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Crash Team Racing PlayStation
  • Publisher: SCEA
  • Release Date: Sep 30, 1999
Metascore
88 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 20 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 20
  3. Negative: 0 out of 20
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  1. GamePro
    100
    Control is also nearly-perfect... The transparent controls allow you to concentrate on racing and blasting your opponents, and so the races are faster, more fluid and more fun.
  2. Games Domain
    100
    The graphics are mindblowing, while the gameplay is perfect and easy to get to grips with. Along with the substantial variety of tracks and the fun of the multiplayer mode, CTR is an experience not to be missed.
  3. Official U.S. Playstation Magazine
    100
    The game that made kart racing cool. Nothing has ever matched its quality. [Mar 2002, p.34]
    All this publication's reviews
  4. PSX Nation
    96
    Great balance and plenty of fun put this one on par with "Mario Kart" and if not for the average track design it would easily surpass.
  5. Electric Playground
    95
    Just like the previous Crash games, CTR is utterly polished and addictive to a fault... That's right, you heard me, CTR is a better game than Nintendo's "Mario Kart."
  6. Electronic Gaming Monthly
    94
    Heavily inspired by "Mario Kart," but still an amazing multiplayer racer. [Jan 2004, p.188]
    All this publication's reviews
  7. Absolute Playstation
    92
    Combines all of the best elements from other kart racers, adds a few unique touches and throws out all of the crap. What gamers are left with is an exciting 2 to 4 player game and a very challenging 1 player mode.
  8. Gaming Maxx
    91
    The best cart racing game that can be found on the Playstation, and possibly the current best on any system.
  9. Gamezilla!
    91
    The deep and challenging gameplay will have you playing this game for weeks.
  10. Gaming Age
    91
    The tracks are awe inspiring in their beauty and complexity, the gameplay is tight, and it is just plain fun. This is a game that almost anyone can enjoy by themselves or with some friends.
  11. GMR Magazine
    90
    Countless mascot racers flooded store shelves during the PlayStation era, and Crash Team Racing was the only good one. Really. [Feb 2003, p.97]
    All this publication's reviews
  12. TotalGames.net
    88
    Graphically appealing and full of great special effects and sound samples, this will enthuse any Crash fan. As a racing game though, it's just a little too slow to get your pulse racing.
  13. IGN
    85
    Once you get past the insanely capitalistic smile of Crash, the game is rock solid in playability and graphics. Hell! It's a four-player kart game that's on the PlayStation. Isn't that enough?
  14. GameSpot
    84
    It's a great Mario Kart clone, and it succeeds where the likes of Mega Man, Bomberman, Diddy Kong, the Chocobo, and even Mario himself have failed.
  15. Game Revolution
    83
    Though it doesn't add much to the tired genre, it manages to do everything well.
  16. Total Video Games
    80
    Crash Team Racing looks amazing. The sharp looking environments are clean and fully formed. With the exceptions of a few seam problems in the courses here and there, they are great looking.
  17. Hot Games
    80
    Amazingly enough the four-window split screen mode works incredibly well, with each portion of the screen running in high resolution and at super high speeds.
  18. Play Magazine
    80
    How they came up with a theme park run by a maniacal gear head hosting a tournament emceed by a pair of chickens I do not know [Nov p.87]
    All this publication's reviews
  19. All Game Guide
    80
    The only real drawback to Crash's presentation is the Dual Shock setup. You can't reconfigure your controls, so prepare to use some finger gymnastics to get your valiant road warrior to pull off all his or her moves.
  20. Cheat Code Central Platinum
    80
    A good game, not a phenomenal game, just a plain and simple good game. Though, a little on the cute side, the challenge out weights such matters.
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User Reviews

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User Score
9.4 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 40 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 22
  3. Negative: 1 out of 22
  1. Neo010390
    9
    After all these years we thought Nintendo was the only company that produced decent kart games for their consoles, well finally the Playstation has its own clone, Crash Team Racing. Created and Developed by Naughty Dog, Crash Team Racing is a kart racing game where the player can choose to play as any of the characters in the Crash series (even the bad guys if you want, I always choose Crash because he's my favourite). There are five different modes to choose from: Adventure, Time Trial, Arcade, Verses and Battle. "Adventure" mode is the main story of the game. You start off in the arena where you can drive around and practice some skills such as hopping, drifting and power sliding. The main goal is to win trophies by coming in first place, when you have collected four the boss challenge opens up. Beat to boss to and you'll receive a key which will unlock the door to the next world, there you will find four more tracks to race. Overall there are 18 tracks, 5 worlds and 5 bosses. There are some unbelievable (Oxide Station in particular) race tracks and if that wasn't enough, you can use weapons on your opponents to help you to catch up if you are behind. In a way it's almost identical to the Wipeout games. As well as trophies, there are other race modes too such as Relic Race, CTR challenge and the Gem Cup Challenge. In "Time Trial" you can race through every single track in the game (this is a good way of getting some practice and memorizing the whole track in all of them), attempting to beat the computer players time. If you're fast enough N Tropy will challenge you, and if you beat his time you'll face Oxide. Trust me when I say this, no matter how many tries, how much speed, power, drifting, everything you give it, you will most likely not beat him. I've attempted them all myself and have only beaten him in a few races. In "Arcade" mode, you can scroll through a selection of tracks you wish to race. You can choose either Single Race or enter a Cup, where you race on four tracks in a row and score points. The better position you are, the more points you gain and if you have the most points after the four races, you win the Cup. The "Versus" mode is pretty much the same, with the exception that two or more players are involved. In "Battle" mode, you can have up to four players fighting and launching