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‘Crash Team Racing’ Reveals N-Sane Amount of Content – Kart Customization, New Tracks & More

Back in February, Activision invited me out to test some gameplay for the upcoming Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. I bring this up because I remember asking them if the ‘Nitro’ in the title was a reference to Nitros Oxide being playable for the first time or hinting at some aspects of Crash Nitro Kart being paired in the game. The Director and the team on staff simply laughed and commented, “Adding a second game to this one? That would be pretty crazy.” Well as it turns out, Beenox and Activision are EXACTLY that kind of crazy!

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been getting small teases and news drops here and there about Nitro Kart assets being added to the game; but now we just got our biggest trailer since the initial announcement in December. There’s a ton this trailer throws at us, so take a quick look and then let’s discuss EVERYTHING that is going to be a part of the upcoming Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.

Amazingly, this customization aspect was subtly teased from the start. In the original reveal trailer, we got a shot of Crash swapping his kart with others. At the time, we were simply told that karts and riders were independent and could be mixed and matched; but we had no idea the customization went THIS far!

Whereas some racing games – or games in general – offer stickers and paint jobs as ‘customization’, CTR Nitro-Fueled is giving players the chance to change all of that along with the wheels and bodies of the karts as well as skins and animations for the riders themselves. And before you start worrying about the dreaded micro-transaction wall, fear not! Activision clarified that all these customization items will be earned by 1) “playing through the Adventure Mode” and 2) “collecting in-game Wumpa Coins”.

That being said though, there are certain exclusive/ locked items. For example, the Star Skins, Crunch’s Robot Skin and customization options for Nitros hoverkart are all exclusive to the Nitros Oxide edition, which will cost players an extra $20 – in addition to making Nitros Oxide playable from the start. Additionally, anyone playing on the PS4 will get access to an exclusive Retro Skin where Crash and friends will all race in their former polygonal glory!

‘Crash Team Racing’ Reveals N-Sane Amount of Content – Kart Customization, New Tracks & More
Credit: Activision / Beenox

Now let’s circle back and talk about that Nitro Kart content. For those of you who don’t know, Crash Nitro Kart was a follow up to the original CTR. Even though it wasn’t as well received, it did add a lot of fun new ideas, tracks and racers to play around with. In fact, Vicarious Visions, who worked on the reboot that started this all – the N. Sane Trilogy – with Activision, were the ones who originally made Nitro Kart. So combining these two games make a ton of sense, and brings the whole Crash family together!

As far as what adding Nitro Kart to CTR Nitro-Fueled means ‘content wise’, let’s break it down. This means that they are adding approximately 17 additional race tracks as well as multiple new racers including Zem, Zam, the fan-favorite Crunch Bandicoot and every single boss from Nitro Kart – something that was not available in the original game but was in the handheld version. In fact, the only character in the handheld game that hasn’t been confirmed yet for CTR Nitro-Fueled is everyone’s favorite purple dragon, Spyro. So with any luck, we’ll get word on his arrival in-game sometime before the official release.

All in all, CTR Nitro-Fueled initially seemed like a simply one-off stroll down memory lane – with maybe some added track/ racer DLC added later. Though the sheer amount of content that is going to available in-game on Day 1 is incredible! Much like how the original CTR was supposed to be Sony’s answer to Mario Kart, years later CTR Nitro-Fueled is shaping up to be a serious contender for top racing game in terms of quality and quantity of content. So brush up on your driving skills because Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled releases June 21st, 2019.

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