Crash Team Racing

Crash Team Racing is a kart racing game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. The game was released in North America on September 30, 1999 and in Europe on October 20, 1999 and Australia on January 9, 2000.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Despite being a Mario Kart clone, it's a good one. It actually has lots of stuff that's not in Mario Kart (at the time at least) like Adventure Mode.
 * 2) Karts control very well, making it feel like you're actually in control.
 * 3) Large roster of characters including the bosses.
 * 4) Long single-player campaign to unlock more characters and some stages. And even if you don't play the campaign there's already plenty of content available right away.
 * 5) Lots of references to the original Crash Bandicoot trilogy.
 * 6) A whole lot of shortcuts are in the tracks, with varying activation methods as well as requiring strategic boosting and careful driving in some cases to successfully cross.
 * 7) Hopping high in the air gives you a speed boost when you land, and the larger the fall the longer the speed boost is. This boosting mechanic makes racing less idle and more strategic as you must find the path that will give you the longest air time and boosts to win.
 * 8) Insanely hilarious amount of fun in VS mode, you can also race in 2 player modes either alone or having other CPU opponents racing with you as well
 * 9) Fun battle mode.
 * 10) Lots of cool power ups in the game, and they're better once you collect 10 wumpa fruits in a race (for example, TNTs stick to a player and can be shaken off by hopping madly, but the juiced-up version is a Nitro crate that explodes on contact).
 * 11) Time Trial included for replayability, you can save your ghost to see how good you are, and if you're fast enough you may unlock more goodies
 * 12) Lots of cheats that can change the gameplay or unlock things from the start, make game funnier or much easier than it already is.
 * 13) Arcade mode offers both cup mode and single race mode.
 * 14) Lots of features for multiplayer like racing against each other or against each others and AI, as well as cup modes too.
 * 15) If you 100% the single player campaign you're rewarded with a scrapbook of sketches for all the Crash Bandicoot games made by Naughty Dog.
 * 16) Making good records in time trial mode unlocks a special N.trophy ghost mode, defeating him will unlock a hard N.oxide Ghost Mode, defeating both in all levels in Time Trial will unlock rewards.
 * 17) The Japanese bonus video is amazing!

Bad Qualities
Note: All of these are fixed in the remake


 * 1) The characters that are unlocked from the start are the only characters that you can see their stats, and only when you start a new game in Adventure Mode.
 * 2) Battle Mode is exclusive to Multiplayer, while Crystal Mode is exclusive to Adventure Mode.
 * 3) Saving your ghost in time trial takes 2 blocks in your memory card (which has maximum of 15 blocks at the time), fortunately this is solved in PS3, PSP and Vita where you can make unlimited virtual memory cards.
 * 4) Defeating all of Oxide's ghosts in time trial unlocks the scrapbook in the menu, which may seem unfair for how hard the Oxide times can be since you can see the scrapbook anytime by defeating Oxide again in adventure mode.
 * 5) Due to limitations at the time, Oxide Station cannot be played in multiplayer
 * 6) When you get hit by rockets or other projectiles by the other racers, it takes FOREVER to recover and to get back into track and beat the others.

Reception
Crash Team Racing is generally considered one of the best character kart racing games of its generation. After the success of Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, many fans were hoping that this game would get similar treatment. Sure enough, a remake/remaster of the game, titled Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled was announced at the 2018 Game Awards, and launched on June 21, 2019 on PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.