2017 saw Activision remaking the original Crash Bandicoot trilogy with Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy, while in 2018 they brought back the iconic purple dragon with Spyro Reignited Trilogy. This year, they’re going back to the bandicoot, and with Beenox, they’re remaking Crash Team Racing, the kart racing PS1 classic originally develope by Naughty Dog in 1999. Understandably, a whole lot of people are excited to get their hands on the game. As its launch approaches, in this feature, we’ll be taking a look at fifteen vital things you should know about the game. Without further ado, let’s jump right in.
MORE THAN JUST CTR
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled might be, as the name suggests, a remake of the 1999 PlayStation classic, but it pulls in content from subsequent Crash kart racing titles as well. Namely, it includes content – which we’ll go into more detail in a bit – from Vicarious Visions’ Crash Nitro Kart, which released in 2003, and from Radical Entertainment’s Crash Tag Team Racing, which released in 2005.
ROSTER
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled has a pretty solid roster of characters to choose from. There’s going to be well over two characters in total, and of these, all the characters that were originally seen in the original game will be making a return. Of these characters, quite a few will be unlockable characters- if you get the standard edition of the game, that is.
NITRO KART CHARACTERS
Of the character roster, nearly a dozen characters are going to be pulled in from Crash Nitro Kart, including most of the boss characters that appear in that game. These include Crunch Bandicoot, Zem, Zam, “Real” Emperor Velo XXVII, Krunk, Geary, and Nash. Of those, Crunch Bandicoot, Zem, and Zam will have to be unlocked.
NITROS OXIDE
And finally, there’s Nitros Oxide. The villainous alien served as a boss character in the original Crash Team Racing, but was not a playable character. In Nitro-Fueled, he’s going to be playable as well- though he will have to be unlocked (unless you get the game’s Nitros Oxide Edition).
TRACKS
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled will also feature over thirty tracks, including all tracks from the original Crash Team Racing, as well as tracks from Crash Nitro Kart. From Nitro Kart, you can expect to see the likes of Inferno Island, Hyper Spaceway, Out of Time, Clockwork Wumpa, Jungle Boogie, and Tiny Temple making a return- to name just a few.
BATTLE ARENAS
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled also has a total of twelve battle arenas, of which seven are from the original title, and five are added from Crash Nitro Kart. From Crash Nitro Kart, the battle arenas that are included in Nitro-Fueled are- Frozen Frenzy, Magnetic Mayhem, Temple Turmoil, Terra Drome, and Desert Storm. The battle modes that were added in Crash Nitro Kart will also be included in Nitro-Fueled.
KART CUSTOMIZATION
Karts are also customizable in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. Customizations include paint jobs, decals, wheels, kart body, and more. Customization components can be unlocked in the game’s Adventure Mode, or purchased in the in-game store using the Wumpa coins you collect during races.
SKINS
Players can also equip several unique skins to all the characters, with some skins having special animations for specific events, like at the winner’s podium. Skins represent various titles in the series, including Crash Tag Team Racing, Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, and many others.
RETURNING MODES
You can expect to see every single mode from the original Crash Team Racing in Nitro-Fueled as well- wouldn’t be much of a remake if it didn’t do at least as much as the original did, right? That includes the Adventure Mode, the Battle arenas, Time Trials, Versus mode, and Arcade mode.
ONLINE MULTIPLAYER
One of the major new features being added to Nitro-Fueled that wasn’t to be found in the original Crash Team Racing is online multiplayer. Of course, a PlayStation One game wasn’t going to have online play, and a remake on current gen hardware having online play isn’t something to celebrate either- but being able to kart race against players across the globe is still an exciting prospect.
LOCAL SPLIT-SCREEN
It’s not all about online multiplayer though. If you want to go local and play with a bunch of friends while sitting in the same room, sure enough, you can do that. Just like the original title, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled will also have local split-screen multiplayer.
PS4-EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
Crash Bandicoot began as a PlayStation franchise, and Crash Team Racing was a PS1 exclusive- so it makes sense that the PS4 is going to get some exclusive content for Nitro-Fueled. There’s going to be retro skins for Crash, Coco, and Cortex to give them a more PS1 polygonal look, as well as retro karts and a retro track to race on.
NO CROSS-PLAY
While cross-platform play is something that’s becoming more and more demanded from players, in spite of a few notable games supporting the feature, it’s still a pretty rare thing to see in most games. Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, sadly, won’t be supporting cross-play on any platform with any other platform.
XBOX ONE X AND PS4 PRO ENHANCEMENTS
Like most major (and even many minor) releases these days, Crash Team Racing is going to leverage the extra power that the Xbox One X and the PS4 Pro boast of. On both systems, the game will run at a 4K resolution- that said, there’s no word on frame rate yet. We’re hoping that there will be the option to prioritize frame rate over resolution, but again- the developers have said nothing on this front.
PRICE
Much like Activision did with Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy and Spyro Reignited Trilogy, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled isn’t going to be released as a full-priced $60 game. Instead, it’ll be sold at a lower price of $40- which is surely bound to pique the interest of a whole lot of people.