Crash Nitro Kart

A somewhat addictive and enjoyable race game wrapped in sterling graphical elements.

With a slightly higher difficulty than most games in this genre, the game's weapons and course layout are well done.

Younger players out there will get a kick out of the solid controls and bright environments, while more advanced players can appreciate the challenge and depth of the included boost system.

Satisfying and challenging at the same time, Crash Nitro Kart is a great way to fill that need for speed. [Holiday 2003, p.46]

If you already have "Crash Team Racing," don’t expect anything new or exciting beyond the updated graphics – Crash Nitro Kart is basically the same game in a pretty new package.

Definitely isn’t as good as "Mario Kart," but bring some friends over and you can still have one hell of a fun gaming experience.

This may be a touch disappointing to hardcore fans of "Crash Team Racing", but anyone looking for a solid kart racer should be quite pleased.

Does what it needs to do to get the job done… but it doesn’t put in any overtime.

A solid adaptation of a PSOne game. The problem is that the same exact game has been made dozens of times and CNK does very little to further the cause. It's a kart racing game like any other.

At full price it's hard to justify a purchase in our view as it's simply not all that essential or different from anything that's gone before, but if you ever fancy a quality party game that you can slip out when the time is right for some multiplayer action and see this game knocking around for a more realistic price then you won't be disappointed.

Probably one of the least exciting racing titles I've played recently. [Dec 2003, p.146]

It seems Vicarious Visions did all it could to emulate the Naughty Dog classic ["CTR"] and just added a PS2 coat of paint. [Jan 2004, p.114]

7 / 6 / 7 / 7 - 27 [Vol 183; 16 July 2004]

It's all a little generic and heavily recycled, but the powerslide system from "CTR" pulls it together. [Dec 2003, p.85]

With a slow and chunky multiplayer component, there's not much reason to jump into the driver's seat.

Stages are sterile clones of much livelier settings found in competing titles.

The sequel plays exactly like its predecessor, in every way that I can think of.

If you already own “Crash Team Racing” for PSOne then don’t even bother to rent Crash Nitro Kart. Entire tracks (or large portions thereof) and the same quality graphics/controls/sounds from the 32-bit original have been shamelessly replicated on PS2 with the most minute and inconsequential of improvements.

The gameplay feels nearly identical to "Crash Team Racing's" (PS1), even down to the speed-boosting wumpa fruits, so if you loved it before, you'll still love it, and if not...not. [Jan 2004, p.110]

Failed miserably in execution and you will not find me playing this game again because I just don’t think it is very fun to play.

CNK offers nothing new at all, failing to really improve even on its prequel, which even back then, was pretty standard fare.

It's technically competent, but Crash NKR does not offer a gaming experience anyone would call fun. [Jan 2004, p.56]