5/5 ★ – bokonon764's review of Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.

Best kart racer I’ve ever played and the definition of a solid remake. Also, my favorite racing game, but that’s coming from someone that’s only ever played cartoonish kart racers, so take that for what it’s worth. Nitro-Fueled is the ultimate send up to the Crash Bandicoot franchise, and a major glow up to one of the best games in the series. I played the fuck out of this game on Switch back in 2019 when it came out, but online play kinda dried up over there, so bought it again on PS5. Goddam, I love this game. I was super let down by Toys For Bob’s most recent Crash game, Crash Team Rumble. It was a shitty game, used the lackluster Crash 4 designs, content was lacking, no single player modes and just an overall letdown. Beenox, on the other hand, delivered the most satisfying send up to to the Crash series to date. Almost every character from the franchise is playable; granted, many of them are stuck behind the somewhat predatory online store, but they’re there. If you don’t want to spend actually money, the in-game currency can be earned through gameplay, just be prepared to grind….a lot. Despite the money spent or the grind, Nitro-Fueled is packed with content and Crash Bandicoot fun. Nitro-Fueled has that cartoon magic. Play as a monstrous thylacine in biker gear, and have a Viking polar bear roll an old-timey bomb at you, missing narrowly, and hitting the time wizard instead. Anthropomorphic bandicoot ladies in track suits and a gangster potoroo pass you up, and you hit a cutesy panda wearing qipao with a rocket. All driving go karts. Suspended on a track in the air. By blimps. It’s a madhouse, and it’s so much fun. CTR is the only game I play online. And I’m actually good at it! I consistently place in the top 3 and even come in first on occasion. It does improve the life span of a game so much, just to be able to play against actual players and not AI. It makes me long for the days of hours of couch co-op with my brothers and friends, a time in which the original CTR was a common game being played amongst us. Maybe it’s the years of experience that keeps me sharp at this game, but every time I come back, it’s so easy to fall back into the rhythm. CTR has a drifting/boost system that elevates its gameplay to a much more technical level. Get three prefect drifts in row, and you get a bonus speed boost. Combining that with the boosts you get from turbo pads can have you absolutely flying through tracks. Playing online can make one painfully aware of how skill levels and what speeds are possible. Throw in a mastery of the drift boost system and a knowledge of the tracks, and you’ll dominate. Although, that’s easier said than done; for a kart racer, CTR’s gameplay is deep. CTR features a lot to do in the way of single player modes, but it’s the adventure mode that really shines. There’s a hub world that you drive around in, go through portals to play different races; it’s a model that was used in two more Crash racing games, I don’t know why Mario Kart never hopped on that model, Nintendo could’ve done that so well. What do I know, maybe they have. Nitro-Fueled includes all the original racing tracks from the original game, like 10-12 redesigned tracks from Nitro Kart, (the 03 sixth generation pseudo-sequel to the original CTR) and a whole crop of brand new tracks that were released piecemeal as free DLC; or maybe more like service updates. Whatever, they weren’t in the base game. Some of the reworked Nitro Kart tracks are great, same with the new tracks; Nina’s Nightmare is a particular favorite of mine, but it’s the original Crash Team Racing tracks that really shine. Like I said, aside from the online play and single-player campaign, there’s a few other modes to play around with, as well as local multiplayer. There’s daily and weekly challenges that update accordingly, keeping things fresh. The adventure mode is relatively short, but I still haven’t beaten the whole thing because the final FINAL boss is ridiculously hard…too hard for me, at least. Full completion of this game is an Herculean task, one that I’m not about to take on, and I doubt I could complete…I settled for unlocking all the characters, full completion of adventure mode, (except the final FINAL boss) and a huge chunk of the cosmetics. The soundtrack fucking SLAPS. Josh Mancell composed the original games music, and Beenox brought him back for modern recreations of the 16-bit originals. This was the last Crash game that Mancell worked on, and he doesn’t disappoint. The fact that Mancell has written 4 distinct main themes for each of the Naughty Dog entries in the Crash series, each one more infectious than the last. The track and menu themes are great too; especially the brand new down tempo version of the main theme that serves as the online lobby music. I’m not done with this game, maybe I’ll never be done with it. It snuck up on me; in writing this amateurish review, I’ve found that Nitro-Fueled might be one of my all-times. Is that insane? I don’t know, fuck it, I fuckin love this game. Light and arcadey, CTR is a perfect companion game to that souls like you just started. If you want soul crushing difficulty, it’s there for you. Play this game, it’s the best, yo.