Crash Team Racing

Crash Team Racing is a racing game for the PlayStation that was developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment in 1999. It is the last Crash Bandicoot game made by Naughty Dog, who would later become an in-house developer for Sony Computer Entertainment America. The game is based on the Mario Kart games. In 2003, the game received a sequel, Crash Nitro Kart, which has very similar gameplay.

In 2007, the game was ported to the PlayStation Network in Europe. In 2019, a remake of the game was released, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.

Story
The inhabitants of Earth are visited by an extraterrestrial named Nitros Oxide, who claims to be the fastest racer in the galaxy. Challenging Earth to a game called "Survival of the Fastest", Nitros Oxide beckons Earth's best driver to race him. If Earth's driver wins, he promises to leave Earth alone, but if Oxide wins, he will turn Earth into a concrete parking lot and enslave the Earthlings.

The player's racer manages to obtain four Boss Keys needed to access Oxide's spaceship and races him in a one-on-one match. Upon losing, Nitros Oxide temporarily leaves Earth, but later returns for a rematch once all of the Time Relics have been collected.

After losing once more, Oxide keeps his word and angrily leaves Earth forever. An epilogue is relayed during the end credits, explaining what the characters of the game did after the events of the story. Nitros Oxide himself returns to his home planet of Gasmoxia and secludes himself from society. After undergoing years of therapy to cope with his loss, he takes up unicycle-racing, only to get into a gruesome accident.

Epilogues
Because this would be the last Crash game Naughty Dog would work on, epilogues were created for each character in the game, depicting their fates after the events of Crash Team Racing. None of these epilogues are referenced or acknowledged in subsequent Crash Bandicoot titles.


 * Crash sold his life story to a major movie studio. The film entitled "The Color Orange" will be released for the Christmas season. Crash can now be found somewhere on a beach doing dancing and napping.


 * Cortex went back to scientific research and discovered a new element in the periodic table. Numerous lawsuits failed to change the name he boldly chose for Element 117... CORTEXRULESTHEWORLDIUM.


 * Tiny Tiger moved to Beverly Hills and founded the popular chain of "Pain 'N Gain" fitness clubs. His Tiny-Bo exercise video made millions on infomercials around the globe.


 * Coco went on to start her own Internet dating service. Although her company is still in the red, the share prices are going through the roof!


 * N. Gin opened a custom auto parts store in . The store closed after a massive recall when his patented "clear-the-road" missile system sparked havoc on the nation's freeways.


 * Dingodile went on to found an animal breeding program for the creation of unique and interesting pets. His motto "combine them all" spurred such successes as the Gir-bat, Kanga-rooster, and the Dingo-Rilla.


 * Polar became the head taste tester for a leading ice cream company. Bold new flavors okayed for production include Salmon Swirl, Squishy Squid Sundae and Mackerel Mint.


 * Pura joined the Las Vegas tiger show of Zigfield and Floyd. His starring role came to a disastrous end one day when Pura accidentally closed his mouth a bit too early.


 * Pinstripe became a used car salesman in New Jersey. As top salesman each month he smirks, "People decide on a car quickly once my tommy gun comes out."


 * Papu Papu joined the Wild Wrestling Association and changed his ring name to Mr. Bad Belly. His signature move the "Bad Belly Bounce" was finally banned by the WWA after three wrestlers suffered severe rope friction burns.


 * Ripper Roo was elected state governor to everyone's surprise. His slogan "Crazy is as crazy does!" created a ground shell of public support, and even started whispers of a run for presidency.


 * Komodo Joe opened "Honest Joe's Wedding Ring and Rare Gem Outlet" in Zurich. After a series of sting operations Joe was convicted of laundering stolen Cubic Zirconias from the Couch Slouch shopping network.


 * N. Tropy began tinkering with his time machine hobby again. He was last seen entering a time warp ball traveling to some ancient rain forest. Alas, rust is timeless.


 * Nitros Oxide went back to the planet Gasmoxia a broken alien. After years of psychotherapy, Oxide emerged from seclusion to begin racing again. Unfortunately the unicycle was a poor vehicle choice and his resulting accident was too gruesome to detail here.


 * Ami became a race kart driver herself, saying, " I'm sick of giving out trophies! I want a few of my own!"


 * Isabella landed a bit part in the season finale of "Bay Waters."


 * Liz posed for Bandiboy Magazine, buying her dream Malibu mansion with the earnings.


 * Megumi shortly unveiled her new line of perfume called "Odecoot" featuring the alluring scent of fermenting Wumpa Fruit.

Gameplay
Crash Team Racing is a kart racer in which the player can select Crash Bandicoot characters to play as. In races, the player can control their character to accelerate, steer, reverse, brake, hop or use weapons and power-ups with the game controller's analog stick and buttons. Two distinct forms of crates are scattered throughout the tracks and arenas of Crash Team Racing:


 * ? Crates hold power-ups and weapons, which can be obtained by driving through and breaking apart said crates. When the player collects a weapon or power-up, it will appear in a box at the top of the screen. The player can activate the weapon or power-up to wreak havoc on the other racers or supplement the player's own performance.
 * Fruit Crates carry Wumpa Fruit, which increase the kart's speed and strengthen the player's weapons and power-ups if ten of them are obtained.

