Crash Nitro Kart

Something’s wrong," says the floating head hovering in the garage at Crash Bandicoot’s island home, "that’s not sunlight."

Crash Bandicoot is enjoying a peaceful mid-afternoon nap when his house and all within are snatched away by a powerful beam of light. Meanwhile, in the labs of the nefarious and scheming Dr. Cortex, while planning how best to attack the Bandicoot’s, a beam of light pulls that laboratory away and into the unknown.

... Ok, it’s not the unknown. It is the known or soon-to-be known. Crash emerges from his house to find it plopped down at one end of a giant arena. At the other sits the lab of Dr. Cortex. Surrounding them are a host of tiny green beings, cheering madly. A holographic image, huge and menacing, with great pointed teeth looms over them.

Emperor Velo the 27^th, has snatched Crash and his arch-nemesis, Cortex, from their homes and deposited them both in an arena full of his followers. They are looking for entertainment, and "news of your racing prowess," he ominously intones, has reached his galaxy. Therefore he is putting both Crash and Cortex to the test. They can hardly refuse the challenge. Earth’s destruction hangs in the balance.

Should Dr. Cortex and his minions win, they will return to Earth as its conqueror. For Team Bandicoot, it is a much simpler proposition - thwart both Velo and Cortex to get home and return to the nap that was so rudely interrupted.

Vicarious Visions presents Crash Nitro Kart, a PlayStation2 arcade galactic romp that is both lushly rendered and mildly challenging, keeping in the vein with Crash Bandicoot arcade-style adventures. This is a racing game, but one which should appeal to gamers of all ages simply through the options that will customize the racing experience.

There are beginning machines that are not overly fast, but in some of the game modes, you can set the difficulty level for your opponents - unless you are racing head-to-head against another human foe.

Game modes include adventure, single player, and multiplayer. In the adventure you can choose between Team Bandicoot and Team Cortex. In this mode, you will have to race across four worlds, and should you win, you get to face the galactic champion. Generally speaking, this is a simple proposition, you drive onto a portal pad to activate a vortex to a track. Winning a race on that track unlocks other vortexes to other tracks.

As a member of Team Bandicoot, there are three vehicles you can drive. Coco’s is a beginner vehicle is great on turns, but the speed is terrible. Crash’s vehicle is the intermediate kart - it does not turn that great, but has good speed and acceleration. Crunch Bandicoot has the advanced kart - great speed, moderate acceleration and poor turning abilities. Depending on the course, choosing either Crash’s or Crunch’s vehicle is the best solution, though younger players will enjoy the forgiveness of racing in Coco’s machine. However, if you are serious about advancing through the game, Coco’s machine is not going to get you there.

The single-player mode also has several styles of races you can choose from - there is quick race, team race, cup tournament, race time trial and lap time trial. There are settings for the CPU difficulty, and 12 imaginative tracks, from Jungle Boogie to Meteor Gorge, Deep Sea Driving, and Android Alley.

The action is solid, and there are power ups along the way. Those jumps you see are not just for show; if you hop off a jump and time it right, you will get a power boost when you land. There are also rockets and other weapons you can collect to eliminate the leading competition.

The vocal acting is solidly in line with other Crash adventures. The music can get a little tiring after a while.

This is a game that plays well, and looks great. The three dimensional worlds are lush and richly textured. The game is easily one that sate that weekend rental urge, but also would make a nice diversionary title on the library game shelves of Crash fans. This is not a game with extreme depth, but it does sport solid entertainment value.

Gameplay: 8.3
The game has load times, and some of the unlockable items are cutscenes, but once in a race, the action is seamless and enjoyable.

Graphics: 8.8
The worlds are lush and the animations are exactly what one would expect from a kart arcade racer. Cutscenes are very well done.

Sound: 7.5
The music can become annoying about 20 minutes, and there is not much in the sound department that is new or remarkably different.

Difficulty: Easy
The controls are kept simplistic, and the game require no learning curve. Just get in and drive.

Concept: 8.5
This is a well-designed game, feature a host of play options. The interface is simple to use.

Multiplayer: 8.5
This aspect of the game is more enjoyable than the single-player game and definitely renders more in the way of laughs.

Overall: 8.5
Rent it or buy it - this is a game that is great to look and is somewhat addictive. Yes, the action is a little mindless, but the game is, nonetheless, enjoyable.