Egnomac's Video Game Review: Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled
egnomac Egnomac here again to bring you another video game review and this one has been a long time going, the game I'm going to review is the remake to one of the best racing games not named Mario Kart, Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled. Does this remake live up to all the hype lets find out.As stated before the game is a remake of the PlayStation one game Crash Team Racing but this isn't just your typical remake Activision really went all out giving the game a massive graphical upgrade the characters look so much better and are more detailed each of them brimming with personality. Even more impressive not only are all the characters from the first CTR game are brought back which include Crash, Coco, Tiny, N. Cortex, Dingodile, Polar, N. Gin and Pura as well as the boss characters Pinstripe, Papu-Papu, Ripper Roo and Kamodo Joe and Nitrous Oxide the games final boss as well as the secret characters Fake Crash and Panta Penguin and N. Tropy but they also included all but 1 of the characters from Crash Nitro Kart, however the roster doesn't end there shortly after its release Acticvion included the Grand Prix's for each month with every month more characters become available for purchase in the pit stop which I will get to later.
Like the original CTR game the game has all of the same modes as before which include the standard single race, VS, battle, Time Trial and the Adventure mode, for Nitro Fueled more modes have been added including CTR race in which you race through the courses while collecting the letters CTR that are scattered in the level, Relic race in which you try to get the fastest time while breaking time boxes to stop the timer and a new mode was added recently Ring Race in which you drive through rings to score points as you race around the track , each time you complete a lap the rings gets smaller and you go much faster when you drive through them which can cause you to lose control, the more rings you drive through and the faster you complete a lap the more points you earn.
The main focus of the game is the adventure mode and its the same as in the original with the story being an alien overload Nitrous Oxide looks to challenge Earth's best driver in a race for the fate of the planet. to earn the right to challenge Oxide players must win races to earn trophies in order to challenge the boss of each main hub world and earn a key collect all four and you can challenge Oxide aside from trophies and keys you also get a few extra challenges after defeating each boss which as mentioned the CTR races and Relic Races and collecting all of these items and you will be able to challenge Oxide for one last race for the fate of the planet. What makes the adventure mode so much better in the remake is you have two ways of playing the game classic mode in which you play the game as one of the original 8 characters and Nitro Fueled in which you can play as any of the characters including bosses as well as the use of customization's and best part you can change characters at any time.
This game really packs in so much content but we are just getting started, the game also has customization's in which you can drive other vehicle's instead of juts the standard kart as well as paint color and stickers. Another really great addition is the pit stop which is a shop where you can purchase characters, costumes, vehicles, stickers using wumpa coins you earn playing the game, while where on the subject another thing to take note as each month features a Grand Prix with three tiers in which you can fill up with nitro fuel which you earn by completing specific challenges in the Grand Prix fill up the tier to unlock more items like new karts, stickers and characters. As great as these new additions are its not without its downsides, for starters a lot of the items you will want to buy are ridiculously expensive and to make matters worse the game barely gives you enough coins for completing races and other challenges and you will be forced to play more and more until you save up enough to buy the items you want and the game is basically going to force you pay money out of your own pockets to purchase more wumpa coins so you will be able to actually buy the things that you want and its a major problem that so many people hate about the game another issue is the Grand Prix itself which was thankfully fixed originally if a Grand Prix ends and you haven't filled your nitro gauge or not bought all the items for that GP they will not be available until that GP comes around again. As mentioned they did fix this by now allowing you to use your wumpa coins to fill up the rest of your Nitro gauge when the GP ends as well as items from previous GP become more available in the Pit Stop.
As for the game play itself it plays much more smoother and faster then in the original though not without a few annoyances like AI's completely blindsiding you when your' trying to make that important jump only to get hit by an item like a missile or bomb and fall to your doom and fall behind, some of the CTR race challenges can be quite frustrating as many of the letters are placed in ridiculously hard to reach places especially with some of them being located in the air when you make have to make a big jump and its very easy to miss them. Aside from that CTR: Nitro Fueled is one heck of a remake with so many characters included including ones fans have been asking for like Rilla Roo, Pasadena O' Possum, Koala Kong, Tawna and the trophy girls and even Spyro.
Final Verdict: 9 out of 10
Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled is the gift that keeps on giving with so many modes to play, costumes, new tracks, vehicle's and characters to unlock and more being added with each month and the inclusion of engine swap this game has it all and shows no signs of slowing down defiantly a game worth your time.