How did Naughty Dog pull something like this off on a first try?

An absurdly fast, absurdly content-packed kart racer with mechanical depth that took a decade for Mario Kart to even begin catching up to. Can you believe that Mario Kart 64 wasn't even three years old when this came out? Crash Team Racing makes that game look like it was last-gen. Hitting a triple boost off of a single powerslide and breaking the sound barrier as you get three full seconds of airtime off of a ramp that you hopped off of to clear a barrier and nail a shortcut is an unparalleled feeling. Getting rocked by any item and spinning out while everyone overtakes you will make you unwittingly spit a line like "you little fucking polar bear shit" at your TV. Oxide cheating in the boss duel and rocketing off before the starting gun made me want to run his kart off the tracks and launch him forever into the infinite depths of outer space.

Immense respect for not having rubberbanding in this. It absolutely sucks to be on the receiving end of it, but stealing a lead and keeping it is incredible. Crash Team Racing is a game of maximizing the suffering of everyone who isn't you, especially if they're playing the fucking polar bear.