Race... to save the world... again
Crash Nitro Kart is a kart racing game which has a small story - a new villian Emperor Velo has kidnapped Crash and his friends, as well as Dr. Cortex and his team, and forces them to race for his planet’s entertainment. Playing as either Team Cortex or Team Crash you must race through four galaxies (each spanning three tracks) and win all the cups. When doing this you can challenge Velo for your freedom. The story isn’t great, but it is a valid excuse for a race. Crash Nitro Kart features old characters from the previous incarnations and new characters. The most notable new inclusion is N.Trance, an egg-shaped character who brainwashes characters to race for him. Crash Nitro Kart has a main story mode, a single player mode, multiplayer mode and arena editor mode. The arena editor mode isn’t as exciting as it would seem, the only thing you can edit is where the items go, there is also a pre-requisite you must fulfill before you're able to test your track.
Let's do the timewarp again
Steal the bacon
Adventure mode is where you will spend most of your time. Adventure mode consists of races, relic races, coin collecting challenges and crystal collecting challenges. The aim is to bring team Crash safely back to Earth. Multiplayer consists of five different modes. Limit Battle sees you hit your opponent as much as possible, Last Kart Driving is an elimination event, Crystal Grab is a mode in which you collect as many crystals as possible, Capture The Flag explains itself and a new mode is included called Steal The Bacon. This is the most unoriginal multiplayer mode I have seen in a long time, the objective is to fight over one flag, instead of two.
Speed is extremely important in racing games and it is in this area that Crash Nitro Kart falls down. It constantly feels like you are going slower than normal, to make the game seem fast you need to keep boosting or wait until the higher levels where there are more turbo accelerators. Its predecessor was much faster and if you are used to that it makes Crash Nitro Kart easier because you have more time to process your moves. The tracks are basic and themed around recent Crash Bandicoot areas. There are only twelve tracks, which brings the lifespan down. It seems like Vicarious thought that by inserting an “arena editor” it would make the tracks new and fresh but the tracks are very similar to the ones in Crash Team Racing. There are a lot of characters to unlock, just about any character appearing in any of the games makes an appearance and fans will be pleased to know that N. Oxide is playable this time around. There are also cut scenes to unlock as well as new tracks. The cut scenes are surprisingly well crafted and add some polish to the game. There are just fewer than 20 power-ups which appear in-game. These power-ups do various things such as freezing opponents, shocking opponents and startling opponents. Vicarious has added some new power-ups which add variety to the game and give it less of a familiar feel.
Oh well, try again next time
The graphics look like a first generation Playstation 2 game, the lack of creativity in the tracks makes the game feel less evolutionary. It would be expected that due to the graphical sacrifices the game would run at a fast frame race, this is not the case and there is slowdown during erratic scenes. This dulls down how intense the battles can get and eventually becomes annoying.
Look familiar?
The characters go slow already and this means sometimes it is hard to tell if it is your character or the game slowing down. The loading in the game keeps below five seconds for every segment which makes progression to the next race easier. Unfortunately to switch between worlds you must go through a portal (so the game can load) and this means the free roam mode of the game is interrupted.
The character banter is atrocious and will become increasingly annoying. Each character would have a maximum of five lines, at times the banter is expressed at the wrong time. The sound is very formulaic. The usual Crash theme song is present with a bit of remixing to make it seem original. Tedious in-game songs make the game seem less like a race and more like a Sunday drive.
Don't get your hopes up, they will crash down
Crash Nitro Kart is a huge disappointment. It is inevitable to draw conclusions to Crash Team Racing and the fact the game was on an older console and is still better is telling. If you are a huge fan of the previous game then hire this game, it won't take very long to complete. Crash Nitro Kart is let down by some disappointing factors.
And again
Track design is lackluster and familiar and it always feels like you are in a slow state. If you don’t mind the lack of speed or unimaginative track design then this would be a good purchase for a budget title, but for $99.95 I cannot recommend it, over the cheaper Crash Team Racing. The few additions to the game all work, it is a shame there is not enough of them.
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