Crash Team Racing

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Crash Team Racing
Developer(s)	Naughty Dog
Publisher(s)	Universal Interactive Studios
Distributor(s)	Sony Computer Entertainment
Artist(s)	Charles Zembillas (character design)[1] Joe Pearson (environment design)[1]
Composer(s)	Mutato Muzika (Mark Mothersbaugh and Josh Mancell)[1]
Series	Crash Bandicoot
Platform(s)	PlayStation, PlayStation Network
Release date(s)	NA September 30, 1999 PAL 1999[2]
Genre(s)	Racing game
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ELSPA: 3+ ESRB: E (Everyone) OFLC: G PEGI: 3+
Media	CD-ROM, Download

Crash Team Racing is a racing game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. The game was released in North America on September 30, 1999 and in the PAL region later the same year.^[2] It was re-released for the Sony Greatest Hits line-up on 2000 and for the Platinum Range on January 12, 2001.^[2]

Crash Team Racing is the fourth installment in the Crash Bandicoot series. It is the first Crash Bandicoot game in the racing genre and the last Crash Bandicoot game to be developed by Naughty Dog.^[3] The game's story focuses on the efforts of a ragtag team of characters in the Crash Bandicoot series, who must race against the egomaniacal Nitros Oxide to save their planet from destruction.

Crash Team Racing was praised by critics for its gameplay and graphics. Since its release, it has sold more than two million units worldwide.^[4][5] As an indirect sequel Crash Nitro Kart was released in 2003 for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, Game Boy Advance and N-Gage.

[edit] Gameplay

An example of a race in Crash Team Racing

Crash Team Racing is a racing game in which the player controls characters from the Crash Bandicoot universe, most of whom race in karts. While racing, the player can accelerate, steer, reverse, brake, hop or use weapons and power-ups using the game controller's analog stick and buttons.^[6] An additional move is the power slide, which is executed by simultaneously hopping (executed with either the L1 or R1 button) and accelerating into a turn; as the game's cornering technique, the power slide can be used to take sharp turns quickly.^[7] The player can also get a speed boost during a power slide. During a power slide, the "Turbo Boost Meter" on the lower-right corner of the screen with fill up and turn from green to red.^[8] At the same time, the exhaust gas from the player's kart will turn black.^[7] To get a speed boost, the player must quickly press the button opposite of the one used for the initiated hop while the Turbo Boost Meter is red. The player can execute three speed boosts in a row during a power slide, with the third speed boost being more powerful than the previous two.^[8] However, if the player waits too long into the power slide for a boost, the kart will back-fire and the chance for a speed boost will be lost, and if the player power slides for too long, a spin-out will occur.^[7][8] Speed boosts can also be obtained by gathering hang time when leaping over gaps in the track. The longer the player is in the air, the bigger the speed boost will be when the kart lands.^[8]

Two distinct forms of crates are scattered throughout the courses and arenas of Crash Team Racing. Crates with question marks (?) on them hold power-ups and weapons, which can be collected by driving through and smashing open the said crates.^[9][10] When the player collects a weapon or power-up, it will appear in a box at the top of the screen.^[10] The player can then activate the weapon or power-up to wreak havoc on the other racers or help the player go faster respectively.^[9] The player can also break open "Fruit Crates" to collect "Wumpa Fruit".^[10] The more Wumpa Fruit the player collects, the faster his or her kart will go.^[7] Upon collecting and holding the maximum of ten Wumpa Fruit, the player's kart will be "juiced up", increasing the potency of any weapons and power-ups collected.^[7][8][10]

[edit] Racing modes

Crash Team Racing gives the player a choice of five different racing modes: Adventure, Time Trial, Arcade, Versus and Battle. In each mode, the player initially selects one from eight characters to take control of.^[11] A PlayStation multitap can be installed to allow three or four-player games.^[12]

[edit] Adventure

Nitros Oxide, the main antagonist and final boss of the Adventure Mode of Crash Team Racing. His spaceship, where the one-on-one race against him is held, is situated behind him.

