reviews may have clued you into this fact already, but let me make it plain: I love genres that most people don't pay much mind to. Kart racers are one of them.

And CTR is the best, in my eyes. Nitro-Fueled just made it better.

The core difference is in the boosting. In most other kart racers, you drift to build up a 3-stage boost and then release to go flying forward.
CTR hands you more direct control: You drift, yes, but you boost manually. While this might seem like a straight boon, much like open-book exams, you need this control. Boosting becomes a game of timing; hitting the boost button as your brakes stir to speed up, doing this three times consecutively for a bigger boost.
Somewhat ironically, due to its ability to drift in a straight line, Speed types - the 'hardest' engine setup - are the easiest to use.

'Boost' as a state of being is also something that, at higher level play, must be maintained at all times. On some maps this is easy, as there are multiple boost pads that will immediately put you in maximum boost state and refresh that invisible timer. On some maps, ironically the 'easiest' maps, it becomes a test of pure skill more than anything.

Similarly, boosting is deeply tied into the map layout. Most maps with shortcuts have at least one that requires you to be going as fast as possible unless you'll miss it, which means this is an entire game of "The Best MK8 maps".
Likewise there's a decent amount of movement tech that allows for some not-quite-intended skips (that Beenox willfully kept in). Once you learn that releasing the accelerator and holding brake in mid-air increases your turn speed, you enter a whole new level of skill.

...Which does lead me to this game's only mechanical downside, even though this downside benefits me specifically:

CTR is a very unforgiving game. Not so much against the AI, for they'll crumple even against an Acceleration engine, but kart racers are best enjoyed socially and this one... isn't. Having access to emulators means I can now play most of my dumped Switch library with friends, but CTR is never an option because the gap between myself and everyone else is country-sized.
Items in particular aren't very well balanced, and this game lacks any great equalizers like Mario Kart does. If you gain the lead in CTR, it's often hard to actually lose it unless you really fuck up or you're playing with players of a similar skill level.
Don't get me wrong, equalizing items do exist, but they either provide a negligible bonus that won't get a last place player to the front, or they have bad tracking that's easily avoided by taking a shortcut.

Okay, that's the CTR portion of this review done. Let's talk about Nitro-Fueled.

The base unupdated NF package includes the entirety of CTR, as well as every course from Nitro Kart and all of that game's characters. Plus, kart customization is a thing and there's a whole bunch of alternate karts/tires/colour schemes available, cool.

But as you may have heard, Activision live-serviced the shit out of this game via free monthly battle passes/seasons.

And... it was good. No, really. I know saying the words "live service", "battle pass" and "good" might make you wince, but I mean it when I say this was the only game to benefit from live servicing.

The seasons were easy to max out and mercifully kept the shop from overflowing. Casual play could see the season maxed out and all the goodies earned within about a week or two, and sweats like me could get it even quicker. Completing seasons gave you a ton of free stuff, as well as wumpa coins to buy out the store eventually. The actually appealing parts of each season were in the battle pass to boot, which was oddly out of character for Activision.
Add in all the free tracks, that AMAZING update that allowed people to select engine types independent of character, brand new time trials, a new mode specifically for addicts like me, and other small but meaningful updates, it was a pretty good deal.

The new tracks were fantastic by the way. A fantastic blend of fanservice, seasonal concepts, callbacks and good map design made them all memorable, and near the end I was arguably more excited for the free tracks than anything else.
And speaking as a Crash megafan, a lot of the scrimblo character picks were deeply surprising but not unwelcome. I can't poke fun at people who wanted utterly no-name picks for Mario Kart 8's booster pass when I was out here excited to get Komodo Moe, Pasadena O'Possum and Yaya Panda of all characters.

...

So.

You might've noticed a lot of past tense there, maybe not.

Either way, it's not coincidental. See, like all good things, CTRNF ended, and the state Beenox left the game in actually made me miss the live service shit.

With seasons now gone, all of their rewards have returned and are available permanent... ly in the shop. The Fortnite-esque shop with a rotation.

See, during the game's lifespan, the Fortnite shop was contentious, yes, but truthfully there wasn't much in it. Rotations were player-specific, meaning anything you bought would be knocked out of the pool. Wumpa coins came in at such a good rate that, as I alluded to up above, it was fantastically easy to buy out the shop and see it empty until the next season.

But nowadays the shop is stuffed with 8 seasons worth of stuff + the basegame items + some post-season reskins that most people have agreed were designed to be shop filler. What's worse is that despite the developers adding endlessly-resetting challenges that provide Wumpa coins, earning them isn't quite as easy anymore. Both because the seasons are over, and because playing online - which confers a massive bonus - is harder thanks to the deadened playerbase.

Now, ultimately all of this is kind of meaningless to the actual experience; no tangible content is hidden behind seasons or shops, and if you just want to play the best kart racer ever made you don't even need to glance at the store. The story, the tracks, the modes, they're all available from the getgo. This is, after all, why it's a 4.5 and not a 2.5.

Fortunately there is a Switch mod that unlocks all the shop stuff, but I know not everyone has either a hacked Switch or an emulator.

In the end, despite my woes about the current state of the game, it is still the king of kart racers to me. The game it's based on turns 25 this year and to this day it's never been dethroned.

The original Crash Team Racing is about as close to perfection in the genre as you can get. A surprisingly comprehensive single-player campaign with hub worlds, boss fights and extra challenges, a soundtrack consistently better than the original platformer trilogy it's based on (listen to Dragon Mines, N Gin Labs or Cortex Castle and challenge me on that) and deep intricate mechanics like Reserves and Sacred Fire that can be used to blitz through tracks without ever encroaching on the enjoyment of a casual player.

