Developer: Beenox
Publisher: Activision
Originally released in 1999, developed by Naughty Dog, Crash Team Racing returns with loads of content from its sequels Crash Nitro Cart and Crash Team Racing in a refurbished Nitro-Fueled adventure. The opening credits alone are enough to give you flashbacks to childhood, sitting in front of the TV with your Playstation 1 hoping that your memory card has enough space to save your current progress.
For first time players, unfamiliar with the original game, Crash Team Racing is an adventure racing game that has you race various characters around challenging race tracks with constant setbacks, to unlock the next track and a boss at the end of each area – its a lot like Mario Kart. The game consists of 31 maps, time trails, unlockable keys and relic challenges for completionists.
Beenox have remade the game with gorgeous, colourful and slick graphics that bring a more detailed animation with a lot of attention to detail. The new look makes the visuals seem a lot more realistic which is really refreshing. All of the maps and characters are exactly as you remember but with added details. The tyres on the karts look real, you can make out all the textures and touches in the background and Crash himself actually looks like a bandicoot instead of a triangle – an excellent improvement from 1999. The consoles play at 1080p, 30fps on PS4 and Xbox One, and 720p 30fps on Nintendo Switch.
The game features a huge customisation mode where you can adjust the look of your character, kart and buy emotes. There’s a transaction system using a coin currency which you can acquire from each race you complete, the quicker you race, the more coins you win. The tracks are still incredibly challenging, and have the perfect balance between frustrating and fun.
The only and main annoyance comes from the bosses – they are rough! They have unlimited items and mostly require luck to beat, rather than skill.
A new element, not seen in the original game is online play. This features customising your characters, voting for the tracks you want to race and matchmaking with seven other players to beat. With the game still in its early stages though, connections can be a bit laggy, but with continuous patches in the future this should be fixed pretty quickly.
Overall, this remake has all the essence of the original game. It has enough content for hours of fun, beautiful graphics and is a total memory capsule for those that played it back in the day. It’s a great game for single players and playing with friends, featuring a 4 player split screen mode. Crash is a must for all your future hangouts with friends with constant fun but be careful, there may be some future feuds amongst you!
