Crash Nitro Kart (Console)

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Crash Nitro Kart (Console)
Mario Kart’s competitor is back, and he’s not gonna get 1st place anytime soon...
Genre(s): Racing Platform(s): PlayStation 2 GameCube Xbox Release Date: NA: November 11, 2003 EU: November 28, 2003 JP: July 8, 2004 Developer(s): Vicarious Visions Publisher(s): Universal Interactive Vivendi Universal Games Konami (Japan) Predecessor: Crash Team Racing Successor: Crash Tag Team Racing

Crash Nitro Kart is a Racing Adventure game created by Vicarious Visions, and was released in 2003 for the Gamecube, Xbox and PlayStation 2. It serves as the sequel to the 1999 game on PlayStation 1, Crash Team Racing and is the second/penultimate installment of the Crash Bandicoot racing trilogy.

Plot

On Earth, Crash Bandicoot is asleep while Coco works on Crash's Kart as Crunch complains to Aku Aku about a diet he's on, while their nemesis, Dr. Neo Cortex, paces across his laboratory floor wondering how he can defeat the Bandicoots and achieve world domination. Suddenly, both groups are abducted by a mysterious white light that takes them to a large coliseum somewhere in another galaxy ruled by Emperor Velo XXVII. Having heard of the groups' racing skills and overall prowess from Nitrous Oxide and N. Trance, Velo plans on having the group race for the entertainment of his subjects. He promises the Earthlings that winning the races will win their freedom, but also threatens them with the destruction of Earth if they refuse to race.

With no other choice, both teams accept Velo's challenge. Velo explains that the racers will compete on four worlds of his choosing, each where they will compete to challenge that world's local champion. After they defeat all four champions, they will then challenge the galactic champion for their freedom. First, they go to Planet Terra, where they race against the champion Krunk, who is furious about Earth's similarities to his homeworld. After defeating him, they go to Barin and challenge Nash, a cybernetic shark that never sleeps. Then they travel to Fenomena and race against Norm, who is able to split himself into two beings. Lastly, they go to Teknee and defeat the clean-freak robot, Geary.

Velo becomes upset after each champion is defeated, but gives credit to the Earth racers. After the last champion is defeated, Velo reveals himself to be galactic champion and agrees to race against the Earth racers. After being defeated, Velo fumes with rage, but then calms down and allows the Earthlings to go free. However, in a shady twist, then states that he will destroy Earth since the racers don't wish to race anymore. When the Earth racers angrily demand a rematch for their planet's fate, Velo readily accepts, on the condition that the Earth racers must first collect all his Time Relics.

After losing once again, Velo literally explodes in a bout of fury, revealing himself to be a small gremlin like his subjects piloting a robot suit. The following events are determined by which of the two teams the player used to win the race.

Crashed Qualities

1. This game is inferior to Crash Team Racing on the PlayStation 1, as it lacks any of the creative and fun charm that the previous game has.
2. The main issue with this game is that aside from new characters, new tracks, and new mechanics, it’s just a lazy rehash of Crash Team Racing, right down to the story being about an alien, thus making Crash Nitro Kart feel more-or-less a remake/reboot of Crash Team Racing rather then a proper sequel.
3. As stated earlier, the story is basically Crash Team Racing, but even more bare-bones and not nearly as creative and/or as charming, The plot here is Emperor Velo steals Team Bandicoot and Team Cortex to race for the fate of their planet and to entertain the aliens. The biggest problem is that it doesn’t give a good reason why Velo wants to race them and what he would do if they didn’t accept, unlike N. Oxide, who threatened to turn the planet into a giant concrete parking lot if the characters refused to race, the plot of Crash Nitro Kart is also way too similar to Space Jam, with it being about a cast of cartoony characters being target by a large green alien to be used as a means of entertainment, which is pointed out by Youtuber BenjaMage in his review of the game.
4. Only 13 races, which is 5 less than Crash Team Racing which has 18 races.
5. The drift-to-boost mechanic, while perfectly great and adds more depth to Crash Nitro Kart, is way too easy to exploit since you have no limit of using it (though they fixed in Nitro-Fueled, which has a limit to 3 boosts). It also makes most(if not all) of the Boss Racers very easy to cheese and beat.
6. While the voice acting is great, Steve Blum’s performance as Crash is awful and annoying, since he’s way too high-pitched and doesn’t bother to replicate Brendan O’Brien’s voice.
7. The karts are heavier, which makes turning more stiff and awkward, even with the drift-to-boost mechanic, which could make Time Trials maddeningly difficult.
   • Speaking of BQ#7, Time Trials are frustrating and hard, especially platinum runs, since you have to play the stage perfectly with no mistakes, meaning any mistake, may mean you have to restart the whole stage.
8. The level editor is extremely limited since you can only switch the positions of crates.
9. The frame rate can sometimes go to around 10-30FPS, especially on the Xbox version when running at 720p.
10. The boss races range from decent and fair to sometimes pathetic and easy because of the drift-to-boost mechanic, the only exception to this is Velo.
11. Adventure mode has 2 modes, Team Bandicoot and Team Cortex, other than the cutscenes and the rewards for beating each 100%, they play exactly the same, which is very tedious.
12. Kart engines sounds are so loud it makes it almost impossible to listen to the music or what the characters say.
13. The sound effect for collecting wumpa fruit sounds off and not as satisfying as the original.
14. Long and frequent load times, for example, the game needs to load 3 times in a race, one for the track, one for the podium, and one for the overworld, and the loading could take around 20-25 seconds.
15. Coco has been redesigned from the previous Crash games. She went from a cute little girl who was fittingly Crash's little sister and was also smart, into an older, sexually designed teenager that for some strange reason wears a Crop-Top, while somewhat understandable since Universal possibly wanted marketing appeal for their female bandicoots, as Tawna was too inappropriately designed, and that Coco was originally supposed to be a teenager as seen in early sketches drawn by Charles Zembillas when Cortex Strikes Back was in development, it's still somewhat random and creepy, especially that Coco being the little sister of Crash who somehow remains the same age unlike her.
16. The game's tracks, arenas and characters have been remade better in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, making it almost pointless to play this game now.

Nitro Qualities

1. Most of the mechanics, while easy to exploit and not as satisfying, are great, especially the drift to boost which is a massive risk and reward system.
2. The anti-gravity feature where you walk on walls in certain moments, while useless but pretty fun and it's no doubt the best feature in the game.
3. Its the first game in the Crash Bandicoot series to use pre-rendered cutscenes, and they look breathtaking for a 2003 game.
4. The voice acting, apart from Crash, is brilliant, especially since most of them reprised their roles from Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex.
   • The voice acting of Emperor Velo XXVII is considered superior than his voice acting in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.
5. The music is excellent, especially the opening theme.
6. While being very easy, the Boss Racers are a huge improvement over Crash Team Racing, as not only are the bosses original and are not from the Crash Bandicoot Universe, but all of them(minus Emperor Velo XXVII) have their own uneck Power-Ups that is not available for any of the characters.
7. The graphics are great for a 2003 game, though sometimes it can look dull and washed out at times.
8. The images during the Loading Screens are really cool looking, and does make it feel like your about to go on an epic race.
9. The option to pick a team and let you pick 3 different characters instead of picking one character for the entire Adventure Mode is clever and interesting.
10. Despite the long loading times, it's shorter than Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled.
11. Despite being random, Coco's teenage redesign was decent.
12. The Gameboy Advance version is way superior than the console version.

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