Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (June 21st, 2019)

[Jango]

Well, for starters, you CAN unlock him in game... which is already some progress. Oxide wasn't playable in the original, so he's a new character to this game. Unlike certain companies that lock new characters behind paid DLC forever *cough* *Bandai Namco* *cough* at least it's something, especially coming from Activision.

 

What really got my attention is the fact that... Who the f* is Beenox and where is VICARIOUS VISIONS?

More stuff rolling: https://blog.us.playstation.com/2018/12/06/crash-team-racing-nitro-fueled-races-to-ps4-june-21/

 

Quote

 

Being Authentic

Like myself, we have huge fans of the franchise on the development team. We know how dear the original Crash Team Racing is to so many people, so we’re spending a tremendous amount of time making sure it’s the same great racing experience that fans remember with a level of polish that could only be achieved by today’s standards. Our first design pillar in approaching this game was strikingly obvious: Authenticity. Whatever improvements or bells and whistles we were going to add, we needed to be authentic to the inspiration of the original experience.

 

You better be!

Pre-orders on! https://www.crashbandicoot.com/crashteamracing/home#buy

Pura is too pure for this world.

[Bobnik]

I'll likely sound like a party pooper, but I'm kinda skeptical/down on this game. It mostly comes down to 3 points:
1) The game is being made by Beenox, which are responsible for a PC port of Black Ops 4 and both of the Amazing Spider-Man games. They haven't made a good game since Tranformers War of Cybertron games, so I'm somewhat concerned about the gameplay and them messing with it too much.

2) Since it looks to be the same or similar graphical engine, I expect the game to run at 30 FPS on the consoles, which is not a great framerate for a racing game. I know people can get used to this, but for this game 60 FPS I feel like is necessary. I may be wrong and the game could run at 60, but I don't have high hopes.

3) Seriously, no PC? What's with Activision and the weird PC support lately? N-Sane Trilogy got a port a year later, and it was pretty shoddy. Spyro being a no-show (which could change, granted), and now this? That's kinda dumb.

I know 2 out of 3 can be concerned as nitpicks, but I'm not as hyped for this as many people are. I'm in the minority tho, so...

[Ratcicle King]

You guys DO realize Vicarious Vision developing this would mean a couple more of years without a possible new game right? And furthermore, we wouldn't even SEE this for a while, since VV would've been busy both on N.Sane and helping on Reignited to work on this. It's probably been in development for a bit, even before N.Sane came out.

[The Tenth Doctor]

35 minutes ago, Jango said:

What really got my attention is the fact that... Who the f* is Beenox and where is VICARIOUS VISIONS?

 

These guys made Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions (which was good), Spider-Man Edge of Time (Kinda eh) and the Amazing Spider-Man games (not that great).

[Blueknight V2.0]

Thanks to Josh Gaming we got our 1st listen to the title theme for CTR:NF. Which was included with the PS4 pre-order.

[SonicWind]

I remember having some good times with the original CTR when I was a kid. Glad to see the game come back.

It's clear that either Activision has been listening to fan demand since the NST announcement or they knew beforehand that a lot of people would want a CTR remaster once NST got announced.

And I liked some of Beenox's work on Spider-Man games (mostly Shattered Dimensions), so I welcome their involvement.

[TheOcelot]

PS4 avatar and dynamic theme (which includes the title-screen music):

 

So yeah, I'm pleased this has been announced. CTR is my favorite kart game. I always preferred it over the original Crash 3.

3 hours ago, Jango said:

What really got my attention is the fact that... Who the f* is Beenox and where is VICARIOUS VISIONS?

They've worked on Skylanders & Call of Duty. They also (and I'm laughing as I type this) worked on the "Bee Movie Game". Can you beelieve it XP

I guess Activision felt developing all-four games at the same time would have been a bit too much for VV, or they just wanted to keep CTR's release separate from the numerical three. To be honest, I'm quite happy with this decision because VV did make a mess of the physics in Crash 2 (and to an extent in Crash 1) in the N-Sane Trilogy. Whereas Toys for Bob did a far better job of getting the physics right in the Re-ignited trilogy. Lets see what Beenox can do!

 

Interesting that they used the name "Nitro-Fueled" which is bound to cause confusion-make some fans think Crash Nitro Kart is included, which it isn't as far as we're aware.

 

Oh and smart move to include online-play, something Sonic Mania really should have included.

[Your Vest Friend]

Weird direction with Dingo Canyon to be honest. I get that it's a desert road like the bike levels and Dingodile has assets there that could be used for consistency, but...the diner comes from the 50s, how'd he drag that through time? 

Pura face there reminding me why he was my favourite character for so many years. 

[DarkRula]

Oh, this looks great. A real good looking game. I await more info, but in the meantime - CTR soundtrack, here I come again.

[Jango]

I believe there's no doubt Vicarious Visions is assisting Beenox somehow, the character's models are exactly the same, so are the assets. Which is great for consistence of course! I will rest easy if they nail the gameplay, the reason CTR is better than any Mario Kart untill this day is the tight and rewarding controls. They gotta get the original code.

Oh, we got some soundtrack already... 

It's awesome!!! Missing a few notes as usual, but not bad. I really hope the remixes in this game are very energetic, loud and rock-oriented, it's odd when you have graphics almost literally popping out of the screen, but the music is quiet... It needs bass!

[Teoskaven]

So, if the character models are basically taken from the N.Sane Trilogy with not much effort, can we have then N.Brio, Koala Kong and Komodo Moe playable now? Thnx

But reguardless, i'm definetly gonna get this. Me and my father used to play a lot of CTR back then, i wonder if this will spark his interest again.