A crucial maneuver in Crash Team Racing is the power slide; the player executes the slide by holding down one of the shoulder buttons for their racer to perform a hop, and steering before the kart lands. While sliding, the Turbo Boost Meter on the lower-right corner of the screen fills up and goes from green to red. At the same time, the exhaust gas from the player's kart turns black. To get a speed boost, the player quickly presses the opposite shoulder button while the Turbo Boost Meter is red. The player can execute three speed boosts in a row during a power slide, with the third speed boost being more powerful than the previous two. If the player waits too long into the power slide for a boost, the kart backfires and the chance for a speed boost is lost; power sliding for too long causes a spin-out. Aside from power slides, speed boosts can be obtained by gathering hang time when leaping over gaps in the track. The longer the player is in the air, the bigger the speed boost is when the kart lands.

After every race, an awards ceremony is shown. Each of the characters have two unique poses, depending on whether they have won or lost.

Modes
Crash Team Racing features 5 racing modes: "Adventure, "Time Trial", "Arcade", "Versus" and "Battle". Before starting a mode, the player must select their racer. A PlayStation multitap can be installed to allow three or four-player games.

Adventure
"Adventure" is a single-player mode in which the player's racer must race through tracks and arenas and collect trophies, Relics, Boss Keys, CTR Tokens and Gems along the way. At first, the racer can only access two levels, but as more races are won, more tracks on multiple worlds become available. There are four worlds, each with four race courses and a Crystal Bonus Round. In each level, the player's racer must win a trophy by coming in first place. In doing so, the Relic Race and CTR Challenge are unlocked for that course. When the player receives all four trophies in a world, that world's Boss Garage is unlocked. In the Boss Garage, the player's racer has to race against the world boss. If the boss loses, they relinquish a Boss Key to the player's racer, allowing them to unlock the next world.

In a Relic Race, the player's racer must race on a course and complete it in the fastest time possible. They can drive through Time Crates scattered around the course to freeze the timer for either 1, 2, or 3 seconds (depending on which number is shown on the crate). If all of the Time Crates are destroyed, the player's final time is reduced by ten seconds. If the racer beats the time indicated on the screen, they win a Relic.

A CTR Challenge is played like a normal race, except that the player's racer must also collect the letters C, T and R around the course. If the racer collects all three letters and wins in first place, they earn a CTR Token. These tokens come in five different colors: Red, Green, Blue, Yellow and Purple. The Purple CTR Tokens are awarded for beating the Crystal Bonus Round by collecting 20 crystals with a time limit. If the player's racer collects four tokens of the same color, they can participate in the Gem Cup of the corresponding color. Gem Cups are racing tournaments held against other racers, and are accessed in a secret area in Gemstone Valley. A Gem Cup consists of four tracks in a row, in which the player must race for points. If the player's racer wins a Gem Cup, they are awarded a Gem.

Time Trial
The "Time Trial" mode is a single-player mode where the player's racer attempts to set the best time on any of the tracks. There are no other racers to hinder the player and no power-ups. When the Time Trial is finished, the player has the option to save a ghost, which serves as a replay of that race, so the next time the player accesses the track, they can race against the ghost. They can also race against N. Tropy and Nitros Oxide. Winning against them earns the player gold and platinum stars respectively.

Arcade
In the "Arcade" mode, the player can quickly scroll through and race on a selection of tracks. The player can choose to select a Single Race or enter a Cup, in which the player races on four tracks in a row for points. In the Single Race and the Cup Race, one or two players race with the remaining computer-controlled drivers. The difficulty of the race and number of laps can be customized.

Versus
The "Versus" mode is similar to that of the Arcade mode, with the exception that two or more human players must be involved.

Battle
In the "Battle" mode, up to four players can fight customized battles, launching weapons during combat in one of seven special battle arenas. The type and length (the latter modifies how many hit points or minutes the battle will have) of the battle can be adjusted beforehand, allowing for three types of battles. In a "Point Limit Mode" battle, the first player to achieve 5, 10 or 15 points wins. In the "Time Limit Mode" battle, the player with the highest points after 3, 6 or 9 minutes wins. In the "Life Limit Mode", each player has a set number of lives (3, 6 or 9) and the battle has a time limit (3, 6 minutes or forever). The player with the most lives at the end of the time limit wins. If "forever" is chosen as the length, the battle lasts until only one player is standing. Three and four players can team up for 2-vs.-1, 2-vs.-2, 3-vs.-1 or 1-vs.-1-vs.-2 battles.

Battle courses
There are seven battle courses, four of which are also the setting for a Crystal Bonus Round challenge in Adventure mode.

Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! demo
Crash Team Racing features a demo of Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!, which can be accessed from the main menu by holding L1 and R1 while entering Down, Circle, Triangle, and Right.

Trivia

 * In an episode of the sitcom , "The One With Monica's Thunder", Chandler is seen playing Crash Team Racing.