CRASH TEAM RACING NITRO-FUELED
Taking pole position in this issue, it’s the kart racer we’ve longed to play on PS4.
THE QUIRKY WORLD DESIGN FROM THE PLATFORMERS STORIES TRANSLATES EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT WELL INTO THRILLING TRACKS.
01
While we loved the nostalgia trip Vicarious Visions’ brilliant Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy took us on in 2017, it felt like a little something was missing. Back in PS1’s glory days, the Crash saga wasn’t truly complete without Crash Team Racing – and happily that game is now getting its own remake, courtesy of the steady hands over at Beenox.
In 1999 a lot of us spent many a day racing against our friends and family on Crash’s crazy tracks, pitting the speed of Tiny Tiger against the precision of Polar. The quirky world design from the platformers translated well into thrilling track designs; things like the Aku-Aku shield and – of course – the abundance of crates made for some great power-ups, and the presence of a deep-feeling single-player story mode really made the experience feel like it had the edge on the kart racing competition. Even on PS1 it was quite the Bandicoot-sized package, but things are getting an even stronger fuel injection in the Nitro-Fueled remaster.
DREAM MACHINE
“I was a huge fan of the Crash Bandicoot series at the time, so you can imagine my excitement when I heard a brand-new kart racing game starring Crash was coming out!” shares Thomas Wilson, Beenox’s creative director, on the PlayStation blog, remembering when the original came out. For him, his team being asked to handle this remake was a dream come true. “Fast forward many years. Our studio gets the proposition, ‘How would you guys feel about remastering CTR?’ I remember pausing for a second. And then I blurted out: ‘You’re kidding, right?’”
The team behind the early 2010s Spider-Man games such as the beloved Shattered Dimensions, Beenox might not necessarily seem the obvious choice for Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. But its games
have often had a certain amount of cartoon vibrancy, and the company had a hand in creating some of the Skylanders games, including Skylanders: SuperChargers, where it took charge of the racing sections. That experience, and the studio’s love for the original Crash Team Racing, are visible in how full of life the remade tracks look in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.
CRASH COURSE
“We established very early on that we wanted Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled to be brimming with personality both from an environmental and character standpoint,” says Wilson. The remade locations are teeming with detail, from temples surrounded by lush vegetation to neon-lit, graffitisprayed metal walls to wrecked sailing ships, and the character animations are full of little quirks that bring them to life. The PS1 game was a leader in that regard, and Beenox is taking full adavantage of the current gen’s greater capabilities to make sure this remake continues to lead the pack.
But the team members aren’t going hog wild and doing whatever they want with the game. As fans of the original game, they want to capture its magic in full. “Whatever improvements or bells and whistles we were going to add, we needed to be authentic to the inspiration of the original experience,” says Wilson. After all, Crash Team Racing is one of those magical retro gems that still sparkles every time you dig it out. “We’re spending a tremendous amount of time making sure it’s the same great racing experience that fans remember with a level of polish that could only be achieved by today’s standards.”
So far it’s not entirely clear how much new content Beenox will be adding to the game, but making such a faithful remake is work enough, especially with the sort of luxurious detail that pops out of every second of the action we’ve seen so far. While it will still have the same local multiplayer options as it first did (a welcome rare inclusion these days), it will introduce a brand-new online mode so you can race with people from around the world. That alone is a big enough addition to the Crash Team Racing experience to make us tingle with anticipation. With a fully featured single-player adventure mode, and the option to test our mettle again and again online, Crash
WE NEEDED TO BE AUTHENTIC TO THE INSPIRATION OF THE ORIGINAL EXPERIENCE.
Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is sure to be something we can keep coming back to for some time.
CLASSIC CARS
Nitro-Fueled is releasing on 21 June, nearly 20 years since Crash Team Racing came out – which is a landmark achievement in and of itself. The original PlayStation helped to birth many great series that have remained dear for such a long time, and to see those still being celebrated is truly something special.
While PlayStation has always been home to fantastic mature experiences, it’s also a familyfriendly platform, and Nitro-Fueled looks like exemplifying that aspect. Few series offer the colour and vibrancy of Crash, and it’s going to be great to introduce a fresh wave of gamers to one of our favourite kart racers – lovingly recreated with all the modern benefits of PS4. From your nan to your nephew, they’re in for a treat. But now we’re beyond just sharing that experience with friends and family coming over to our house. With online competition, and the a the return of split-screen couch-play, we can all experience Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled together in a way that wouldn’t have been possible before now. CTR Nitro-Fueled is coming 21 June. Excited? Let us know @OPM_UK.