Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled goes above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to remakes. It doesn’t simply throw a new coat of paint on the old kart racer. New details are added to each track, and a robust online component allows for eight players to simultaneously race against each other. Additionally, developer Beenox continuously updates the title with new tracks and characters.
The following ten details are some of the more subtle changes from the original game that only fans are likely to notice. Fortunately, they all add to the game’s quality in one way or another. The original Crash Team Racing is a classic, and the remake retains everything people loved about it while adding so much more.
10 Nitro Kart Tracks
If one feels like the starting package comes packed in with significantly more levels than they remember, they are aren’t wrong. In addition to every track from the original release, the remake also came with all the areas from its 2003 sequel, Crash Nitro Kart.
The PS2 game isn’t as legendary as its predecessor, but still has its fans, and the tracks’ inclusion in Nitro-fueled adds replay value. While this is the most obvious change, it is a worthwhile addition that permits players to try out some tracks that would have otherwise been forgotten.
9 Difficulty Modes
The original release’s adventure mode had no difficulty options. If one found the single-player offerings too difficult or too easy, they had no way of adjusting it to their liking. Fortunately, the 2019 remake offers three difficulty levels for players to choose from: Easy, medium, and hard.
Easy is a cakewalk while hard will definitely test the mettle of even hardened CTR veterans. Medium strikes a solid balance, engaging the player while never becoming frustrating. If one feels up to the challenge, it is worth tackling the most difficult option for the satisfaction of beating it.
8 Switching Between Characters In Adventure Mode
In the original game’s adventure mode, players pick a character at the start and are unable to switch them without starting a new file. If they grew tired of whomever they picked, it was either start over or learn to love them.
This is a problem of the past, however, as Nitro-Fueled allows players to switch characters at any time during the campaign. It only makes sense story-wise as well. After all, both villains and heroes are working together to stop Oxide from taking over the planet.
7 Penta Penguin
Penta Penguin is a hidden character in both releases, unlockable through a cheat code. The inclusion of characters that can be accessed through a code in 2019 shows how dedicated the developer was to maintaining the original game’s spirit.
Fortunately, they weren’t so dedicated that they kept in all the bugs associated with the character. In the original release, some of the character’s dialogs are placeholder sounds like “penguin yay one” or “penguin yay two.” As a tribute to this, Penta still says this but in its proper voice.
6 Starting Lines
During Crash Team Racing’s development, the team wanted every track to have its own unique starting and finish lines. However, the short development time prevented this feature, ending up with each track having the same white banner.
With the extra time and resources allocated towards the remake, Beenox gave each track a distinct starting line and banner appropriate to their respective aesthetics. This helps give each race more personality.
5 Character Customization
Because of the PS1’s graphical limitations, character models were extremely primitive. Not only were they low detailed, but they had almost no animations and all had giant creepy grins. Not only does Nitro-Fueled make everybody more lively, but they are also customizable.
Everybody comes with several outfits and skins for players to choose from. The base game comes packaged in with decent offerings, while updates add even more options. The seasonal Grand Prix awards point bonuses for playing with certain skins, encouraging players to change it up every once in a while.
4 Playing As Nitros Oxide
The main antagonist of the racing game, Nitros Oxide, was not playable in the original release. Developers tried to make it happen, but the floating kart and size prevented him from working on every track.
This is why his level in the game is especially wide, to accommodate for the unique racer. Nitro-Fueled adds the villain as an unlockable playable character. Several other characters are unlockable as well who weren’t in the original release, but Oxide gets a special mention for his involvement in the original title.
3 Kart Customization
The first release gave every character a uniform kart design, resembling go-karts one sees in an amusement park. Thankfully, the remake spices things up by having a plethora of karts at the player’s disposal.
With the online multiplayer component, this helps people distinguish themselves from competitors. It wouldn’t be as visually interesting if everyone on the track had a uniform kart design. Of course, people still run the risk of having the same kart as another competitor, but the likelihood is low, considering the sheer amount of karts, stickers, and emblems available for use.
2 Glowing Tires
Boosting is key to winning races. Without drifting and the associated speed gains, players will find themselves lagging behind. To help time the boosts perfectly, each game includes a meter so players can time the technique perfectly.
The remake also adds a visual cue to the karts in the form of glowing tires so racers know precisely when to activate the boost without looking at the meter. While it helps substantially, it still takes skill and precise timing to pull off.
1 Stranded Chicken
On the bridge in Crash Cove, stop and take a look to the left. In the original version, it is a bland sea. The remake, however, shows a hilariously tragic site. A poor chicken is stranded on top of a box, surrounded by sharks.
One has to commend the developers for including such a detail few people will ever notice. One also has to question their sanity at such a sadistically comedic gag. Chickens often get the short of the stick in Crash Bandicoot.
