CTR

[Prof elohstar]

Crash Team Racing was released in 1999. This game was actually my all time favourite game on PlayStation 1. Who else played this game?

[Yaramaki]

Man i almost sound like a proper nerd for replying to all these threads, but yes i did also play this one, altough i did not own it myself well until years later. 

Ctr was a big deal for sony because surely while there were then enough mario kart clones, this was the only game that could come close to mario kart 64. While i woulden't put it into my top 10 ps1 games, it was fun enough where i beat the entire game, pretty sure that i still have a save file on memory card somewhere that proves that.

I never bothered with the recent remake, i have a sealed copy of the game though that i bought cheap but i don't know i feel like i'm getting to old for cart racers.

[kingpotato]

Man I loved this PS1 game, I played Crash Team Racing more than Mario Kart as a kid, even though Im not too familiar with the main Crash games this one was one of my favorite racing games. Also I remember I had to complete the game over and over since I was playing this on my ps2 and since I didnt had a ps1 memory card I couldnt save any of my progress

[Prof elohstar]

6 hours ago, Yaramaki said:

Man i almost sound like a proper nerd for replying to all these threads, but yes i did also play this one, altough i did not own it myself well until years later. 

Ctr was a big deal for sony because surely while there were then enough mario kart clones, this was the only game that could come close to mario kart 64. While i woulden't put it into my top 10 ps1 games, it was fun enough where i beat the entire game, pretty sure that i still have a save file on memory card somewhere that proves that.

I never bothered with the recent remake, i have a sealed copy of the game though that i bought cheap but i don't know i feel like i'm getting to old for cart racers.

Like seriously? You still have CTR file saved on your PlayStation 1 memory card! Wow am really surprised. It's really a long time ago and I gave my PlayStation 1 with its accessories out.

[Prof elohstar]

1 hour ago, kingpotato said:

Man I loved this PS1 game, I played Crash Team Racing more than Mario Kart as a kid, even though Im not too familiar with the main Crash games this one was one of my favorite racing games. Also I remember I had to complete the game over and over since I was playing this on my ps2 and since I didnt had a ps1 memory card I couldnt save any of my progress

Funny enough, as much as CTR was my all time favourite video game on PlayStation 1, I didn't attempt playing it on PlayStation 2. 

[Head_Hunter]

You mentioned the game being around since 1899, hmm. I don't think video games have been in existence during such time, let alone being compatible with PS1. I think it's a typo, if you say, 1999, I will agree. 

[kingpotato]

10 minutes ago, Head_Hunter said:

You mentioned the game being around since 1899, hmm. I don't think video games have been in existence during such time, let alone being compatible with PS1. I think it's a typo, if you say, 1999, I will agree. 

Nowhere does it say 1899... And the game was released on 1999, the ps1 was released on 1994

[kingpotato]

17 minutes ago, Prof elohstar said:

Funny enough, as much as CTR was my all time favourite video game on PlayStation 1, I didn't attempt playing it on PlayStation 2. 

Well unfortunately I never owned a ps1 so I had to play it on my ps2, I had several ps1 games that I used to play on my ps2

[Head_Hunter]

16 minutes ago, kingpotato said:

Nowhere does it say 1899... And the game was released on 1999, the ps1 was released on 1994

I watched it closely, found out I was the one who did mistake and not the OP. My eye was paining me due to sun rays, I thought it's 1899 not knowing it is 1999, xD. 

[Prof elohstar]

On 3/15/2022 at 4:10 PM, kingpotato said:

Well unfortunately I never owned a ps1 so I had to play it on my ps2, I had several ps1 games that I used to play on my ps2

At least you didn't miss out completely. But honestly I doubt if the ps2 version will be as interesting as the pS1 version. 

[kingpotato]

1 minute ago, Prof elohstar said:

At least you didn't miss out completely. But honestly I doubt if the ps2 version will be as interesting as the pS1 version. 

I did played the ps1 version, it was literally a ps1 disc on a ps2 console. 

[Withywarlock]

When answering the question "What is your favourite racing game and why?" on the PC Gamer forums, Crash Team Racing was my answer. *Inhales*:

To say CTR capitalised on the kart racing trend set by Super Mario Kart and its sequel, Mario Kart 64, it far surpassed its rivals up until about 2014 where it's neck and neck with Mario Kart 8. It still remains one of gaming's best kart racers, along with Diddy Kong Racing.

For starters, it had a story, introducing a new character that would only halt Uka-Uka's course of becoming the leading antagonist, with Nitrous Oxide. Oxide is an alien that challenges all of Earth's best racers (or at least those of the Wumpa Archipelago, East of Australia) to contend in a series of tournaments to determine who among them can beat him, and if they do, he won't turn the planet into "a concrete parking lot." Despite living on the same planet with no means to escape, Ripper Roo, Papu-Papu, Komodo Joe and Pinstripe Potoroo will impede the player's progress. And even if Oxide is beaten, he won't accept true defeat until you've unlocked everything in the game and race him again, in true spiteful Crash fashion.

