Review: Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled

Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled (CTR) for the Nintendo Switch is a remastered video game of the highest order. The developer, Beenox, took the best elements from the Original Crash Team Racing (1999), as well as its sequels, Crash Nitro Kart (2003) and Crash Tag Team Racing (2005), to create the best game in the franchise yet.

The game’s story is pretty straightforward: An alien, who claims to be the best racer in the universe, arrives on Earth to challenge the world’s best racer for control of the planet. So now Crash, his friends, and his enemies, have to compete against each other to decide who the best racer on Earth is, and take on the new alien threat.

Featuring 26 characters from the classic Crash Bandicoot series, as well as some guests, each one has different levels of Speed, Acceleration, and Turn. The information for each character is readily available as well, so selecting the best one for your racing style doesn’t become a guessing game. It also means that characters have various advantages on different stages, so getting stuck on your favorite is not necessarily the best idea.

CTR’s gameplay is very similar to that of its predecessors, where races are wild, the controls aren’t complicated, and crazy shenanigans are not only allowed, but encouraged. And, like most other cartoonish racing games, there’s a beauty in a game that doesn’t take itself seriously. However that does not mean the game is easy, or simplistic at all. It’s very fast-paced. The learning curve is not high, but  the challenge level is. Very quickly you are required to have an above average control over the game’s mechanics and features, otherwise you’ll find yourself losing every race. Fortunately, understanding of these elements is relatively quick, yet winning every race is still not a guarantee. The game pushes you to become better and better on every stage, which makes the whole experience more enjoyable, and each victory that much sweeter, though it does cause a few headaches along the way.

The game has a variety of features that I found extremely enjoyable. Not only can you acquire items during races, which either help you or hinder your opponents in various ways, but you also have the possibility of upgrading your items mid-race. Which can be very beneficial, and the difference between victory or defeat. Another feature I enjoyed was the drift boost mechanic. This feature can, if timed correctly, give you up to 3 speed boost while performing a drift. Which means the game rewards you with more speed if you’re willing to take on riskier forms of driving.        

Like most racing games, CTR has multiple game modes, including: Adventure, Local Arcade, Online, and Grand Prix. Adventure is basically story mode. Local Arcade has a variety of multiplayer/splitscreen available options, including: Races, battles, trials, and various challenges. Online is the same thing as Arcade but you can play with other players online. And Grand Prix offers a variety of seasonal events and challenges. 

In many ways the Adventure mode is a spiritual successor to the N64’s Diddy Kong Racing. With a similar “open world” field where, when you arrive at a new stage, you can drive around exploring it, then compete in several races to acquire boss keys, and then take on that stage’s boss to move on to the next level. It also shares a similar cartoonish charm and storyline. This makes going through the whole Adventure mode a more enjoyable experience. Which is an especially good thing considering it’s where you unlock most of the game’s characters, vehicles, tracks, and customization items.

The body of the game resides in the Local Arcade or Online Mode, so that is where you’ll be spending the majority of your time after you’ve acquired all the unlockable elements from Adventure mode. The Battle option in these was particularly enjoyable. Mainly because it’s more than just a straight up item fight, it also possesses various team related challenges, including capture the flag and gem collection.

The advantage and convenience of playing it on the Switch cannot be understated either. It made enjoying the game with family and friends, or with strangers online, an extremely easy process. So you never feel stuck or limited in any way unless you choose to be.

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Overall, I found the game to be a great upgrade to a throwback classic. Very entertaining, challenging yet rewarding, with great replay value, and with the Bandicoot’s charm. CTR is a great alternative for people looking for a racing game that doesn’t take itself seriously, yet possesses a higher level of difficulty. It is definitely well worth your time and money.