My Faith in Mascot Racing Games is Renewed
Written: Jan 07 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great control, Weapons, Cosmetically impressive, Battlebots
Cons: Requirement to finish 1st, Endings, Replaying the stage constantly, New TV series
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| Codyp's Full Review: Crash Team Racing for PlayStation 1 |
In an ongoing attempt to spice up my reviews I'm including the obligatory unrelated list. Without further ado I'm listing the top 3 new TV shows that didn't suck:
3. Ummmm, Battlebots was okay
2. Uh...... oh hell, lets get on with the review. I can't say I didn't try.
Mascot racing has run rampant lately. Back in the early 90s Nintendo put 8 of their most popular characters from the Mario universe inside go-karts to make an innovative racing game that actually turned out to be fun as hell. Well, in 1996 Nintendo remade Mario Kart into a subpar kart-racing game. Regardless of quality, the game sold well and other companies rushed to clone the game with their own mascots. Bomberman came along with Bomberman Fantasy Race (Ugh!), Mega Man put out Rockman and Chase (eep!), and most notably Diddy Kong came along with Diddy Kong Racing (Zzzzzzzzz). Well, now Crash Bandicoot has come along with Crash Team Racing, which has single-handedly renewed my faith in mascot racing games. 4 "good guys" from the Crash series and 4 bosses from the past 3 games have come together for a quality racing experience.
When I first started playing this game I started to fear it. The first mechanic of the game became readily apparent: you can only advance if you come in first place! After playing through the game a little this started to become less and less of a problem. I instead focused on how well the karts handle and how responsive the controls are. Turns are a snap because of the ease your character can pull off a powerslide.
As easy as it is to control your vehicle though, don't expect your enemies to sit by helplessly and watch as your kart glides across the track. They aren't passive drones, they use the game's wide array of weapons to slow you down in every way inagineable. This also brings up the game's intersting bay of weapons. You can throw TNT boxes which sit on your enemy and count down before they explode, there's NITRO boxes that explode on impact, orbs that effectively hunt down and hit the enemy in the lead, enemy-seeking missiles, bombs that can be used to explode on impact or be remote controlled, masks that make your car invincible, speed boosters, orbs that act as shields and can also be thrown as weapons, and the ultimate weapons, clocks, which make all of your enemies spin out and suffer speed loss. These weapons are unique and pretty cool. Don't forget, however, that the enemies can use these weapons just as well as you.
The graphics here are impressive. Crash and crew look just as well as they always did. The graphics zoom by without any slowdown in the framerate. You'll barely notice any slowdown in 4-player mode either. No complaints in the audio department either. The music could be improved, although it picks up greatly when you hit the final lap in a race. The best part of the audio, however, is the way the characters talk trash throughout the match. When a certain character hits you in the butt with a bomb he yells, "One for the road!", and one character makes evil-sounding laughter whenever he leaves a box of TNT in somebody else's road. I would appreciate it if the characters would use some stronger language in their witticisms, but if it ain't broke don't fix it.
All in all, this game is impressive cosmetically and in gameplay, where its truly important. However, due to the fact that you have to finish in first place, the blink-and-you'll-miss-it endings, and the way the game encourages you to replay a level several times to boost artificial replay value cause the game to suffer a hit, but not by much. If you're a fan of mascot racing games, or are considering getting into it this is a great buy, especially since the price is down to $20 in most areas.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Codyp
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Member: Cody Pagles
Location: Michigan City, Indiana
Reviews written: 35
Trusted by: 3 members
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