Crash Team Racing is a kart racing game featuring popular characters from the Crash Bandicoot series. The gameplay is very similar to other kart racing video games like Mario Kart: players have to choose a character and compete against the other racers on various racetracks. The story mode allows you to choose any one of the characters to complete all the main races and beat the ultimate boss Nitrous Oxide. Each of the main races are against 7 other AI competitors with 5 boss races. There are also a few arcade modes up to 4 players.
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Amo
Hard to tell if CTR is over or underrated. You compare it to Mario Kart and it's got worse multiplayer. Between this and Diddy Kong Racing it's a toss up as to who has the better single player. What I like about Crash Team Racing is that the drifting system is easy to understand with room to improve and the overall balance of everything is solid. This game you can beat in an afternoon or two so really I recommend it to anybody.
It's also a good alternative to Mario Kart in terms of multiplayer. But when you have party games you need to take into account that many people won't be as down to experiment. Crash Team Racing multiplayer doesn't have a ton to offer that Mario Kart 64 doesn't so they're more alternatives than competitors. But since Mario Kart has the superior brand recognition, it's always the go to at gatherings.
It's also a good alternative to Mario Kart in terms of multiplayer. But when you have party games you need to take into account that many people won't be as down to experiment. Crash Team Racing multiplayer doesn't have a ton to offer that Mario Kart 64 doesn't so they're more alternatives than competitors. But since Mario Kart has the superior brand recognition, it's always the go to at gatherings.
I poured many hours into this game as a kid, I wasn't exactly the best at racing games. Best feeling was unlocking other characters was from other Crash Bandicoot games was a great highlight. If I remember rightly I was either a Coco or Polar main.
And this is one of few games where, my brother and I would go head to head. I blame this game for my competitive streak.
And this is one of few games where, my brother and I would go head to head. I blame this game for my competitive streak.
it is really good but it just aint mario kart. that said, it's competition at the time was the dire mario kart 64, so...
Surprisingly much better than any avaiable Mario Kart prior-Double Dash!!/DS/Wii etc.
Those controls felt like a dream, no kidding.
Those controls felt like a dream, no kidding.
crash team racing (CTR) is a game for the longest time i've wondered if undervalue. as far as kart racers go, MK64 was obviously the big trendsetter, but i do think CTR succeeds in a lot of ways MK64 falls short. the movement feels so much better and less stiff, and it feels like you're given a lot more room to do interesting things, whether it be short cuts or miniturbos in short turns. i think if we were just judging the kart racers of the 90s on how they feel, CTR would easily take the gold medal.
where i get lost with CTR is in the surrounding crust of it. adventure mode is fine for what it is, but relic races are agonizingly tedious if you're trying to go for platinums (what, you play crash bandicoot games and don't go for the platinum relics?). and boss races largely feel useless; anyone who has a basic competency with CTR's systems will be able to pass a boss character by the first lap and leave them in the dust until the end. lastly, i just don't really feel very passionate about a lot of CTR's tracks. they're extremely hit or miss for me, and while the good ones (hot air skyway, polar pass, oxide station) are usually ones i look forward to racing on, the bad ones (n. gin labs, tiger temple, coco park) are either dull or genuinely unfun to race on.
hell, even some of the tracks i like, such as papu's pyramid, sewer speedway, or polar pass, become nightmares to try and optimize for either relic races or time trials. the tracks in CTR have a love for cycle-based obstacles that make optimizing them have this annoying element of RNG that ruins the experience for me. i also have broader nitpicks with the game, like how the whole "you have to do a minimum of three time trials per stage if you want to complete everything" aspect is really tedious and annoying, especially when your first time trial beats either of the ghosts (which it often will). and i expect that this point will be contentious with fans, but i've never really given a shit about the soundtrack and found it to be fairly unmemorable, especially when you compare it to contemporaries like diddy kong racing. that's pretty bad for a crash bandicoot game, but it's also the kiss of death for a kart racer, regardless of when it comes out.
i'm dogging on this game a lot in this review because it feels like the positives are obvious to state. the game looks great for PS1 (and still holds up in most respects, imo), it controls well, the items are fairly balanced and it never feels like you lose a race because your opponent got lucky, etc. i have never outright disliked CTR, let's be clear on that. when i was younger, i was obsessed with it, if anything. i just also see that it has a lot of things that hold it back from being that special type of game to me. i appreciate what it did for the genre, though, because i suspect it was what really sold the idea of the kart racer as a viable spinoff for later series to try. and how can i dislike anything that might've helped lead us to the eventual apex of kart racers known as sonic & all stars racing transformed?
where i get lost with CTR is in the surrounding crust of it. adventure mode is fine for what it is, but relic races are agonizingly tedious if you're trying to go for platinums (what, you play crash bandicoot games and don't go for the platinum relics?). and boss races largely feel useless; anyone who has a basic competency with CTR's systems will be able to pass a boss character by the first lap and leave them in the dust until the end. lastly, i just don't really feel very passionate about a lot of CTR's tracks. they're extremely hit or miss for me, and while the good ones (hot air skyway, polar pass, oxide station) are usually ones i look forward to racing on, the bad ones (n. gin labs, tiger temple, coco park) are either dull or genuinely unfun to race on.
hell, even some of the tracks i like, such as papu's pyramid, sewer speedway, or polar pass, become nightmares to try and optimize for either relic races or time trials. the tracks in CTR have a love for cycle-based obstacles that make optimizing them have this annoying element of RNG that ruins the experience for me. i also have broader nitpicks with the game, like how the whole "you have to do a minimum of three time trials per stage if you want to complete everything" aspect is really tedious and annoying, especially when your first time trial beats either of the ghosts (which it often will). and i expect that this point will be contentious with fans, but i've never really given a shit about the soundtrack and found it to be fairly unmemorable, especially when you compare it to contemporaries like diddy kong racing. that's pretty bad for a crash bandicoot game, but it's also the kiss of death for a kart racer, regardless of when it comes out.
i'm dogging on this game a lot in this review because it feels like the positives are obvious to state. the game looks great for PS1 (and still holds up in most respects, imo), it controls well, the items are fairly balanced and it never feels like you lose a race because your opponent got lucky, etc. i have never outright disliked CTR, let's be clear on that. when i was younger, i was obsessed with it, if anything. i just also see that it has a lot of things that hold it back from being that special type of game to me. i appreciate what it did for the genre, though, because i suspect it was what really sold the idea of the kart racer as a viable spinoff for later series to try. and how can i dislike anything that might've helped lead us to the eventual apex of kart racers known as sonic & all stars racing transformed?