Kart racing fans have a ton to look forward to in 2022. Chocobo GP and Disney Speedstorm are two newcomers to the genre, though excitement came to a head during Februrary's Nintendo Direct broadcast. During it, Nintendo announced DLC for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, a whopping 48 remade tracks coming by the end of 2023. In the wake of all the news, one orange kart racing giant seems to be missing out.
Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled is the 2019 remake of 1999's Crash Team Racing. Nitro-Fueled did receive continued support for about a year after the game's release, giving players new tracks, characters, and costumes, as well as tournaments to compete in. Developer Beenox has been silent on any mentions of new content since, however, leaving fans craving more. It stands to reason that, if the eight-year-old Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is receiving new tracks, Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled is more than deserving of the same treatment.
Crash Bandicoot's History of Kart Racing
Crash Bandicoot first released in 1996 as PlayStation's main platforming mascot. After three games, the original developer Naughty Dog tried making a kart racer, and the original Crash Team Racing was born. The success of the original quickly turned into a series, consisting of Crash Nitro Kart, Crash Tag Team Racing, and Nitro Kart 2, all receiving some varying degrees of success, but none as popular as the original. As a result, fans were absolutely floored when the remake, Nitro-Fueled, was first announced to release in 2019.
Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe are the two kart racing giants of the current era. Though Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the best-selling in its franchise, Nitro-Fueled does plenty to stand on its own four wheels. Looking at just the gameplay, Nitro-Fueled has a much higher skill ceiling— it's harder, but all the more satisfying to master. This is because drifts are harder to achieve and require rhythmically tapping the button to go faster. Drifts can then be chained together to reach much higher speeds than what is possible in Mario Kart.
On top of this, Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled has a fully designated single-player campaign, complete with a massive hub world and optional objectives and races for every single course. This gives the single-player experience more depth, as opposed to just finishing every race in a row. Mario Kart DS' mission mode comes close to this, so hopefully, Nintendo will take a modern stab at a robust single-player campaign in the next main entry.
The Kart Racers Zooming Into 2022
The biggest kart racing news of the year is the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC, but the reaction to this news has been mixed, though, as some fans want Mario Kart 9 instead. Mario Kart 8 is eight years old after all, and Deluxe is just the Switch version of the Wii U original that comes bundled with all its DLC. That being said, Mario Kart 8 is hard to top in terms of gameplay, so essentially doubling the game's content makes perfect sense.
Aside from Mario Kart' s DLC, two other major kart racers are releasing or have released this year. These are Disney Speedstorm, a Disney crossover racer, and Chocobo GP, one that is based on the world of Final Fantasy. Both of these games are taking an interesting stance when it comes to kart racers, as both are free to play, but contain in-game purchases and/or premium versions in order to unlock more content. This trend is becoming more and more popular in modern gaming, seen in games such as Fortnite and Apex Legends. This take has never been seen on a console kart racer, so it is interesting to think how this will possibly affect the likes of Crash Team Racing or Mario Kart in the future.
Crash Team Racing's Future
Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled is already almost three years old— the franchise is due for something new. All the news this year shows that the hype for kart racing is as large as ever, and Crash can learn a thing or two from it. While a sequel would be preferred, updates to Nitro-Fueled akin to Mario Kart 8's DLC could also work. The game includes all the tracks from the original Crash Team Racing, as well as Nitro Kart, meaning there are two other games worth of tracks that can be ported over and added as additional content for Nitro-Fueled. Beenox did release brand new Nitro-Fueled DLC tracks at one point, but asking for more is a long shot at this point in the game's lifespan.
More Crash Team Racing goodness can also take the form of something like Disney Speedstorm or Chocobo GP. Nitro-Fueled already contains tons of collectibles and microtransactions in the form of characters, skins, and vehicle parts, with some even coming from other series, like Spyro the Dragon. A free-to-play Crash Racer can crank up the number of collectibles even further, and even throw in some characters from other Activision IPs. Whatever the case may be, 2022 is clearly the year of the kart racer, and Crash Team Racing deserves some of that spotlight.
Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled is available now on Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One.