The "Adventure Mode" is a one-player game in which the player must race through all of the levels in the game and collect as many Racing Trophies, Relics, Letters, Boss Keys, CTR Tokens and Gems as possible.^[11] The main objective of Crash Team Racing's Adventure Mode is to save the world from the story's antagonist Nitros Oxide by winning races on 16 different tracks in levels throughout the game's island. The player enters the tracks by driving into the "Warp Pad Vortexes" scattered throughout the island. In the beginning of the game, the player will have access to only two levels.^[13] As the player wins more races, more Warp Pads will open.^[9][13] In addition to the main hub world where Oxide's spaceship is located, there are four more secondary worlds with four Warp Pads each. Open Warp Pads sparkle because their vortex is active, while closed Warp Pads don't sparkle and cannot be entered. The player can begin a race by driving into a sparkling Warp Pad. When a race is finished, the player will be returned to that level's world.^[14] Open Warp Pads can be found through the use of the radar on the lower right corner of the screen. Open Warp Pads appear as small, flashing silver dots on the radar.^[9]

In each level, the player must win a Trophy by coming in first in front of all the racers.^[9][15] If the player re-enters a level in which a Trophy is already won, the Relic Race can be entered, in which the player races through the track alone in the fastest time possible. A Sapphire, Gold, or Platinum Relic is rewarded depending on how fast the track is finished. During Relic Races, Time Crates are scattered throughout the level. When these are broken, the race timer will freeze for one, two, or three seconds as indicated on the Time Crate. If the player breaks all the Time Crates within a level and wins, the player will be awarded a "Perfect Bonus" of ten seconds off his or her final time at the end.^[15] As is the case for the Relic Races, if the player re-enters a level in which a Trophy is already won, the CTR Challenge can be accepted, in which the player must collect the hidden letters C, T, and R scattered throughout the track while coming in first place to win a CTR Token. The CTR Tokens come in the colors of red, blue, green, yellow, and purple. Purple CTR Tokens are acquired by winning Bonus Rounds, in which the player must collect 20 Crystals in an obstacle-filled arena in a set amount of time. Collecting four CTR Tokens of the same color will open that color's Gem Cup, located in a secret area in the "Gemstone Valley" world. A Gem Cup consists of four tracks in a row, in which the player must race for points. The racer who comes in first place receives nine points, while the second place racer gets six points, the third place racer gets three points and the fourth place racer only gets one point; the rest get no points. The player with the highest number of points at the end of the four races is the winner and will be awarded a Gem.^[16]

When the player has won all four Trophies in a world, the "Boss Garage" of that world can be accessed. In the Boss Garage, the player will compete in a one-on-one race against a boss character who possesses an unlimited number of a certain weapon used to hinder the player's progress. If the boss character is defeated, the character will relinquish his Boss Key, which the player uses to access new worlds and ultimately to face Oxide inside his spaceship. To win the game, the player must collect all 16 Trophies, all four Boss Keys, all 18 Relics, all 20 CTR Tokens and all five Gems before finally facing and defeating Nitros Oxide in a one-on-one race.^[17]

[edit] Other modes

The "Time Trial" mode is a one-player game in which the player selects a level and races through it as quickly as possible. There are no other racers to hinder the player and no power-ups, making the mode a suitable way to practice kart handling. At the conclusion of a Time Trial the player has the option to save his or her "ghost", an exact replay of the race that was just ran. The player can later race against the ghost in an effort to shave seconds off his or her previous record.^[11] In the "Arcade" mode, the player can quickly scroll through and race on a selection of tracks. The player can choose to select a Single Race or enter a Cup, in which the player races on four tracks in a row for points. In both the Single Race and the Cup Race, one or two players race with the remaining computer-controlled drivers. The difficulty of the race can be set to easy, medium or hard, the track can be selected and the number of laps can be set to 3, 5 or 7. In a Cup Race, the player can choose which Cup to race in and set the difficulty to easy, medium or hard.^[18] The "Versus" mode is similar to that of the Arcade mode with the exception that two or more human players must be involved.^[12] In the "Battle" mode, up to four players can fight customized battles, launching weapons during combat in one of seven special battle arenas.^[13] The type and length (the latter modifies how many hit points or minutes the battle will have) of the battle can be adjusted beforehand, allowing for three types of battles. In a "Point Limit Mode" battle, the first player to achieve 5, 10 or 15 points wins. In the "Time Limit Mode" battle, the player with the highest points after 3, 6 or 9 minutes wins. In the "Life Limit Mode", each player has a set number of lives (3, 6 or 9) and the battle has a time limit (3, 6 minutes or forever). The player with the most lives at the end of the time limit wins. If "forever" is chosen as the length, the battle lasts until only one player is standing. Three and four players can team up for two-against-one, two-against-two, three-against-one or one-against-one-against-two battles.^[19]

[edit] Plot

[edit] Characters

All fifteen playable characters in Crash Team Racing, with Crash Bandicoot selected

