Blog:ThunderKat's Review of Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled (PS4)

Alright, so it has been a few days now since Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled launched, and I have been playing it ever since. As a veteran of the original CTR on PlayStation for 20 years now, I had certain expectations that the game was going to be good. Does it meet those expectations? Let's talk about it.

Presentation
Everything from the original game is left fully intact. Since the intro cutscene now plays upon starting Adventure Mode, we now get our plot right form the word "Go", and we understand what it is we're playing for. Seeing the redone intro was a joy to watch, as it is more animated, with a couple minor details less observant players will miss, such as Coco shooting an accusing look towards Cortex when Nitrous Oxide makes his entrance, or even funnier, Crash falling asleep during Oxide's speech. There are many sight gags littered throughout the game, and even a few callbacks to past Crash games. Even the bosses have a more grandiose presences in the story than before; each one having their own opening cinematic before racing them, and a cutscene of them actually giving you the key when you beat them. With the console limitations no longer posing a threat, the developers really took advantage of modern hardware and treated this remake with so much love and care that the game just feels much more involving and more importantly, alive. This even extends to gameplay; where limitations of the PS1 only allowed limited animation during a race, here every character is uniquely animated, whether they're steering, catching airtime, or celebrating victory, everyone is much more expressive. One thing the original definitely has over the remake is loading. Yes, I found myself waiting longer to start racing than I did originally, about 15 seconds. The presentation overall is top notch, and credits to Beenox for all the effort that they've put into it. But how does it translate gameplay? Well...

Gameplay
In any racing game, controls are a fundamental element. The original CTR had tight, responsive, and snappy controls that made the game feel that much more enjoyable. It was also fast and chaotic, I never suffered from bad controls at any point. For the remake, I was most worried about how the game would handle, or if it was going to feel as slow as Crash Nitro Kart. Luckily, my fears were unfounded; having played with all 4 classes, I can say that every kart controls beautifully. They handle well, feel very fast and bouncy, which is just how I like my kart racers. Key mechanics from the original check out nicely here as such as the Power Slide and boost mechanics. Slide Boosting still feels immensely satisfying to pull off, and is easy to master once you know how to use it effectively (then again, coming from a long time player, that probably isn't saying much for some). There were a few frustrating parts of the game though, as the Relic Races; where I could Platinum all 18 tracks in Adventure Mode no problem is the original, here I swear they seem a lot harder. I don't know what it is, but I feel like I come within milliseconds of missing the Platinum Relics on some tracks. And the new Nitro Fueled adventure? I like the addition of the "Nitro Fueled" adventure, which allows for difficulty selection, and customisation. Though it can be quite hard on the highest setting. Imagine trying to beat N.Tropy's ghost while 7 other racers try to destroy you. Having beaten the NF adventure on Hard, I can say that it requires mastery of the game's mechanics to get anywhere. The game is still massively fun to play, and is still as satisfying as I remember it ever being.

Graphics/Sound
Like the N.Sane Trilogy, this game looks absolutely amazing. It looks very much like as Pixar animated film, and the small details really bring out the visual quality. As I mentioned, there are plenty of sight gags in the background of many of the tracks in the game, some of which are quite amusing, like a Lab Assistant rowing up a waterfall in Papu's Pyramid. Even with these tiny details, the game still maintains a solid frame rate throughout; I have never encountered a single frame drop at any point while playing; not even Coco Park, where there are so many flower petals spread around the track that the devs were worried that the frame rate would plummet if they overdid it. It certainly helps that the character models and some of the environments are pulled from the N.Sane Trilogy, but that is not necessarily a bad thing, since Beenox still crafted their own game with the assets they had, but their recreations of other characters like Nitrous Oxide and the CNK bosses are all faithful, yet still original. The unique podium animations the characters have when wearing special skins is also a very nice touch. As for sound, it's pretty solid. The soundtrack is still enjoyable, the new compositions sound great, with dynamic layers in stages like Crash Cove, were an accordion plays as you race through pirate ship, or the organ plays as you race through the stained glass room at the end of the lap in Cortex Castle.

Content
My God is this game brimming with content! Not only do we have everything from Crash Team Racing, but we have also have all of the tracks and characters from Crash Nitro Kart as well, plus some customisation items for Crash Tag Team Racing. Just the idea that Beenox went out of their way to include content from other Crash racing titles is worthy praise on its own, but there's some new features too. For one, CTR Challenges and Relic Races can now be played in Arcade Mode, and they incorporate the tracks from both CTR and CNK. Also new is Crystal Challenge, which is just the Purple CTR events, but these are also playable in Arcade mode. Battle modes return, but now you can play these OFFLINE with AI opponents. Since I don't do multiplayer often, being able to play in Battle mode with AI is a welcome addition for me. The only downside to the vast amount of customisation options is that you need Wumpa Coins to unlock them. Wumpa Coins are the in-game currency used to buy these items; many are given to you by playing the game in the game's various modes, and as a certain character, but others like special outfits  and CNK characters need to be bought. This would be fine on its own, but in single player, you only get 20-80 coins per win. You are better off playing the online modes were coin payouts are much higher. Oh, and you need to be connected to the servers to get these coins, which is annoying for those who don't have internet. *Unfortunately, I should've known that the Pit Stop's layout was primed for microtransactions, as they are in the game as of early August. I am extremely peeved, not only that Activision decided to sneak them in post-launch, but also at myself since they've done it with CoD: MW Remastered, and again with Black Ops 4 and hoped they would keep their grubby mits away from Crash Bandicoot... how naive I was. I do get a kick out of the retro skins for Crash, Coco, and Cortex that only PS4 users can have, they are very faithful recreations of the PS1 models, albeit with more expressive animation to them.

Conclusion
If you are fan of Crash Bandicoot, or kart racers in general, you would be foolish to skip this one. As a kart racer, Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled has so much to offer with its tight controls, stunning visuals, myriad of unlockables, and even new features. As a remake of a beloved PS1 title, this game does so much more than the original could've ever dreamed of at the time. I do have to lower my rating though unfortunately due to some changes made post-launch that I am not fond, such as the grindy nature of the Wumpa Coins and the addition of microtransactions. While I feel as though my enjoyment of the game is somewhat tainted by the timed events (clearly trying to imitate current trends again), the single player material is still a fun time, and still worth giving it a look if you don't care about the online component or customisation items.

ThunderKat's rating: Pretty Damn Good!


 * Added in a post-launch update after this blog was posted.