weapons at one another during combat in up to seven battle arenas. The type and length of the battle can be adjusted in the main menu beforehand. Graphically the game is very impressive, the colour and texture design of each vehicle are done brilliantly. The race tracks and environments are very well pixelated, and there is lot of variation background to see from a great distance. The characters are very well desinged , and i'm glad the developers didn't change them too much (unlike some Crash games) . As always, the music and sound effects are note perfect. Each soundtrack matches perfectly to each race track. One thing I really like is listening to the players taunts (especially Crash's who does some hilarious ones like "Wheeeeee" and of course his old time favourite "Whoa"), when trying to overtake someone. It's almost as if they're saying what you're thinking. The only criticisms I would say is that some of the tracks (Coco Park for example) are easy and boring and where in the other modes you can adjust the difficulty, Adventure mode doesn't have this option. It would have been nice if they added this feature, in case you felt it was too easy to complete. Despite this, I can honestly say this is the best Kart racing game I have ever played. It's way more superior to the Mario Kart games and if I ever get the chance, I will thank Naughty Dog dearly for making four great Crash games that will remain classics and will entertain millions of gamers as the years go by. Although it was sad to hear their departure from Crash, I absolutly loved what they did with Jak and Uncharted.… Full Review »
  2. ripperroo1992
    10
    Best kart racer ever!!!!!!! Ive been playin this game since i was 7 and it never gets old. The music is great and tracks are so fun. This game is so awesome i went out of my way to get platinum relics for all the tracks. I got all platinum but sewer speedway and n.gin labs are the hardest for platinum. I love this game so much i own for ps1, ps2, ps3, and psp. This so much more fast pace than mario kart. the adventure is much fun especially if you unlock the bosses. In my opinion the best ps1 racing game.… Full Review »
  3. Harry210
    9
    Moving away from the platform genre, Naughty Dog has attempted to bring the Crash universe to the Kart racing genre and they've pulled it off. First off, the graphics are vivid and showcase some great detail and the tracks that you race on are well designed and most of them are fun to zip around in your karts. What keeps these tracks from being boring (most of them) is that some are littered with obstacles which are for the most part, are inspired from previous Crash games like the Piranha plants which swallow your kart and spits out its tyres and the rolling toxic drum which squashes you if you're not careful. Speaking of the karts, Naughty Dog has provided some good characters to race with from the Crash Bandicoot Universe (good or evil) like Crash (of course), Coco, Neo Cortex and each have different kart statistics like some can corner more effectively and some are faster in a straight line. The kart roster may seem small (you have 8 karts to choose from at the start), it's still enough for you to dig in and get racing. The game play resembles Mario Kart (which isn't a bad thing. You race around some nicely designed tracks with 7 other kart racers and try to win the race while pelting them with an arsenal of weapons. There's a decent selection of weapons to use like the TNT crate and the homing missile. They are fun to use and it's so satisfying to obliterate your opponents with them. Naughty Dog definitely nailed the game play of this game. It's entertaining to race with A.I opponents or split-screen with your friends. The A.I is smart enough to cause you trouble with trying to keep you from winning by destroying you with (randomly generated weapons, they don't need to drive into weapon crates to get their weapons *sigh*) weapons. They can be a little too easy to beat, even on the hard difficulty setting. The karts handle great and I like the drift boost mechanic where you slide your kart around corners (or on a straight to gain a speed advantage) and press the R1 (or if you're using the R1 button to slide, L1) button at the right time to give your kart a boost (up to 3 boosts per slide) while you turn. This is essential to master this mechanic if you want to beat the best times in time trial mode or get the gold's/platinum's in adventure mode. The controls are perfect and are responsive. Crash Team Racing offers a nice variety of modes to choose from. There's Arcade mode where you can enter a single race for a laugh on a track of your choice with a friend or your own, or a cup where you race on multiple races and earn points on each track depending on where you finish in the race (a bit like a Grand Prix). There's also time-trial mode and versus modes to play. The main meat of the game though is the story mode (known as the adventure mode). What Naughty Dog has cleverly done here, is integrate the level progression from the 2 previous platform crash games (the level selection, the warp rooms) and carried it over to this game. You progress through 5 areas, enter races by driving into active warp vortex's and try to win all the trophies, relics and CTR tokens and gain access to the boss garage at the end of . There are no clear gems to win but coloured gems can be won by participating in a gem cup that can be won by collecting all 4 CTR tokens that are the same colour as the gem cup that you want to enter. Naughty Dog has brought back some memorable bosses from previous Crash games to serve as bosses for this game. Crazy Ripper Roo is back! I love the way that Naughty Dog has integrated how you earn gems, the relics and the crates (the ? boxes which provide weapons and the bouncy crates which in return, juice up your kart and make your weapons more powerful) into this game and it will take a while to beat this game 100% because of all the gems, relics and bonus rounds you have to complete. The music is very well composed just like the previous 3 Crash games but the taunts/ voice dialog coming out of your character and other racers are a little monotonous and just silly. Some of the tracks, although most of them are pleasant to race on, are boring and bland (Coco Park and Blizzard Bluff springs to mind). It's also next to impossible to beat Nitrous Oxides ghosts on all of the tracks in time-trial mode! All of these things though are minor and don't spoil an enjoyable kart racer which maybe an odd concept for a Crash game, but a developer like Naughty Dog has neatly integrated the Crash universe into a kart racing game. It's sad that this is Naughty Dog's last Crash game.… Full Review »
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