Crash Nitro Kart

"Dreaming of Crash Team Racing - June 15 2007"

PlayStation had an answer for anything Nintendo supplied its N64 with - while Super Mario 64 was met with Ape Escape, Mario Kart 64 had Crash Team Racing as its counterpart: a solid kart racer that had great single and multi-player modes alike. Naughty Dog dropped the Crash titles and it was up for Vivendi to live up. Sadly, Vivendi butchered the Crash titles and took a nice long crap over the once-beloved bandicoot.

In Nitro Kart for the GBA, you start your Adventure by choosing sides: the Crash/Coco/Crush coalition, or the Neo-Cortex/Tiny/N.Gin faction - basically good or evil. Whoever you end up choosing, you'll get space-jacked by Velo and forced into racing in exchange for your freedom. Anything to get you on the road...

The graphics are normal GBA kart game fare - 3-d models that seem as if choking, trees that keep tilting however you face them (a trick famous in the 64 days), and half-assed animations. The tracks, practically derived of any sort of details, are bland and boring, lacking any charm. The tracks look like generic track #1 all the way to #12 (that's all you're getting in this game, 12 measly tracks that all look the same besides a different color coat).

In Adventure mode, you have to enter warp pads in order to participate in races for getting trophies. One of eight characters, you have to start off with a boost--by having a small arrow be in a designated red area--if you want to lead the pack. You use the A button to accelerate, B button to break, R button to jump--and skid for a powerslide, and L button to use a weapon/gadget. The controls, especially cornering, are very docile, so you'll end up oversteering most of the time.

Faithful (at times) to kart racers everywhere, what you get from the gadget boxes mostly depends on your position in the race - if you're stuck in 8th, you'll get an Aku Aku or Uka Uka (depending on which faction you chose), which is basically this game's star power-up from the Mario Karts--only in this game, it barely does anything. If you're in first, all you're getting are TNT boxes and other lite stuff.

During the course of the races, you can collect apples. If you collect ten, you'll increase your speed and power-up whatever gadget you have: TNT boxes will turn Nitro boxes, bombs and rockets will come in bundles of three, etc. Get hurt however, and you'll end up losing your apples and advantage.

It's pretty much like this throughout the whole course of your Adventure. The Adventure mode will take a while, but I'm pretty sure you won't bother unless you're a really hardcore Crash fan or was stuck with the game with nothing else to play. Let's face it: games better fit in 3-d, especially after we've been used to having kick-ass 3-d games on home consoles, were never meant to be good on GBA. There are exceptions to this rule, but Crash Nitro Kart follows the norm: if you want your Crash karting fix, just get a copy of the original Crash Team Racing and spare yourself the tedium of Nitro Kart.

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People who made this game also made:

The new crappy Crash games

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Big Riggs

Pros

+ Not completely terrible

Cons

- Boring
- Tedious
- Lame

Story - 4
Visuals - 6
Audio - 6

Gameplay - 4
-Fun Factor - D
-Controls - D
-Difficulty - Average

Lifespan - 4

Overall - 4

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 06/15/07