[Jango]

1 hour ago, Teoskaven said:

So, if the character models are basically taken from the N.Sane Trilogy with not much effort, can we have then N.Brio, Koala Kong and Komodo Moe playable now? Thnx

But reguardless, i'm definetly gonna get this. Me and my father used to play a lot of CTR back then, i wonder if this will spark his interest again.

Pretty sure they will, in the PlayStation blog article they mention that there are some surprises to be revealed.

Please make Spyro playable too.

[Rowl]

I wonder if they will add some new characters. Nitrous Oxide is now playable in the remake, but maybe they can add the rest of the original cast like Tawna, Koala Kong, N. Brio, Komodo Moe... and... yeah, that's about it. Only 4 big characters left. Maybe 5 if they will add Spyro as a guest character.

[E-122-Psi]

This looks promising. I haven't been able to play four player CTR in years due to my slimline PS2 rejecting the multi tap.

Interested by the fact it's a different developer, though using the same models and art as VV, this could be considered a more ethical short cut since not only does it keep it consistent with N Sane but it also means Beenox have to spend less time making graphics in favour of refining physics, especially with about half a year to complete it. They still seem to have a good attention to detail in spite of it, all the gameplay animations and detailed tracks.

Hopefully they can match the gameplay of the original too. Meanwhile I wonder what VV themselves are up to.

Some extras already confirmed with Oxide playable and some extra karts for the characters.

10 minutes ago, Rowl said:

I wonder if they will add some new characters. Nitrous Oxide is now playable in the remake, but maybe they can add the rest of the original cast like Tawna, Koala Kong, N. Brio, Komodo Moe... and... yeah, that's about it. Only 4 big characters left. Maybe 5 if they will add Spyro as a guest character.

I wouldn't mind if they brought in some of the racers from later titles like Crunch or Pasadena, though it's hardly a necessity.

After Oxide, Komodo Moe is probably the one I'd most enjoy, since having only one Komodo Brother felt esoteric. Maybe they could even turn the third boss into a duo race like CNK's race with the Norms.

[E-122-Psi]

8 hours ago, TheOcelot said:

Interesting that they used the name "Nitro-Fueled" which is bound to cause confusion-make some fans think Crash Nitro Kart is included, which it isn't as far as we're aware.

Well the video shows some CNK vehicles are usable.

[Rowl]

The Komodo Brothers were actually planned o share one kart in the original game, but this ideas was cut because of the limitations of the PS. Maybe this time we can either see both Joe and Moe sharing one kart of separate them. 

[Marcello]

According to the official site, there will be karts and tracks from "beyond the original"

Quote

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
Crash is back in the driver’s seat! Get ready to go fur-throttle with Crash™ Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. It’s the authentic CTR experience plus a whole lot more, now fully-remastered and revved up to the max:

• Start your engines with the original game modes, characters, tracks, power-ups, weapons and controls
• Power slide to glory in additional karts and tracks from beyond the original game
• Race online with friends and Crash the competition with online leaderboards

https://www.crashbandicoot.com/crashteamracing/home

[Your Vest Friend]

1 hour ago, Rowl said:

The Komodo Brothers were actually planned o share one kart in the original game, but this ideas was cut because of the limitations of the PS. Maybe this time we can either see both Joe and Moe sharing one kart of separate them. 

Joe's seen solo in the launch trailer. 

[Tornado]

Be curious how it is received when it comes out, depending on how close it stays to the original. When it was new it was the best kart racer on the market, which was a title I think it held until Mario Kart DS released over half a decade later; but that was a game that came out 13 years ago. Even though Nintendo made a couple shit Mario Kart games after DS, I don't think it is just a coat of paint away from going hit for hit with All Stars Racers Transformed or Mario Kart 8; certainly not with the amount of gameplay it actually had versus how long the game was.

[Plasme]

Yeah, I feel it would have been better to build off the original and make it bigger and better, and not just by adding new characters and tracks. We don't even know if they are going to add more characters.

I'm still looking forward to it because CTR is so good, but I think it has a stiff competition against Mario Kart 8. I think it will probably trounce Team Sonic Racing though.

[LukA8]

Crash Team Racing is simply my favourite racing game of all time. It is so easy to get into, but so challenging to master. Everyone I knew was able to play this game with me simply by picking it up. It was really accessible compared to titles like Transformed, and I think that's where it will score. However, even Crash Nitro Kart, which as a sequel did nothing wrong per se, just didn't feel right in comparison, so I'm interested if this one can live up to the original.

[Jango]

Does anybody know what's the next gaming event? I'm eager for some hands-on. Really think they should release a free demo early on to get feedback from the players to help Beenox nail the controls. This game can't be just another "almost the same", it has to be exactly the same. I think the uncanny valley feeling is worse than being different, but since this is a remake of CTR after all, it should control the same, have the same jump height, kart weight, turn speed, physics and yes, the same exploits too.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

42 minutes ago, Jango said:

This game can't be just another "almost the same", it has to be exactly the same.

Given the evolution of its competition,  that may not be the best course of action. 

[Jango]

Not really, to this day many people consider CTR better than any other kart racing, and I agree 100%, have played Mario Kart 8 a few weeks ago. Transformed comes close, but that game isn't just racing, so... 

[Ratcicle King]

The game still needs to look appealling to people who never even heard of it. Some extra content to make the package seem beefier won't hurt. The remasters got around this issue by selling all 3 games at once on a budget price, but this is a single PSOne title being sold for the same price, it needs more content to survive, because not everyone is interested in the single player campaign, so the multiplayer will be the deciding factor.