 |
| Crash Nitro Kart (2003) |
After hearing about their racing prowess, Emperor Velo XXVII kidnaps the Bandicoots and Team Cortex and forces them to race in the Galaxy Circuit for the entertainment of his subjects. He promises their freedom should they win, and the destruction of the Earth should they refuse. That's really all there is to the plot, and the boss encounters make more sense here than in CTR as a result, but the story still isn't a huge focus here, nor should it be, so it's fine. The general gameplay is exactly the same as in Crash Team Racing, and the controls are all the same, but there are a few additions here to spice things up a little bit. The main addition is the team mechanic. The four teams are Team Bandicoot, Team Cortex, Team Oxide and Team Trance, and should your teammates be in close proximity to you during a race, your Team Attack meter will build, and once it fills, you get an endless stream of weapons for a short amount of time. There are also a few changes to the track design, namely an anti-gravity component to some of the tracks, which adds to the nature of the locations being alien in nature.
 |
| Inferno Island |
So, yeah, the tracks are all based on original alien worlds, and while they are great to look at, especially for the time, I feel like there is something lost there. I stand by what I feel about the original Crash Team Racing; the fact that the tracks are based on levels from the Crash trilogy isn't what makes the designs so great, but it doesn't hurt either. Seeing the familiar locations made the environments more interesting to look at, even when there wasn't a lot happening on screen. There's still a lot of variety amongst the tracks regardless, so it's fine overall, it's just not as interesting, and really doesn't help the worlds feel like they belong in the world of Crash Bandicoot (and I have no idea why Tiny gets a track themed all around him on an alien planet where they've never seen him before). A big upside is that all the music is fantastic. The main theme is excellent, and does a perfect job getting you hyped up for the game to come, and all the tracks have the perfect music accompanying them. Some of them aren't as high energy, but it strangely works. The Deep Sea Driving theme is really relaxing and it's amazing. The high energy tracks are, of course, excellent as well, with Thunder Struck, Electron Avenue and Hyper Spaceway being highlights.
 |
| Deep Sea Driving (2003) |
I did mention that the gameplay was incredibly similar to the original game, and when it is, it's fantastic, but there are a few differences that do drag things down a little. The karts are lighter than in CTR, meaning that turning is a little looser, and the turning arc is wider, which wouldn't be a problem if not for the fact that occasionally the tracks are narrower, meaning that it's impossible to avoid ramming into walls in some places. Whenever there were tight turns in CTR, the tracks were wide enough to compensate, and it doesn't always feel like that's taken into account here. The karts being lighter also means that jumping takes a lot longer, and even little jumps off hills give you big air, but it feels like you lose more acceleration than speed you gained with the boost. Acceleration in general feels a lot weaker here than in CTR, even with the acceleration-heavy characters. Ramming into walls specifically, which, you'll recall, happens a lot, feels like it takes forever to recover from, as not only does it take a while to build speed again, but you seem to stick to walls a lot more, and turning off them takes a lot more effort than before. Hopping on the spot to turn takes forever, based on both the lighter karts and the weakened acceleration. See, when these slightly worse elements from the original add together, it feels like hell overall. As for the track designs, I'm a little torn. Some tracks are unique, exciting and incredibly fun to race through, and others are a little bland, and occasionally un-fun, especially with the tracks that are almost 100% comprised of right-angle turns. These are especially impossible with the wider turning arc. Anti-gravity racing, though a great idea, also comes with its negatives. Jumping off a boost from an anti-gravity segment into a regular segment, seems to be impossible, but it's more than that. Sometimes the anti-grav is fluid and feels integral to the track design (Deep Sea Driving and Hyper Spaceway, for example). Other times, it can be disorienting and janky (Tiny Temple and... Deep Sea Driving again). In the Teknee overworld, the anti-gravity is so curved, it actually makes the kart think it keeps hitting a wall, killing momentum. And, I guess, the fact that every track in this game is being redone in the upcoming Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled without sacrificing anything or making the tracks feel unfinished speaks volumes.
 |
| Clockwork Wumpa |
The Adventure Mode is remarkably similar to CTR's campaign, to the point where the only thing that seems different about it is the reduced number of tracks. You've got your Trophy races, CNK Tokens, Crystal grabbing, Relic Races, all that jazz. The bosses are really well designed, however, and it makes the fact that they aren't unlockable even more weird. In fact, the character roster in general seems a little weird. Zam and Zem are the worst decisions anyone ever made, especially with the amount of existing Crash characters that aren't available. One of the new features in Adventure Mode is you pick a team and can switch between any of the three in any race, all with different stats. In theory it's a great idea, and it makes the varied cutscenes depending on which team you pick even more interesting, but since you're likely going to prefer how one character controls over the other two, you might as well just pick the one character. Overall, since Adventure Mode is remarkably similar to CTR, it's mostly fun, with one key element that ruins the whole thing: the final boss race against Velo. Velo himself is well designed and a fun character to antagonise you throughout the campaign, but he is way too broken in the final race. Not only does he have an endless supply of items, and his two minions have the same, but his rolling bombs he fires at key points in the track seem to have a homing element, and always roll at precisely the right angle, even if you swerve long after he's fired the bomb. Not only that, but once you get in front of him, unlike any other boss in any racing game, he gains access to weapons that fire in front of him, specifically the over-powered homing missiles. With every other boss, the challenge is getting in front of the boss with the boosted stats and keeping the lead, but Velo's race turns into a challenge of getting the right random items to protect yourself or gain access to the shortcuts that put you far enough in front of Velo where his missiles do nothing. It's not fun and it ruins the game for me.
 |
| Emperor Velo XXVII |
However, the core racing is still fine at its core, and the multiplayer aspect is still fun enough for me to call Crash Nitro Kart a fun game overall. I've enjoyed my many, many hours I've funneled into this game, and I'm glad it's being given as much representation in the upcoming remake as it's getting. It just pales in comparison to the racing game that preceded it. As for Crash Tag Team Racing... I'll get to that one later. 6.5/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment