Crash Nitro Kart

"Are you looking at me? Who are you looking at?!"

Introduction:
Crash Nitro Kart (CNK) is the second Crash racing games in the series, the first being Crash Team Racing for the Sony Playstation released in 1999. The Crash series have come a long way from their humble beginnings as a straightforward platformer released in 1996 (Crash Bandicoot). Four more Crash games were released for the PSX since then and Crash was seen as the mascot for Playstation.

However, that has since changed, with Crash now gracing all current major consoles and soon to be all major handhelds with the release of Crash Tag Team Racing looming just around the corner for DS and PSP (as well as GCN, XBOX and PS2).

Crash Nitro Kart is a multiplatform title available for the PS2, XBOX, Gamecube and Gameboy Advance as well as N-Gage and mobile. It is developed by Vicarious Visions and published by Universal Interactive in late 2003.

Gameplay:
Score: 9/10

Crash is a fast paced racing game (although no where near as fast as the previous). The game has many racing modes such as Adventure Mode, Time Trial Mode and Battle Mode and a 4 player Multiplayer Mode. In a normal race it is your job to beat all other seven racers on the track, using a large array of power-ups available to you such as shooting your opponents with missiles, slowing down all the other racers on the field or getting short boosts of speed.

These items make up a huge part of the outcomes of racers and many times will be very important to the results of matches. You might have been in last and caught up to second with an amazing array of items then getting a Turbo Boost in the last second and winning by a few splits of a second (it has happened to me before). Or it could be the opposite, you could be just about to win the race when a a Tornado Top picks you up and one of your opponents speed past for the win. This adds a extra sense of fun and excitement in the game and really makes the experience a more enjoyable one.

There is also a Team Mode which is a race where you and a person from your team (i.e, Crash and Coco or Cortex and Tiny) work together to win. All the Trophy Races in Adventure Mode (the story mode) are Team Races. In a Team Race you don't have to come first to win: if your teammate gets 1st place then you win the race. Be warned though, don't expect to just cruise around the level and leave your teammate to do all the work because if your doing bad, in most cases so if your teammate and vice-versa. If your in last by a long way expect your teammate to be in seventh place, if your in first place expect your teammate to be in the Top 4.

When you are close to your teammate there will be a section on the right of screen that in charging. Once this bar gets to the top you can initiate Team Frenzy which for a short period of time you will be able to use an unlimited amount of power-ups, very handy if you are making that final sprint to the finish line.

Once you win a race in Adventure Mode you get put back on that worlds map and look around for a new level to race in. To get from level to level in Adventure you must drive around the world maps looking for different levels, once you are able to advance you go to a new world map through a door. This small feature is a very nice addition to me, seeing as I enjoy playing single races more than tournaments.

This game brings back the same modes from CTRs Adventure Mode; Relic Race (beat the race in a set time using crates to stop time for a few seconds to win a Time Relic [Sapphire, Gold and Platinum]), CNK Challenge (try to collect the letters C,N and K and come in first place to win a CNK Token) and Crystal Arenas (collect 20 crystals in a set amount of time in a special arena to win a CNK Token).

All in all this game offers strong gameplay and fans of the original will get that same feeling they got from CTR.

Story:
Score: 8/10

The story mode in this game (Adventure Mode) isn't anything special, but props to the developers for actually including one. One of the major improvement that I believe Nintendo could add to the Mario Kart series is a Adventure Mode with a story similar to that of CNK (they can still keep the Classic Tournament Modes). It's gold.

The story in CNK is that Crash, Coco and Crunch as well as Cortex, N. Gin and Tiny. They must race or else the Emperor Velo will destroy Earth. Their opponents in the Trophy and CNK Challenges are a few familiar faces such a Oxide, Polar and Dingodile. You can choose to play with either Team Bandicoot or Team Cortex and take on each worlds best racer and then face up against Velo for the chance to return back to your home planet.

Like I said, it isn't the best story but any story is better than no story in such a wacky racing title.

Graphics/Sound:
Score: 8/10

The graphics in this game are nothing really special but adequate enough for a kart racing game such as this. While not as sharp looking as Mario Kart the graphics work and the cutscenes look very good. All the levels in this game look appealing however and make up for the average character models. The animations in this game are good, however one thing that I gander was the product of a bad porting job was the framerate. While others in my family had trouble noticing the drop, I could clearly (especially when I was spectating) notice the large amount of framerate drops. These are especially noticeable at the start races or in close races. While this rarely causes a player to stuff up it is quite annoying and there a few times when the drop in framerate is quite large and very noticeable to all spectators.

The sound, again is nothing but adequate. It isn't very noticeable at all since this game is very engaging, but it isn't very badly done. The voice-overs during the races a nice addition. These are a mixed bag however, most characters, such as Dingodile (with his cheesy Aussie stereotype accent), N. Gin and Crunch are done well and a joy to listen to while a few, such as Coco are very annoying. The voice-overs in the cutscences are all well done however. However no one is as bad as Aku Aku. For some reason he pauses after every word and speaks to you as if you are a slow 5 year old.

Difficulty:
Score: 9/10

The Adventure Mode isn't very hard in this game. Some races might take a few (or more) tries to win however nothing unbeatable. Even the last boss should be able to be won in less than half an hour of trying. The CNK Tokens are a bit harder, however seeing as you have to collect all the tokens and win the race. The Relic Races also prove more difficult as it is a race against the clock and you'll have to make very good use of power slides. These two modes might take a few more tries than the Trophy Races. The Crystal Arena levels are for the most part hard, however the last one is pitiful and you should find yourself winning it with quite a bit of time left on the clock.

Time Trial Mode on the other hand is very hard, and you'll find yourself constantly trying to out race your previous ghost each race so that you can unlock the special ghosts.

Playtime/Replayability:
Score: 9/10

Adventure Mode in this game is quite short. It isn't very hard to win all the Trophy Races as well as the bosses in around 3-5 hours, however winning everything else will take much longer, maybe an extra 5-10 hours to get 100%. But if you want to unlock all the characters in the game you'll have to play through Adventure Mode and get 100% with both Team Bandicoot and Team Cortex so that might take you somewhere between 15-30 hours to unlock everything. A fair amount of time. And there is Time Trial which, depending on your skills can take quite a while to win.

Plus there is a bunch of Multiplayer Modes that will keep you entertained for a very long time so I don't think you should worry about getting bored of this game in less than 35-45 hours of playing.

The replayability in this game is quite high, I wouldn't mind going through Adventure Mode again. While there is nothing to unlock after getting all the characters it will be nice to go through and see how fast you can win it with you improved skills.

Final Recommendation:

Summary:

Gameplay:9
Story:8
Graphics/Sound:8
Difficulty:9
Playtime/Replayability:9

In conclusion this a good racing game that will keep you entertained for a long times, fans of the original will have fun playing this title, although you might find that CTR offered a slightly funner experience, this one will still blow you away.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/26/05