Three and Out – ‘Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled’

In wake of the recent remakes, Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled turbo-boosts on by with a faithful recreation that brings even more than expected. When this remake was first announced, I was a bit worried about how much content would be present; however, Beenox managed to cram in all of the content from Crash Nitro Kart (sans its adventure mode), creating an extraordinary game packed to the brim with content, both online and offline. Standard fare for kart racers is here with races, battles, and time trials, with the addition of many single player options including relic races, CTR challenges, and crystal challenges, as well as a full adventure mode. There is even the promise of *more* content in the future, with additional characters and tracks to be added every month for the foreseeable future. The online mode is a bit bare-bones with some bugs in its matchmaking, and there are a few inconsistencies in certain courses such as the Sewer Speedway shortcut, but I’m hopeful that Beenox takes these issues into account with its future patches.

The gameplay in Crash is fast-paced and extremely rewarding. The drift mechanic is unique among racing games – rather than simply holding down a single button or wiggling the control stick, button presses have to be timed during each slide to give constant boosts. A large amount of leeway and control is given during these drifts, allowing them to perform on all kinds of turns and even some straightaways. The boosts can keep up momentum from the previous ones, so some insane speeds are possible if performed well. It can be *incredibly satisfying* to pull off constant maximum speed throughout a whole lap. This mechanic is also very polarizing, however. As the speeds gained from these far outpace standard driving, there is a large disparity between ‘casual’ and ‘competitive’ players, which may put off a lot of players. Thankfully, the single-player content has difficulty modes to choose from, so even if online play proves too difficult, there will be ways to have fun regardless. There is supposedly matchmaking to put players of equal skill against each other, but it’s difficult to prove whether this is fact or not.

Some controversy has arisen in response to the “Wumpa Coin” system in this game. In order to unlock extra characters and skins, this currency must be spent in the “Pit Stop.” It is awarded after every race or battle, with a large boost for online play. This also means there are no microtransactions – despite looking suspiciously like a mobile storefront. The prices are very high if only offline is taken into consideration, but I never found too much difficulty obtaining the rewards I wanted within a reasonable timeframe. For those without an active online subscription, however, it may prove to be overly cumbersome to obtain some of these items. They are only cosmetic thus far, so the core gameplay is intact regardless. 

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