As good as the best Mario Kart games are, (and they're very good!) they simply can't compete with CTR in my opinion. Nintendo would never allow the kind of deep gameplay provided by the aforementioned Sacred Fire mechanics for irrational fear of alienating casual players - as a matter of fact they'd fight against it. (And already have by toning down powersliding mechanics in recent games.) They also wouldn't design tracks with so many shortcuts, intentional and not baked into their layouts. Watch a speedrun of this game and watch runners absolutely take apart tracks like Papu's Pyramid or Hot Air Skyway, it's immense, and almost entirely down to the player's own skill.

If Crash Team Racing is an almost flawless kart racer, then CTR: Nitro-Fueled is similarly an almost flawless remake. Literally all it does is visually update the games and add tons more content, as any decent remake should do. Almost everything mechanically is left pristinely preserved, even if a few of the original's cooler glitches are sadly and understandably smoothed over. It's insane the lengths they went to to add new characters to this game, the villains from Crash Nitro Kart are here, Spyro is here, the fucking dancing girls from the win screen are here??? The game was supported for a surprisingly long time after its release with free new characters, tracks and cosmetics, it has about as much content as you could possibly ask for from a game of its kind.

Really the only thing holding it back from being perfect was its lackluster online matchmaking/systems at launch and Activision's general bullshittery - adding what were basically lootboxes to the game after previously promising they wouldn't before launch.

The game's a bit dead now, and I think that's a bit sad - because I don't think it ever got the recognition it deserves. As far as remakes go, I think it deserves to be held up alongside the Resident Evil 2 and Final Fantasy 7 Remakes as one of the best ever. Online may be barren now, but it will still and forever be worth a purchase for the sheer amount of single-player content it has to offer. Huge recommend.

Never played the original, so this is like a brand new game to me.

This game oozes personality. The stages are beautifully done, letting you feel like you're actually racing in these unique themed areas, rather than just a generic racetrack with a themed backdrop. The roster is varied and full of life.

The customisation stuff really adds life to everything, I especially love that the legendary skins give new podium animations (another little addition that adds to the games charm).

This game is well known for its pretty big skill gap compared to other kart racers. While I can respect that, I found that it clashed too much with the mechanics that still make this game, well, a kart racer. The constant item spam is still a thing, so the idea of thinking of this as competitive flies in your face (literally) when you get hit by 10 items in a row.

The drifting mechanic never felt good to me even after I got used to it. The amount on focus needed on it all race makes it feel less fun and more stressful to get the perfect timing constantly, forcing me to ignore the gorgeous levels. The drifting itself felt off to me, with the little jump needed to be done before drifting, so the timing was often off, I'd drift too late, turn too early throwing my angle off, or I'd turn too late after I landed and not end up drifting at all. There were certain times I wasn't even sure if I had managed to hit the drift, because the feedback for doing so is pretty subtle.

Single player mode is fine despite its simple plot, it's got some cutscenes that are fun. It's super short though, so they pad this out by making you do every track 4 times for 100% (6 times if the track is a boss race track!).

Online is bare bones as all heck. There's no kind of ranking or rating system, so every race is basically just a one-off and you move to the next one, never feeling like you're earning anything. The race also ends 20 seconds after first place crosses the finish line, and thanks to the immense skill gap this game has, a player in first can easily finish 30+ seconds ahead of everyone else, especially since the items in this game aren't great for catching up to anyone too far ahead. But if you're in the back with the others then the items will only make sure the person in first just gets a bigger and bigger lead.

An overall fun kart racer, but once you've done the short story, unless you really want to master this game via the time trial ghosts and relics, and are content playing single races online, there's not much to keep you drawn in.

Nunca joguei o CTR original de PS1, mas essa versão aqui é um ótimo jogo de kart. Muito conteúdo, pistas bem elaboradas, um gameplay divertido e um desafio alto mas possível (pelo menos no modo Normal). Não acho que chegue ao nível de excelência de Mario Kart 8 e Sonic ASRT mas é provavelmente a melhor opção do gênero para PS4. Algo a ser criticado são as microtransações adicionadas pós-lançamento, o jogo poderia ser mais generoso nas recompensas para minimizar o grind para personagens extras e cosméticos.

definitely a good game, maybe even a great one. i appreciate how much content you're getting here: 31 unique tracks in the base game and they added 5 new tracks for free. honestly what holds me back from loving this game is that i've never been that crazy about the game's OST, and in a racing game, that's critical for me. also, the microtransactions are scummy as hell and leave a bad taste in my mouth. you're telling me i'm going to have to do an obscene amount of in-game grinding to get access to every character that's in this update. . . or i just have to drop like $60 on your in-game currency? get the fuck outta here lmfao

While not as polished or fun as Mario Kart, I admired the adventure mode in this game, which takes a leaf out of the always underappreciated Diddy Kong Racing's book with its hub world and unique challenges, including some appreciated freedom as to which to tackle first. I also admired the turbo system, which takes some mastery and works very differently than the Mario Kart template (relying on timing and button inputs rather than the stick toggling of old or automatic ease of new Mario Karts). Crash Team Racing is not a pushover, and will require some real mastery of its systems to get through its single-player offerings (since you will have to get first in each race to continue). Of course, there are also multi-player options, which are fun but since the game has a steeper competitive learning curve than other kart racers it probably works best between veterans of comparable skill levels.