The next thing it did well was make stats easy to understand, with tangible (visible and physical) differences. A driver's performance was determined by Speed, Acceleration, and Turn. Beginner characters such as Polar the Bear and Pura the Tiger had the most Turn but the least speed. Intermediate characters such as Crash, Coco, Dr. Neo Cortex and N. Gin had more acceleration for the smoothest driving experience. And finally Advanced characters such as Tiny Tiger and Dingodile had the greatest amount of speed. This is hugely important for the balance of the game because there's no bloat, and everyone has easily seen strengths and weaknesses that are made up for by items and shortcuts. When you go any further with stats like Mario Kart and CTR: Nitro-Fuelled did, you create confusion and often times incorrect information.

Its cast of unlockable characters, through boss fights, relics, gems and cheat codes, fell into those three categories in some way, all recognisable and beloved characters of the franchise, from Penta Penguin to Fake Crash.

Into the gameplay itself, its map selection screen was a hub like any Crash game before it. You got to drive around the maps (an idea Bears Can't Drift!? borrowed) to practice your skills, get a feel for your character, and choose a variety of challenges. Much like in Banjo-Kazooie whenever you transitioned from one zone to another, a medley would play; the music remained the same but the instruments changed slightly enough to fit the scenery.

The content is very much similar to Diddy Kong Racing, requiring you to beat bosses and do all manner of side content before you can defeat the final boss proper. It doesn't feel tacked on and it provides a very difficult, but still genuine, challenge. Time challenges for relics, CTR token runs, tournaments for gems add loads of extra play time.

Things begin to go downhill from here. Some of the items are familiar to Crash players; the iconic TNT and Nitro crates and the Aku-Aku/Uka-Uka invincibility masks were dependent on your character's alignment. And obtaining and keeping 10 Wumpa fruit would allow you to power up your, err, power ups, increasing their magnitude and duration. However, some of the items were uninspiring to say the least. Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped's 'warp orb' was the blue shell that damaged all opponents in front of you, and the bombs from Coco's jetski levels made an appearance. N. Brio's flasks from the first game were a stretch for stationary experimental hazards. Beyond that, the devs were clearly lacking in the ideas department.

That also goes for the maps. The vast majority of them you wouldn't recognise without a character's face painted on them? What does Roo's Tubes have to do with Ripper Roo? What does Dragon Mine have to do with Komodo Joe? Why does Cortex Castle - an obvious knockoff of Bowser Castle - look nothing like the spires we'd ascended to defeat its namesake?

Look to the party game Crash Bash, one of the worst Crash games, made by Eurocom. The music and aesthetics of that game are far more suitable and recognisable than Crash Team Racing. Music goes a very long way to creating a sense of familiarity, and while CTR's music is good, damned good, it's not Crash.

That essentially concludes why Crash Team Racing is my favourite racing game, Diddy Kong Racing a close second. I would link video reviews to the two (as kart racers were what my channel later came to focus on) but the vulgarity makes them unsuitable for posting, and I don't want to be seen as using this forum to advertise.

Edited April 4, 2022 by Withywarlock

[Head_Hunter]

Had it been i never watched closely here, I wouldn't have known about this game, the year it came into limelight have been long, longer than I am. Their is no way now I can't play the game, but to go straight up with other similar options. 

[Cognizant]

I love it so much! I was about 10 years old when my brothers started to play this game. From the first sight I hated it and I hated that my bros spent hours and hours racing and not playing anything else (I liked to watch them playing platformers). I tried to spoil the disc but scratched it on the wrong side😅

And then smth strange happende.. I don't even remember how this game won my heart. We've completed all the adventures and tried out all the tracks and I still remember that time like one of the happiest in my life. 

It's a pity that no remastered version came out so far. I would be excited to play it on PC (I don't want to buy a console))) ) with cool graphics and perhaps new characters, tracks, challenges...)

[killamch89]

On 3/15/2022 at 3:28 AM, Yaramaki said:

Man i almost sound like a proper nerd for replying to all these threads, but yes i did also play this one, altough i did not own it myself well until years later. 

Ctr was a big deal for sony because surely while there were then enough mario kart clones, this was the only game that could come close to mario kart 64. While i woulden't put it into my top 10 ps1 games, it was fun enough where i beat the entire game, pretty sure that i still have a save file on memory card somewhere that proves that.

I never bothered with the recent remake, i have a sealed copy of the game though that i bought cheap but i don't know i feel like i'm getting to old for cart racers.

I agree - I get a lot nostalgia from reading some of these threads because these were games I forgot about as I haven't played them since I was a kid. Honestly, the only Kart racer I still play is Mario Kart and it's pretty obvious why.