One of my favorite gaming memories are from having friends come over, pass the controllers out and play games all night long. Crash Team Racing was one of those games that my friends and family would play for hours upon hours. When I heard Crash Team Racing was getting the remaster treatment, I was super excited to see this game on current consoles. This is my first impressions of Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled on the PS4.

CTR: Nitro-Fueled is a beautiful looking game. Seeing the original tracks not only get an upgrade but the added details to the tracks just make the game so good to look at. The character models stayed faithful to what we saw in the in the Crash Bandicoot: Insane Trilogy. On top of making the characters and tracks look good, they also added customization for the characters and karts. Customization is unlocked by playing the game or exchanging coins for items in the Pit Stop. Sound track wise, they stayed faithful to re-creating most the tracks from the original game and are as catchy as they usually are. I adore the presentation of the game, but how is the game play?

Not only does the game look good, I think it plays good as well. The controls feel responsive and smooth. The driving in CTR may take some time to master due to its Power slide mechanic. In CTR, you have 2 power slide buttons, one is used to begin the slide and the other is used to trigger a boost when the time is right. Luckily there are several options to look at to find out when the time is right to boost; you can either wait until black smoke exits the exhaust, the gauge on the speedometer turns is in the red or if your tires light on fire, but be careful as if you slide for too long you will spin out. Driving stats are solely based on the character so the changes in which cart and tires you use are for looks alone, so find a few or one character to master to use in the game modes.

There are a few options as game modes go. First, is the adventure mode where you must out race Nitros Oxide to save the planet from being destroyed. There are two ways to play adventure mode: Nitro-Fueled allows you to use your customized characters, allow you to switch out characters during the adventure mode and set a difficulty level. Classic mode is where you will pick 1 character to play the adventure mode from beginning to end but can’t use any of your custom items, but playing this way will still earn you rewards. There is local arcade mode which allows you to race and battle your friends on the same system and there is an online mode as well. Other than making the game play and look great, what does CTR: Nitro-Fueled bring.

What is new in CTR: Nitro-Fueled? Well I have already mention, that you can customize your cart and character and have online play which you couldn’t do in the original game. Another nice touch they added is the added a good amount of content from Crash Nitro Kart. Several characters and tracks are included in the game but only in Arcade or Online mode, it would have been nice if there some story elements around these characters but it was nice that they included them as well. As stated earlier you can exchange coins for items for customization at the Pit Stop. The Pit Stop is the main store for the game and the items available rotate every few hours. Coins can be earned just by playing the game but payout for coins can vary. For example: while playing the adventure, each race I did (win or lose) I would get 20 to 60 coins but racing online I have earned anywhere between 50 coins to up to little over 600 coins. I personally haven’t figure what how it works but playing online appears to be more rewarding and the best part there are no micro-transactions to buy more coins so far which is greatly appreciated. As much as I have been enjoying the game, there a few things I could nitpick at.

All of the issues I have with the game surround multiplayer mode, but most of these are minor is the grand scheme of things. The first thing I have notice is how lobbies work in Online Mode. As of writing this getting into lobbies hasn’t been the hard part but keeping a lobby full is and it doesn’t appear that that the lobby fills back up quick after players leave the game and I usually play until the lobby dwindles down to 2 players then I would leave and queue back up again. I don’t have to do this often but it would be nice if the lobby would try to stay filled up while playing. Another small thing with multiplayer is, I haven’t found a way to change the countdown timer. Currently after the first racers finishes the race a 30 second timer beginnings and ends after that 30 seconds. Now points are still reward based on place even if you don’t finish but it would be nice to at least to have the ability to change to after 3 people finish in private matches but I do like it appears make it quicker to go from race to race, however it just a small change I would like to see. Finally, thing, I would like to see done differently is the Pit Stop. Currently the it is one a timed rotation that is 1 deal, 1 cart to buy, 2-character skins to bag, a paint style that usually goes with the cart for sell, paint and sticker pack that is about 10 items on sale during that time rotation and those are the only items that can be unlocked during that time. The only thing I would change is to have the option to buy the items separate from the store. Now, there are a handful of items that aren’t in the Pit Shop and can only be unlocked by completing task during game-play but the rest of the items available are stuck in the Pit Stop and you have to time it right to buy the items.

Overall, I have been having a great time with game and with Grand Prix coming up to earn more characters and tracks, I can see myself playing this game for awhile and hopefully they plan to support this game for a while because I am curious to see what original content they can bring to the table. Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled is currently available on PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch and you can learn more by clicking the link here. Thank you for reading this post and Stay tune for more random thoughts around gaming and such and have a great morning/day/evening.

-Mike