From pretty much the moment it was announced that Crash Bandicoot 1, 2 & Warped were being re-made in the N Sane Trilogy questions started getting asked about the much beloved Crash Team Racing. Fans basically willed this remake into existence by purchasing that N Sane Trilogy in droves. So now it’s here, does it live up to the hype?
Yes. Yes it does. It’s bloody awesome.
Re-made from the ground up by developer Beenox, the game looks absolutely beautiful on a PS4 Pro. So much care and attention has been put into not only the characters, but the tracks as well. These remakes often bring a game up to the standard of your rose tinted glasses from the original but this exceeds it and then some!
Gameplay has been kept almost identical to the original which will please hardcore fans of the game. As a result it the game is hard. Normal difficulty would be hard in almost any other game. Thankfully for accessibility there is an easy mode so it can still be enjoyed by gamers at all levels. To master the game though you are going to need become an expert at the many different ways you can acquire boost.
A light story is sprinkled into the game between races. Unsurprisingly it is very reminiscent of what you would see in the Crash Bandicoot platform games. I appreciate the effort taken to add it in, but I don’t think anyone would argue that it adds to the experience.
I spoke earlier about the games difficulty. That extends to the trophies in a big way thanks to a gold like ‘Gasmoxian Slug’ which tasks you with defeating all of Nitros Oxide’s times in time trial mode. The absence of any online trophies makes me want to attempt the platinum, but my head is telling me the journey will drive me N Sane.
Overall Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled is exactly what long term fans were hoping for. A remake that is both beautiful and stays faithful to the original. That’s what we got here and while the difficulty spike may put off some new casual gamers, I think it’s the best kart racer on PS4 and a worthy challenger to the Mario Kart crown. Hopefully the success of this remake coupled together with the N Sane Trilogy surpassing all expectations means we will be seeing a lot more Crash on PS5.
-VDZE 🧐
+ Easy to pick up, hard to master
+ Faithfully remade
+ Visually stunning
– Difficulty spikes are jarring
– Power slide is good, not great
A review code for this product was kindly provided by the publisher. Reviewed on PS4 Pro.
Click here to see what a review means to us.
