• Publisher: VU Games
  • Release Date: Nov 11, 2003
Metascore

Mixed or average reviews - based on 24 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 14 Ratings

  • Summary: Crash hits the track in his most fast-paced adventure yet - Crash Nitro Kart! Kidnapped by the ruthless Emperor Velo and forced to race in his galactic coliseum, Crash must race his way to victory in order to save the Earth from destruction - but it won't be easy, as he must compete against foes both old and new before a final showdown with Velo himself! Crash Nitro Kart leads the pack by mixing awesome next-gen graphics and gameplay with the playability and fun of classic kart-racing games. [Vivendi Universal] Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 24
  2. Negative: 2 out of 24
  1. 90
    While CNK may not break new ground, it does a quality job of delivering another kart racer in Crash’s universe. It will put gamers' mettle to the test and offer hours of "wait, one more time..." gameplay.
  2. A somewhat addictive and enjoyable race game wrapped in sterling graphical elements.
  3. 74
    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.
  4. It's technically competent, but Crash NKR does not offer a gaming experience anyone would call fun. [Jan 2004, p.56]

See all 24 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 7
  2. Negative: 2 out of 7
  1. PawanS.
    10
    This game rocks! The tracks are really creative, and great for a mutliplayer party. Characters and karts are well designed, and the environments are totally immersive. A great social game! Expand
  2. Crash Nitro Kart is a decent follow up to the 1999 PlayStation game, Crash Team Racing. The graphics are nice and colourful and the Kart tracks are slightly bigger in scope than Crash Team Racing. The CGI that move the story along are also good and nice to watch. There are a nice amount of racers to choose from Crash Bandicoot to Nitrus Oxide. Most of these racers are great to race with and have different performance statistics like Crash is a good all rounder in terms of speed, acceleration and turning and Tiny is great for Speed and acceleration but not good for turning. The story is simple: This Alien called Emperor Velo the 27th has kidnapped Team Bandicoot (Crash, Coco and Crunch) and Team Cortex (Cortex, N. Gin and Tiny) and force them to compete in his galatic colleseum for their freedom. You have to choose a character and race in 4 hubs (containing 3 races and 1 bonus round) and beat a boss at the end of each hub. The game play is similar to Crash Team Racing: Race around the tracks trying to win and obtain weapons from ? mark crates and shoot at your enemies to slow them down. You can powerslide around corners to take them faster and make your kart hop to get over deep chasms or to get an annoying TNT crate off your head. These weapons range from homing missiles to Tornados that lock onto the racer in first place. Some tracks have environmental traps like pitfalls that activate by running over ! crates. Some of the tracks in CNK also have banked sections and where you drive up upside down instead of the track being on the ground level which is a nice touch. In the campaign mode, theres the usual trophies to collect, Time Trials to beat to unlock either Sapphire, Gold or Platinum relics and CNK tokens which requires the player to collect the letters C, N and K dotted around each track and come in first place (if you have 4 CNK of the same colour, you get to participate in that same coloured gem cup). The new boss characters are ok to race and beat but not likable in terms of personality. The story for CNK isn't as interesting as CTR and there are fewer tracks in this game than there are in CTR which is strange because this is a PlayStation 2 game and CTR is a PlayStation game. I guess, Vicarious Visions got lazy. The overall game play feels slower as well and the music isn't as memorable than in CTR. The audio is below par and can get quite repetitive hearing the same taunts coming out of your kart racer but the voice acting for the nicely CGI cutscenes is good. Crash Nitro Kart suffers from originality like Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex but CNK is an enjoyable kart racer but may not appeal to CTR fans.â Expand
  3. While it's not the worst kart-racing game in recent years, and has its multiplayer value and variety of quirky characters, power-ups, and race tracks, Nitro Kart is simply a slower and sloppier version of its much better predecessor Crash Team Racing. Expand
  4. Though it has its charms, Crash Nitro Kart is a lackluster of innovation, speed, and value. Pros: Rich in visuals; variety of unlockables; the courses are unique. Cons: Lacks any kind of speed; it's the exact same as Crash Team Racing, but worse. Expand

See all 7 User Reviews