On Monday of the E3 week, we got to smash, crash, and bash our foes in the rebooted classic Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled. Prior to this hands-on preview, I had only once played Crash Team Racing. As a child, I would typically play Mario Kart as my main racing title of choice until purchasing a PS2 and learning about Juiced and Need for Speed. At PAX East 2019, Andrew got to preview the rebooted game and couldn’t stop singing its praises. Using his preview as a hint at what I am to expect, I eagerly awaited my preview at E3 2019.
At E3 2019, we met with Steve Willis and the Activision team to preview Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled and Spyro Reignited Trilogy. When we arrived at the Ritz-Carlton, we were greeted by the team and led to a private room to preview the games. During our appointment, we were joined by another member of the media and decided to split our preview time with him rather than having the team divide their attention. We were given the option to either play individually or together; we both agreed that the time would be more productive competing against one another in Crash Team Racing rather than only AI.
At the start of the preview, we were introduced to Andrew Peetre, Activision Developer for CTR: Nitro Fueled and the team. The team’s goal was to get us up to speed with all the new features of the game before diving in. The game is a recreation of the game released 20 years ago with an overhaul in the graphics to match the standards of the modern era. This required the team to rebuild everything from the ground up. That said, they chose to keep all the original characters, tracks, features, and game modes.
Although, new content has been brought to Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled. This means 12 tracks and all the drivers from Crash Nitro Kart are accounted for in CTR: Nitro Fueled. The game will feature online multiplayer allowing players to race against friends and compete on the leaderboards. There is also the Pit Stop, which allows players to modify their characters, ultimate kart skins, decals, and stickers; this allows the player to create their own signature look.
During the appointment, we were introduced to the Grand Prix. The Grand Prix will have a set of challenges for each player to complete. As players complete races and challenges they are rewarded with Nitro and Rewards. Each Grand Prix introduces new awards and a new map to race on. The Grand Prix will become available starting on July 3rd. The first Grand Prix is called Nitro Tour which features the new track Twilight Tour to play either local or online. The game will welcome five new characters and other cosmetic items, including Legendary Skins with unique animations. Tana, Amy, Megumi, Liz, and Isabella will be unlockable in Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled at the start of the Grand Prix. The second Grand Prix is named Back In Time and comes with the map called Prehistoric Playground and a character called Baby T. The third Grand Prix will welcome Spyro the Dragon to CTR: Nitro Fueled.
At the moment, there is no plan for in-game cosmetic purchases.
There are over 100 racing challenges in the first Grand Prix specific to tracks, characters, and objective types. The Grand Prix events are similar to the seasons seen in other multiplayer titles, meaning they will be time-locked, where all content will become locked if not earned during that Grand Prix. At the moment there is a plan for all exclusive Grand Prix items to be recycled at a later date for players to unlock. All maps will be playable even after the Grand Prix is over.
Overall Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled was a lot of fun and reminds us why we loved the original Crash Team Racing and by extension the Mario Kart games. The power-ups, levels, and characters all seemed crisp. It felt as if crashing into an old friend after a long hiatus. The Drift feature was definitely the hardest to get used to but after a few races, we started to get the hang of it. The jump mechanic also was an additional element that took some time to adjust to but helped with dodging and avoiding certain powerups. During our preview, we got demolished in the Battle Arena scoring a total of 0 points on our one attempt. The controls were rather simple but should be easy to learn and master within a short amount of time. Hopefully, we will improve once the game releases and get a rematch against those we competed against during the preview.
Crash Teaming Racing: Nitro Fueled was easily in our top 5 games of E3 2019.
Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled is launching on Switch, PS4, and Xbox One on June 21st with two retail versions of the game. The first is the base game retailing at $39.99 and the second version is called the Nitrous Oxide Edition. The Nitrous Oxide Edition comes with exclusive cosmetic content, early access to certain characters, and a special cart, which will all unlock at launch.
More information can be found on the official website.
