::Revamp or Rehash?::

Back in the day (1999), Crash Bandicoot made a name for himself in the kart-racing genre. Although I really liked the original “Crash” games that were probably one of the last generations of platform gaming, and exceptional at that. When Crash Team Racing was released a few years back, all I can remember were the endless nights beating the pants of my brother in both race and battle mode. This not only held my interest to the whole “kart-krazy” fad that took the industry by storm. Remember how everyone had a kart game of their own? The spurt reminds me of such rise in popularity of game shows and more recently, reality T.V. Crash Nitro Kart is essentially a rehash in gameplay, but it allows you to enjoy and roam into many different worlds, all of which have plenty of racing to beat, things to collect and challenges to conquer. Lets see how this installment of the series faired.

::Crash Nitro Kart::

Just to get things straight, a lot of games these days have stories to simply give the game something to revolve around. For example, Tetris Worlds has probably one of the funniest (lamest) opening movies I have ever seen, and their attempt at making a “story mode” to Tetris is laughable. CNK suffers from the same problem but at least we are dealing with a Bandicoot, not blocks. It consists of Crash and his “team” (Crash, Coco and Crunch) being forced to win races in order to successfully entertain an alien race that threatens to destroy the earth if they fail. For the first time in gaming, a story had finally moved me in such a way that I needed a tissue. Well, not exactly, if anything, I needed to wipe the tears off my face from laughing so hard! Back to the game.

As you can imagine, single-player mode is the main game and offers hours upon hours of gameplay. “Adventure Mode” is where the unlockable items are to be had. There are six worlds that consist of three races; although this alone won’t whet your need to thrive on, there are more “side tasks” that I felt the need to complete to reach total satisfaction. And it turns out that you need to complete a certain amount (most if not all of them), to reach the final race in “Adventure Mode”. After you complete each race, you have the choice to go back to the track and choose one of two gameplay options. They basically are alternate tasks to the game.

The two tasks are “CNK Mode” and “Relic Race”. CNK Mode has you collect the letters “C”, “N”, and “K” that are scattered throughout the track, all while finishing in first place. This can get a little tricky and frustrating, but like I said, the more I lost, the more I wanted to personally the computers butt. While Relic Race is a bit different (you don’t race other opponents), you still have to complete the race within an impossible finishing time. The trick to beating it is to pick up crates that are labeled ֿ”, ׀” and ׁ”. These signify how many seconds time will be frozen if you drive through them. Some of the challenges can get tough as they expect you to finish a five minute race in three minutes; but with the help of these crates, this goal is obtainable, and a real accomplishment to complete (it’s the first time I hugged my Xbox). Once enough of these challenges are completed, you will be able to qualify for the final circuit, which will determine the fate of this planet (…scary!).

Another cool thing is that there are unlockable characters to race as when you complete some of the side missions. There are a total of 16 characters to race as, six of which you are given right off the bat. There is plenty here to discover that will keep you coming back simply to unlock it all.

There are of course the obligatory yet annoying modes like “Time Trials” and “Lap Time Trials” which is a great idea if you want to get to know a track you’re going to race in, but otherwise it’s pretty much useless just like all the other racing games that feature this mode.

A descent supplemental game mode that I really enjoyed was Cup Tournament. It allowed you to play with either by yourself or three other people to compete in a tournament consisting of three races. Finishing in first place of a race will receive nine point, second will get six, third will get three points and fourth gets one; whoever has the most points at the end of the three races wins. There are four different cups you can play for. I just wish you could have added more races than just three on this mode, but it was refreshing to have. My friends didn’t mind losing too much.

And of course, with any respectable kart game, a battle mode is featured. The best part battle mode is that you can beat your friends and siblings (verbal abuse after winning doesn’t hurt either) in these grudge matches that consist of bomb throwing and TNT crates. The thing that this game mode lacks that seems to be absent in all kart games is the lack of AI in battle mode. Meaning that I can’t play against the computer in battle mode by myself. This mode is pretty much useless if your friend(s) have plans and you are stuck at home. When I grow up, I’m going to make a game that features this….. just you wait and see. All in all, you will get to play in five gameplay modes in battle that consist of a deathmatch type mode as well as collecting all crystals in a given stage.

Another great mode that is rarely offered is “Arena Editor”. If you are a big fan of battle mode, you and your friends should dive right into the editor on this one. You can change what weapons are in a battle arena, what crates are available, starting points and even the placement of TNT explosives. This is an excellent way to extend the shelf life of this game and will keep you coming back for more, assuming that you have friends.

The graphics are tweaked for the next-generation consoles and are all pretty fluid with animation and explosion effects as far as a cartoon-ish game like this goes. They are not groundbreaking, but for Crash Bandicoot, he hasn’t looked better. There isn’t a trace of slow-down in this game that I could tell. CNK was also easy to control, throwing any learning curve out the window. You can pick this game right up and beat some races, but the latter ones will take some time.

The best thing I can tell you is that this game not only fulfills the satisfaction it brought the first time around, but it edges out what it has already brought to the table. What I got was more of the old stuff, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but for those that are looking for a total sequel of CTR might be slightly disappointed at this one; although I didn’t feel this way.

Another note: if you don’t care for the entire “kart-racing” genre, this game will not make you feel differently. The best way for me to describe it is the same of everything you love about kart games rolled into one. Nothing shockingly new here, but it’s an iffy $50 purchase if you are the fence on this one, but nevertheless, I believe that I got my money’s worth.