Game Review: Crash Team Racing

I haven't played any of the Crash Bandicoot games yet and I have only owned the original Super Mario Kart, which provided hundreds of hours of split screen kart combat mayhem once I finally convinced Krogenar that S.M.K. was not a kiddie game and was actually alot of fun.
Since SMK it seems like every franchise has attempted to cash in on the Kart Racing phenomenon... none till CTR have been close to being sucessful. Naughty Dog has made a Kart racing game that is just as fun as SMK with characters that are quirkier than Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser and those guys.
CTR has many similarities on the surface to SMK but the game has much more to offer those willing to go the distance. CTR offers eight selectable characters: Crash, Coco, Pura, Polar, Dr. Neo Cortex, Tiny, Dr. N. Gin, and Dingodile.
CTR offers plenty of ways to play; Adventure (single player campaign), Time Trial and Battle Mode. The Adventure mode is basically the same as SMK but goes a little deeper, after beating a level you gain access to Relic Races which are basically time challenges, and CTR challenge races where you race against the CPU and need to also collect the letters C, T & R.
Time Trial is self explanatory....drive the best you can on a track to set the best time.
Battle Mode is exactly the same as SMK PvP using power ups to defeat your opponent, you can have up to 4 players via the multitap.

CTR is the only other worthwhile Kart game out there in my opinion and has much better tracks than SMK  (not all flat tracks)!
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and CTR takes the genre SMK created, uses the formula and kicks it up a few notches with over the top characters and solid gameplay a good soundtrack and a lot of enjoyable race tracks.



8/10