Fifteen characters are playable in Crash Team Racing, although only eight of them are playable from the start.^[11] Crash Bandicoot, the main protagonist of the series, is an all-round racer with balanced acceleration, top speed and handling. Doctor Neo Cortex, Crash's archenemy, is a mad scientist who wants to stop Nitros Oxide so that he may conquer the world himself. Like Crash, his kart is an all-round performer. Coco Bandicoot, Crash's younger sister, is a computer genius who installed computer chips into her kart to increase its acceleration prowess. Doctor N. Gin is a rocket scientist who, like Coco, added custom parts to his kart to improve its acceleration. Pura and Polar pilot karts with low speed but improved handling, allowing them to navigate tight corners. Tiny Tiger and Dingodile control karts built for top speed at the cost of turning prowess.^[20]

The main antagonist of the story, Nitros Oxide, is the self-proclaimed fastest racer in the galaxy who threatens to turn Earth into a concrete parking lot, forcing the player character to defeat him in a final one-on-one race.^[20] Preceding Oxide are four boss characters who possess "Boss Keys" that are needed to access Oxide's spaceship. In order, the bosses consist of Ripper Roo, a deranged straitjacket-wearing kangaroo;^[21][22] Papu Papu, the morbidly obese leader of the island's native tribe;^[23][24] Komodo Joe, a Komodo dragon with a speech sound disorder;^[25][26] and Pinstripe Potoroo, a greedy pinstripe-clad potoroo.^[27][28]

Appearing as the player's tutors in the game are the sentient twin witch doctor masks Aku Aku and Uka Uka, both of whom give hints that help the player develop his or her racing skills.^[7] They also act as obtainable power-ups during the races, temporarily protecting the player from all attacks and obstacles while increasing the kart's speed. However, their power does not protect the player from chasms or deep water.^[29]

[edit] Story

The inhabitants of Earth are visited by an extraterrestrial named Nitros Oxide, who claims to be the fastest racer in the galaxy. Challenging Earth to a game called "Survival of the Fastest", he beckons Earth's best driver to race him. If Earth's driver wins, he promises to leave Earth alone, but if Oxide wins, he will turn Earth into a concrete parking lot and enslave the Earthlings.^[30]

[edit] Development

Naughty Dog began production on Crash Team Racing after the completion of Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back. The engine for Crash Team Racing was created at the same time Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped was produced. The turbo system that gives the player boosts of speed during power slides and by gathering hang time was integrated to make Crash Team Racing feel more interactive than older kart-racing games and involve the player further.^[3] The Nitros Oxide character was originally a mad scientist obsessed with speed who plotted to speed up the entire world until the end of time.^[31][32] However, having exhausted human, animal, machine, and various combinations thereof for Crash Bandicoot bosses in the past, it was decided to have Nitros Oxide be an otherworldly character.^[33] Crash Team Racing went into the alpha stage on August 1999 and went into the beta stage on September.^[34]

[edit] Audio

The soundtrack of the game was produced by David Baggett and composed by Mark Mothersbaugh and Josh Mancell of Mutato Muzika, while the sound effects were created by Mike Gollum, Ron Horwitz and Kevin Spears of Universal Sound Studios. The voices of Doctor Neo Cortex and Uka Uka were provided by Clancy Brown while the voices of Doctor N. Gin, Tiny Tiger and Pinstripe Potoroo were provided by Brendan O'Brien. Additional voices were provided by David A. Pizzuto, Mel Winkler, Michael Ensign, Hynden Walch, Billy Pope, sound effects artist Mike Gollum, Michael Connor and Chip Chinery.^[1]

[edit] Reception

Crash Team Racing received favorable reviews from critics. The D-Pad Destroyer of GamePro praised the controls as "nearly-perfect" and explained that "the transparent controls allow you to concentrate on racing and blasting your opponents, and so the races are faster, more fluid and more fun."^[39] Official PlayStation Magazine described Crash Team Racing as "the game that made kart racing cool" and proclaimed that "nothing has ever matched its quality."^[43] Electronic Gaming Monthly noted that the game was "heavily inspired by Mario Kart, but still an amazing multiplayer racer."^[38] Doug Perry of IGN stated that the game was "rock solid" in playability and graphics, but was critical of "the insanely capitalistic smile of Crash."^[42] Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot called the game "a great Mario Kart clone, and it succeeds where the likes of Mega Man, Bomberman, Diddy Kong, the Chocobo, and even Mario himself have failed."^[41] Johnny Liu of Game Revolution concluded that despite the fact that the game "doesn't add much to the tired genre, it manages to do everything well."^[40] Joe Ottoson of Allgame ("All Game Guide" at the time) said that the inability to reconfigure the controls was "the only real drawback to Crash's presentation."^[37] Since the game's release, it has sold approximately 2 million units worldwide, selling 1.9 million in the United States and 100,000 in the United Kingdom.^[4][5]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Official Crash Team Racing Website
• Crash Team Racing at MobyGames
• Crash Team Racing on Playstation Store (UK Version)