Crash Team Racing: No red capped plumber here

When you're a kid, similarities in game design from one game to another might go right over your head from its fun factor. Bubsy had the speedy gameplay of Sonic the hedgehog as an example but nobody really talks about that game, and for good reason, it was terrible. But during the Fall season of '99, Naughty Dog released their last developed Crash Bandicoot game on the Playstation, a kart racer not just to compete with Mario Kart, but a game inspired by it as well, and it became one of the most fun and remembered games on the system.

A majority of the game's development went in the process of studying levels from both the Mario Kart games as well as Diddy Kong Racing on the N64 for the developers to get a good idea of how the tracks should work, creative track designs and shortcuts were aplenty and even having its own "adventure" mode to add gameplay hours was also taken from Diddy Kong Racing.

Which is one detail that sets the game apart from Mario Kart games, a storyline giving a motive to the characters racing. We're introduced to Nitrous Oxide, an alien who's grown bored of racing slowpoke lifeforms around space, challenging Crash and the others to a race of survival, but to do that four areas full of racetracks must be cleared.

Fun fact: The game's villain, Nitrous Oxide was thought up by Naughty Dog to try and get fans upset that the previous villain, Dr. Neo Cortex was being replaced. It didn't necessarily go to their plan, as Oxide ended up becoming a pretty memorable character to the series.

As far as the character selection goes, plenty of familiar faces return with a few others absent. Four of the classic bosses from the first Crash game are challenge bosses for each area in the Adventure, and are unlocked after progressing in the game. The mode itself isn't just your standard point A to point B though, going back to comparing Diddy Kong Racing there are specific objectives on each track such as time trials and finding tokens hidden in each one to finish the game to completion, and even more to keep you busy for hours.

This was also one of those rare Playstation 1 titles that used the four player "multi-tap" accessory for multiplayer, another nod to Mario Kart including the same amount of friendly chaos in both racing and a battle mode. By finishing the time trials outside of Adventure mode, you'll unlock the Oxide ghosts, and good luck with those because the Oxide times are near to impossible to beat.

Upon completing story mode, the Naughty Dog 1994-1999 scrapbook video is unlocked, showing a visual history of the Naughty Dog offices as well as Crash Bandicoot related concept art, merchandise, and some Crash themed stuff that was hitting Japan at the time.

Is Crash Team Racing still worth playing today? undeniably. Its fun and frantic gameplay continues to make for a worthwhile experience even with friends, and with so much content packed in you'll find yourself coming back to it.

Do you have memories playing or hearing about Crash Team Racing? Leave a comment and as always, see you next article!

Looking for more from Benjanime?

READ 127417 TIMES

Sega Genesis Games I Owned

Admittedly we weren't very wealthy, so we couldn't always afford the best or most up to date toys or devices on the ...

Crash Did It - Who's Next?

Crash Did It - Who's Next? Retro Gaming Revivals We Want to See Nostalgia is always a great marketing tool to rely on, and it's something w...

Video games you could be playing on Halloween

As of 2016, I successfully moved into a quiet (and small) culdesac area out in the countryside of Gloucester, Virgina. Why I mention this is because s...

Top Three Favorite Halloween Ads

Spooky Scary Skeletons are coming once again. That's right, Halloween is here. Time to break out the candy, costumes, a...

Remembering Gex

The video game mascot craze of the 1990s brought many icons into the world of gaming with some mascots who are still around today, with others who las...

RoboCrap: The Weirdest RoboCop Merchandise

In 1988 movie audiences were introduced to The Future of Law Enforcement, RoboCop. Despite being a hyper-violent satire of action movies by ...

When Bo, Jordan, and Gretzky Ruled the World

Back in the nineties three men presided over sports royalty. There was Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky and yes, Bo Jackson. Bo knew everyt...

Kids WB Music Star Blocks

Kids WB was always known as the weird Saturday morning cartoon block, due to a few shows in it bein...

2000AD films

With marvel dominating the big screen with films and DC making a few films themselves theirs still room for more comic films and 2000AD has the answer...

MOST RECENT RETRORATING FEATURED OFFICIAL

Go to page: