Crash is back once again, and this time, he is burning rubber and ripping up the track. At the Game Awards last week, Activision announced Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. The announcement came as a roaring and exciting surprise, as the announcement follows the recent trend of bringing back classic IP’s and remastering them for a new audience. Most recently, Activision launched Spyro: Reignited Trilogy, a trilogy of remade games based on the 90’s series, Spyro The Dragon. Crash Team Racing comes off the success of Crash Bandicoot: The N’ Sane Trilogy, which was a full remake of the first the Crash Bandicoot games, an iconic representation of Sony PlayStation, and the mid-19990’s. The N’ Sane Trilogy received critical and commercial success, reaching the top of the sales charts and paving the way for the success of the Spyro Reginited Trilogy.
Crash Team Racing was originally released in September of 1999 for the original Sony PlayStation. The game took the universe of Crash Bandicoot and translated it into a kart racing game, which were made popular at the time, thanks to Nintendo’s Mario Kart. Crash Team Racing was a kart-racing adventure, where players drove across a wide open world to various territories to participate in a large variety of races and tournaments. A malevolent alien, Nitros Oxide, challenges Crash and his friends, as well as his enemies, to a race. If Crash and his team win, the planet will be spared. If he and his team lose, the planet will be turned into a massive parking lot. Players selected their favorite character across the Crash universe and raced in several diverse and widely designed stages.
As typical with kart racers, players raced through courses, filled with obstacles and varied terrain. Additionally, they had a plethora of weapons and items to use, from missiles to electric orbs. Using weapons was only part of the strategy to wining. Players needed to drift wisely and time their drifts to achieve a small boost. Additionally, players needed to collect wumpum fruits to power their weapons and items. With shortcuts and various obstacles to uncover, Crash Team Racing provided a huge abundance of gameplay and variety for players. While there would be successors of the game in the future, the original holds many strong memories for older gamers. Some may even argue that Crash Team Racing was superior to the original iterations Mario Kart, such as Mario Kart 64.
The remastered release of Crash Team Racing appears to be made with the same meticulously creativity that managed to make the Crash N Sane Trilogy and Spyro Reignited Trilogy such cherished hits in this generation of game consoles. The game has been completely re-built from the ground up, using new visuals and audio. Everything feature din the original game will return, as well as new karts, tracks, and customization options. Additionally, according to retail listings, there will be additional content added after release, making room for new racers, weapons, tracks,and other content.
Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled will be launching next Summer 2019 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch