Mario Kart will forever remain a staple for arcade racers in the gaming industry. The series has given players a childhood to remember with its casual fun, blue shells, and friendly competition. The newest entry, Mario Kart World, brings many new features to the table, with Knockout Tour being the best one. However, it’s a Switch 2 exclusive, meaning it’s unplayable anywhere else. Fortunately, you can always play Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled.
A remake of the PS1 game Crash Team Racing, this new version brings visual improvements, some new tracks, and a more polished racing experience. While a lot of Mario Kart clones tend to fail in the gameplay department, this one is refreshingly good and worth experiencing.
Drift Boost Chains Make Every Lap Intense
The drifting mechanic is what separates this game from a lot of other kart racers. When you enter a power slide, a meter pops up in the bottom right corner and begins to fill up. Now the tricky part is to really time it right, or you could mess up big time. You must press the opposite drift button at the exact moment the meter turns red or once the exhaust smoke turns black to get a boost. The game lets you claim up to 3 boosts in a single drift.
This might be difficult for beginners to master since it’s not a very common feature in kart racers, but once you’ve mastered it, you’ll zoom past everyone.
Chaining boosts is a different beast altogether, and one that can give you quite the competitive edge. If you continuously chain your perfect boosts, you accumulate a hidden boost reserve that lets you maintain top speed for longer. It’s also the only way to reach the game’s highest speed: blue fire. What makes it intense is that, unlike Mario Kart World, this game does not have any catch-up items. Which means you must know how to time the drift boosts, otherwise you’ll be left behind each race.
Inventive Track Designs To Keep Every Race Unpredictable
The game offers 31 tracks in total, which have been taken from both the original, Crash Team Racing, and the sequel, Crash Nitro Kart. It’s surprising just how many of these tracks are fun to race on, apart from a few outliers. The track has varying degrees of obstacles, like the sewers that encourage power sliding and the tunnels completely lined with turbo boosts.
These challenges make the game replayable and keep you coming back. Many tracks feature intricate shortcuts that are difficult to access. Some popular tracks are the Hot Air Skyway, known for its extremely tight turns, narrow pathways, and large jumps. Sewer Speedway is another fan favourite because of its iconic half-pipe section, which gives you a significant speed-up.
It’s important to note that it’s surprisingly rare for a kart game other than Mario Kart to have good tracks. For example, the tracks in Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3 struggle with visual clarity and overall consistent quality.
Not Quite Mario Kart, But A Lot Of Fun
It’s going to be interesting to see how Mario Kart World holds up against Sonic Racing Crossworlds, but until then, CTR Nitro Fueled is still a lot of fun. At times, it feels a lot more competitive, and the drifting mechanic requires real skill. For a game that was released in 2019, it’s still fun today. The best part is that it’s often quite cheap on digital stores, and it’s even live on Xbox Game Pass.
