CTR: Crash Team Racing 📽 Through the Lens

📢 THIS IS THE GREATEST RACING GAME EVER! 📢

And it's not even a joke. 😂

Or is it? I'll tell you this much if you are all about that realism, yes, this is an arcade racing game with cartoon characters. But if you have some buddies over and wanna have a good time while driving around on a race track? Maaaaannn, there ain't no safer choice than CTR. 💯

We did Crash Bash last time, and this time around we going to the second Crash vertical. No worries, we'll get to the mainline series of games soon. 😉

Until then❗️ In this edition of Through the Lens 🎞, we'll be taking a look at Naughty Dog's arcade racing masterpiece from 1999: CTR: Crash Team Racing Roll it! 📽

🔶 UP TOP 🔶

If you know Crash soundtracks then this shouldn't be a surprise for you. The CTR soundtrack is bouncy, racey, islandy. *// are those all words? I dunno but we're moving on

Not sure when you would listen to it, but maybe right now while reading this column? HHmmmmmm?

_{Composed by Crash's one and only composer, the wonderful Mr. Steve Duckworth}

This is the game I played the most during the PS1 era. Hands down my favorite PS1 game. So you're getting one of those biased articles here. 😂 And I don't even care man, I love this game so much. My hope is through my love in this article, you understand why CTR > Mario Kart. Come at me bruh.

And no, we aren't talking about the recent remake of Nitro-Fueled. Have played it very sparingly and have no idea whether it's even good. So, in this article, we are purely talking about the release back in '99. But just for fun, here's a quick comparison:

_{We're talking bout the one on the left folks!}

Without further ado, ladies and gents... 🚘

🔶 CRASH AND MORE CRASH 🔶

Naughty Dog just understands character. This game is profoundly Crash. Everything from the tone to the sprites, to the soundtrack - it just oozes Crash. And if you haven't played a Crash game, you wouldn't get what I mean. 🤷‍♂️

So I had to drop a quick segment just talking about how much this game lines up with the rest of the franchise. Every entry in Crash is consistent, and that's just something not many of these spin-off games manage to pull off. 👏

🔶 SINGLE-PLAYER PARTY 🔶

Before we talk bout the topic at hand can we just talk about how dumb this game's title is? 😂 Why isn't it just called Crash Team Racing? Why is the abbreviation there for? This has been a pet peeve of mine for decades! 🤣 Moving on...

Even though CTR is a party game I dunno how many hours I've spent just playing the single-player campaign of this game. Yes, there's a pretty decent campaign in this wacky title! Nothing can match trash-talking your friends, but when you don't have friends over because their mom is not letting them get out of the house because they've been naughty - you have to play alone...

And this game gives you that! A lot of these party games are lackluster when you're alone (ahem, Mario Kart) but not CTR. Nope.

You select a diver from all the recognizable Crash characters, each with their own stats that actually change the way you have to play the game. Unlike some other arcade racers (ahem Mario Kart). I personally was a Tiny main, with some Cortex in between. Yes, I've always been a bad boy. Ladies. 😜

You have an overworld and you have to win races to advance, with the open world being split into sections that unlock after you've beaten the section boss. Each boss has a character and style that is instantly recognizable. ✍️ Not to mention the replayability that Crash always provides with its constant and ever-expanding challenges.

The final boss is NUTS. I remember spending WEEKS trying to beat him...

🔶 DRIFTIN' 🔶

The title says it all, in order to go fast in this game you have to utilize the dirt mechanic. Which is:

After you jump, or as you are shifting gears, your car goes into a drift animation. You have to input the correct button at the correct time in order to not completely shut down your engine and lose any semblance of a lead you had.

In other words - it's hard. Super hard. And while difficulty is not a prime reason why this game is the best arcade racing game, for me personally, it's a huge factor. It's ok for games like this to have a low skill floor - meaning the barrier for entry is small. But to also have a skill ceiling a top of that? Meaning actual mastery potential? That's something a lot of these arcade racers just don't have (ahem, Mario Kart).

_{A Nitro-Fueled screenshot since this remake is just so pretty...}

Not to mention the random element of breaking boxes and getting different abilities That formula is fun and works in every game that implements it regardless. I even remember playing CTR on my old iPod back when I was in high school. It worked on mobile, what do you think it does when you are up versus your friends and bragging rights are on the line?

Game just works, just works. No questions needed, no answers provided since the answers are right in your face - this is the best arcade racer out there. I played it a couple of months back (the original game) and it still holds up if you can get passed the blocky graphics. It just feels amazing to drive.

🔶 LEGACY 🔶

I mean I said all that needs to be said:

CTR > Mario Kart

It's legacy is it's the best at what it does.

Come for meeee!!!

😂🤣😂🤣

Thank you for reading, you rock! (and maybe roll) 👏👏👏

Shout-out to the 🍕PIZZA🍕 gang, 🤙 gang. 🤙

This game just works! I love it so much. And jokes aside, I understand that it all depends on which mascot you grew up on. If you are a Mario Kart lover, I hope we can still be friends. Even though you are a filthy casual. 😛

This article was super fun to write, and next time we'll talk about the Bandicoot, main-line, series of Crash games. Join me then!

Or don/t, i-i-it's not like I need your view and/or like b-b-baka! // I haven
t watched anime in 3 years, not sure what came over me here...

👊 Follow me on my HIVE blog 👊

Hope everyone is having a fantastic day! And if you aren't, no worries! Tomorrow will be better! 🙌🙌🙌

Love. ❤️