Tart Up Your Kart

Activision has revealed full customisation of karts for Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled (CTR)! What that means is... well, let's watch the video shown with this announcement before we unpack this further:

Neat, right? Shown almost instantly is Crash Bandicoot's doppleganger, Fake Crash, driving what appears to be a PlayStation Portable (PSP) exclusive kart from 2005's Crash Tag Team Racing (CTTR). I'm not gonna lie, that was mind-blowing upon first watch, as it instantly reveals developer Beenox's intentions to include content from all three racers in Crash's history, not just CTR and 2003's Crash Nitro Kart (CNK). Sure enough, later in the video, we see other vehicles that featured in CTTR, including Crash's Trikee and jeep, both sporting the blue CNK colours.

Not only that, but other vehicles spring up from CTTR too, including N.Gin's Doom Buggy, now with funky neon wheels, and even one of Pasadena O'Possum's handheld exclusive vehicles. So that means you can customise the wheels of every kart, not just their colours and decorations (as confirmed by Crash's funky deck of cards tagged on his kart at the video's end), but also the potential of Pasadena herself, or any of the other CTTR characters that aren't already featured.

That's not the only thing featured from CTTR, though. Shown at the top of this post, N.Gin sports his ballerina tutu - a costume change that originated from CTTR. In fact, plenty of costumes from CTTR have been unveiled in Nitro-Fueled, such as Cortex's ninja outfit and Coco's princess outfit. These are all being classified as 'skins', with many featuring unique podium animations upon winning a race. Good thing too, as I worried that the podiums would no longer feature in Nitro-Fueled earlier this year, but I've been thankfully proved wrong.

Getting back to those skins, we're finally getting some unique and cool ones as opposed to some colour changes. For example, Cortex has been shown with a robotic variation of himself firing eye-lasers at the podium, whilst Pura is seen on his hindlegs with an adorable musketeer outfit. Pur-tanian and the three muske-bandicoots, eat your heart out.

A couple of other new things have been confirmed, too. The first of which is also evident from the video - CNK's boss characters. That's right, Krunk, Small Norm and Big Norm, as well as Geary are now fully playable! That's precisely what I was hoping for, as previous we only got to play as these unusual characters in the GameBoy Advance version of CNK. Still no news on their boss bikes, though. Still, playing as these guys are yet another addition to look forward to! I'm particular eager to play as Nash, who may have only been in a couple of seens in CNK, but left a large impression on me. Even if he's something I fear - a shark.

'Wumpa coins' have also been unveiled. According to Activision Game Blog, "CNK characters can be earned by using Wumpa Coins in the game’s Pit Stop." Well, that's something. That may rule out the possibility of CNK's story being inserted in Nitro-Fueled, but at least we'll be able to unlock characters through in-game currency... yet another feature seemingly borrowed from CTTR. It's like all the best aspects of all Crash racers rolled into one!

Outside of futuristic N.Tropys and swappable karts is still an extensive kart racer, though. These are all wonderful touches to what will already be a great game, where let's face it, the mechanics will be what people will care about most of all. Here's hoping that everything is slick and plays well for CTR: Nitro-Fueled's upcoming release on 21st June 2019.

Now I want to see mah egg boi, N.Trance screaming "LOOK AT MEEEEEE" in full 3D.