Crash Team Racing was my childhood, I poured so many hours of my life into playing it with my cousins. Ever since then, I have been eagerly awaiting a sequel or a remake to finally be announced.
Despite the decades that passed, I never gave up hope that one day I would be able to play CTR with my friends online in glorious modern graphics. Luckily, that wait is almost over. I was also lucky enough to get my hands on the game at this year’s E3.
Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled is exactly what I wanted out of a remaster of the classic cart racer. It is more or less the same game with a new coat of paint and a slight tune up to function better on modern hardware.
During my time with the game at E3, we were able to play two races, the first was considered a “warmup race”, which didn’t matter in the long run and was mainly there to help us learn the game controls.
The second race was the real deal, one where whoever got first place early would get a tiny swag bag. Needless to say, like the professional gamer I am, I got absolutely destroyed in both races. Even so, I had a blast playing through the two races I played. It has been such a long time that everything felt brand new to me, as if I were playing the game for the first time.
I chose to play as my boy, Cortex while everyone else were some funnier variation of Crash. When we started off, I always managed to be good at pulling away in the beginning, before I would get crushed beneath the wheels of someone who knew just when to fire a rocket at me.
The gameplay was fast and hectic, with everyone being absolutely ruthless in their attempts to take first, something that was a pipe dream for me. That was until the final lap of the second race, I was able to pull ahead of everything, with a rocket in my inventory I closed in on first place, I fired, crossed my fingers and he went down.
I pulled ahead, I took first place. I could feel my heart beating faster just as we were able to hit the last jump over a pit – I could feel it, I was about to win. When suddenly, I’m struck by a bolt of lightning, I am stunned, unable to pull accelerate, no longer fast enough to clear the jump, I fall into the abyss.
I look up to my position, I dropped from 1st to last in the blink of an eye. I lost the race and my will to live, that was until I put the controller down and seriously contemplated getting back in line to give it another try.
There is also a bit of customization, there are obviously different characters who each have different skins and different carts to choose from. You can customize your carts with different wheels, paintjobs and stickers to craft your own personal vehicle. Customization is something that always appeals to me because it allows me to feel closer to my own personal build of the game.
With everything that I have seen and played, I am more than a little excited to pick up this game and play it with my friends. Who knows, maybe I will even win a race or two (probably not).
We are reentering a golden age of Cart racing games with Crash Team Racing, Mario Kart, and Sonic All-Stars, and I could not be more excited. Regardless of your game of choice or platform of choice, the only thing that matters in the end is that we put the pedal to the medal, and we get some racing in!
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is launching across PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch on June 21st.
