Crash Team Racing

"This game will instantly make your life that little bit more enjoyable."

Never before has a finer karting game being produced. Naughty Dog have shown that they can handle other genres, not just the Crash Bandicoot platformers that everyone loves so much, and in the process they've blown the competition right out of the water.

The graphics are some of the best you'll find from a PSX game. The bright, cartoony look has been retained from the previous Crash games and even improved upon (if you've played Crash Bandicoot: Warped you'll know what a difficult task that is). The one thing that really stands out is how smooth they are, the frame rate is constant, even during a four player split screen match. There is no clipping, no pop-up, there's a great disappearing point, stare at the screen for months looking for faults and you simply won't find any.
The characters all look great and are well detailed, crammed into their little karts. You couldn't find a better group of potential mascots in a single game no matter how hard you tried. The surroundings that they drive around in are great! They're very clear and simply a visual feast. Overall, the graphics could fool you into thinking that the Playstation isn't nearing the end of it's life, they're that good.

The music for CTR is good compared to some other games of this genre, but it's still not up to standards. It's the type of music that just get's more and more annoying every time you hear it until the grinding of your teeth finally drowns the sound out and you can get some relief. There's nothing stopping you from turning it down of course. Apart from the music there's the usual array of sound effects, the sounds of rockets firing, things exploding, you know the drill. All the characters also have their own cute little one-liners of speech that they'll use during the course of a race, but once you hear the same one-liners five times in the space of one lap you'll realise that the best word to describe them is not cute, but #%^(. The sound could definitely have used some more work.

Crash Team Racing has some of the finest gameplay you'll ever see. The controls and steering model are simple and easy to get into, anyone can pick up a controller for the first time and be competitive, but there are enough driving techniques to learn and master that you'll be finding new ways to cut seconds off your best times months down the road. The best techniques that Naughty Dog have introduced are the turbo and turbo-sliding. Push the hop button whilst going over a jump and you'll find yourself with some air-time, the more air you get the bigger a turbo boost you'll recieve as you land. Also, when travelling around corners, you can use the hop button to powerslide, if you slide for long enough a black trail of smoke will come out of your kart and pressing the opposite hop button will give you a nice turbo, you can get three boosts from one turn. Spending time mastering these techniques, unlocking all the characters and finishing the huge amount of game modes will mean that CTR's lifespan can be measured in years.
Some of the modes CTR offers is Adventure, Battle, Vs. , Arcade and Time Trial. There is an incentive to play all of these modes (yes, even Time Trial) and unlike other karting games there is enough to keep just the 1 player interested. The adventure mode is huge, it'll keep you going for a month just to finish it for the first time.
The tracks themselves are impeccably designed, they all have a genuine feeling of speed and have enough tight twists and turns to make each course a genuine challenge. Each track also has a number of shortcuts so you'll be perfecting your race for ages.

Overall, this is the best karting game that money can buy. The list of high points is too big to not warrant a purchase, the graphics, controls, track design, depth and longevity all rolled into one make an irresistable game. If you've got one sensible bone in you're body then this will be the next game that you get.

GRAPHICS - 10/10
SOUND - 7/10
LIFESPAN - 10/10
GAMEPLAY - 10/10
OVERALL - 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/02/00, Updated 05/02/00