Crash Team Racing (PlayStation)

Features

Platform: PlayStation
ESRB Rating: Everyone
Ages 6 and up

Product Description

An alien named Nitrous Oxide appears and challenges Crash and his friends to a race. If Nitrous wins, he gets to take over the planet. Crash and company must win at all costs to avoid falling under the rule of Nitrous. Pick from classic CRASH BANDICOOT characters like Crash, Coco, and Dr. Cortex, each with custom carts, and hit one of the 25 tracks. Jump, power slide, and turbo your way to missiles and bombs you can use to get rid of the opposition. When you friends start talking trash, make them put up or shut up with versus mode. Play CTR: CRASH TEAM RACING and try to save the world from Nitrous Oxide.

Editorial Review

PlayStation owners no longer need to borrow their friend's Nintendo 64 in order to have a rollicking good old time racing virtual turbo-charged go-karts through outlandish environments. Crash Team Racing does an excellent job of re-creating that same thrill on the PlayStation.

Crash Team Racing has all the marks of the kart-racing genre, including big-headed characters driving diminutive go-karts, power-ups to increase speed and slow down opponents, and thematic tracks with multiple paths for exploration. What CTR adds to the mix is fairness: tighter-turning cars are rewarded for precision driving, skillful jumping, and strategic placement of booby traps. Sure, the playing field is level, but the better the driver, the better chance he or she has of winning consistently without any annoying "catch-up code."

The one-player game is wonderfully presented as an exploratory adventure, while the multiplayer mode is a split-screen must-play for anyone with a PlayStation (and, of course, friends). Twenty-five tracks, 12 characters, and responsive control make CTR the gotta-have racing game. --Jeff Young

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