▷Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled review, full throttle remake! 🥇

The currents of thought on the remakes of the video games of the past are clearly opposite and inflexible. There are those who see them as an opportunity to modernize the historical videogames and those who instead consider them a waste of time that distracts the market from new possible titles in favor of a commercial return that is easy to obtain. It is undeniable, however, that in recent years the remakes have been gaining ground with pressing speed and, today, it's up to Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.

Crash Bandicoot was one of the pioneers of remakes with the N.Sane Trilogy released in 2017. The extraordinary success of the review and the quality of the final product have attracted great attention from the public and the market. Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is a natural evolution of the remake fever that involved one of the most beloved racing titles of the first PlayStation. Also in this case are we in the presence of a success?

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled

Activision, after the successes of the aforementioned N.Sane Trilogy and Spyro: Reignited Trilogy, brings back in 2019 one of the most successful titles of Sony e N of 1999. We are talking about the beloved Crash Team Racing which, at the time, managed to keep up with Mario Kart, the go-karting counterpart of the house Nintendo. The rumor of a possible Crash Team Racing remake had been around for quite some time on the internet and the desire from fans for even earlier.

The remake brings back all the characters and tracks that we have come to love in those years but with a new graphics, new models in high definition as well as a new dubbing. The game includes all the content from the original version plus a lot of content from Crash Nitro Kart from 2003 and Crash Tag Team Racing, released in 2005. Although these last two titles did not achieve the desired success, penalized by poor quality, it was chosen to bring in the remake all the characters of Crash Nitro Kart and some graphics of Crash Tag Team Racing.

All in all, the choice turned out to be a winner. The 1999 game, as it was, would not have met the expectations of modern gamers accustomed to increasingly rich and varied titles. The ingenious pretext of these additions greatly increases the roster of characters to choose from, the number of tracks, car models and so on.

Playing with nostalgia (and winning)

For the rest, the game itself, the adventure, the cups, the tracks are just as we remembered them. Blocked in 1999 but at the same time made extremely modern without altering the original game. Activision e Beenox, the developer, played no reserve shots with player nostalgia and did great. In every corner of the game you can breathe that sweet air of the past of when as children we tried (in vain, in my case) to beat the ghost of Oxide in time trials. The creators' willingness to wallow in the nostalgia effect can be seen in small but important elements. We are talking about the possibility of listening to the original soundtrack or using the polygonal models of Coco and Crash as Skin.

Did we say Skin? Well yes. One of the elements that characterizes the Nitro Fueled version is in fact the presence of a new menu item called "Pit-Stop". Here you can customize the characters with various colors and particular skins, choose the model of our Kart and decorate it. The skins can be purchased through coins that are earned during single races, cups or adventures (no micro transactions thanking the Wumpa fruits). This is an addition in line with the times which, fortunately, does not distort either the characters or the game itself, but enriches it.

With the same criteria the Multiplayer online that allows you to create a private match, with friends on the PlayStation Network or join a public lobby that allows eight players from all over the world to compete in a single race or battle. Unfortunately, at the moment, it is not possible to organize an online tournament-cup which makes you lose some of the Hype created for this mode because the individual matches are ends in themselves without a great competitive element. But we are sure that Activision will soon implement new features and characters, as already confirmed by the company.

Was that a giant crocodile?

Don't be fooled by the strong connection with the past that it has Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, it is a game completely made from scratch; from character design to level and animation design. It will be fun to discover, despite the chaotic pace of the game, all those little-big details added; such as the animations of the characters, some resume those of the original title, others, however, were made specifically for a video sequence or a particular skin.

The slopes certainly present the most interesting change. THE details they are endless with the refinement of elements already present in Crash Team Racing or the addition of totally new details and characters in the background. Some characters from the series also appear Crash Bandicoot like the menacing triceratops in Crash Bandicoot 3 or the banners of Nina Cortex o N. Brio. New characters on the way?

The soundtrack has also been completely re-arranged, obviously remaining faithful to the original one. The ability to use the latter in game represents a small pearl that the most nostalgic will appreciate. The voice acting or interactions between characters during the races don't particularly shine. Of course it's not the main element in a game of this type, but we would have liked to hear something more effective.

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Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled: let's draw conclusions

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is the remake that cannot be missing in your contemporary collection if, like me, you have spent most of your childhood competing with friends in the frenetic tracks of Crash Team Racing. The game is excellently made in full compliance with the main title.

Maybe some gameplay element or some track hasn't aged perfectly and was much more interesting in our childhood memories but the new additions and upcoming ones make this remake special.