Beenox has done a great job reviving Crash Bandicoot's original PlayStation racing game and mixing it together with content from the 2003 release, Crash Nitro Kart. Following on from last week's launch of Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled on the Switch and multiple other platforms, the Activision blog has now revealed what's planned for the road ahead.
The first update will roll out on 3rd July and most notably introduces Grand Prix content. This includes the addition of leaderboards in the Grand Prix menu. There's the Nitro Point Online leaderboard and the Championship leaderboard. The track "Twilight Tour" is also being added to two modes and the character Tawna can be unlocked as well. Here's the full rundown:
The Nitro Tour Grand Prix will be going live and you can begin earning Nitro Points and unlocking a variety of bonus customization content by completing challenges found within the Grand Prix menu†.
“Twilight Tour” will be a brand-new track available to Local Arcade and Online modes. The character Tawna will able to be earned through completing Grand Prix challenges and earning Nitro Points. You will also be able to earn additional new items including karts, skins, stickers, decal, and paint jobs!
Note: Tawna and the items described above can only be earned for a limited time by completing Grand Prix challenges while connected to the internet. Once the current Grand Prix season ends, they will no longer be available to earn through Grand Prix challenges until they may appear in the Pit Stop at a later date.
The Pit Stop segment of the game will also be updated with new items. Expect new karts, character, skins, decals, paint jobs, wheels and stickers. Of course, all of this content is redeemable with in-game Wumpa Coins.
When visiting the Pit Stop, you’ll notice that items that were added as part of the Nitro Tour Grand Prix have little Nitro cannisters over their icons. You’ll notice the same thing in the customization menu over the same icons. This small Nitro cannister with a percentage tied to it denotes the extra Nitro Point boost you’ll get whenever completing challenges with these customization options equipped. The percentage increase stacks with each customization item you have equipped. So get collecting, and get stacking!
As a special call-out to some of the new additions, the “Nitro Squad” characters Ami, Megumi, Isabella, and Liz can be redeemed using Wumpa Coins in the Pit Stop and flags from nations around the world will be added as kart stickers.
Last of all is a series of minor changes. Podium animations will be added to online matches, there'll be a "Message of the Day" screen added, adjustments will be made to the Wumpa Coin earn rate and character icons will reflect the skin you have equipped. Apart from these adjustments, this update will improve online stability, rework collisions in certain maps and iron out a few other bugs here and there. All of the villains from Crash Nitro Kart will now be protected by the Velo mask, too.
Are you looking forward to this update? How has your experience with CTR been so far? Tell us below.
[source blog.activision.com]
Comments 32
So soon?
Wow, good stuff!
Have been enjoying this game so far, even though it's really difficult even when playing on "normal". Love it!
@Nightwalker Yeah I think playing on easy is the best way to learn the game and get used to it. Normal is more for when you are finally used to the mechanics and have mastered the boost.
Nice this is how you support a Game!
Now tweak the AI a little, fix the online and could become a real good game
Bought for my kids and they where getting mad then heard one yell " I finally beat him!" Lol it was pretty funny and he was super proud of himself.
Would rather see some QA and optimization done.
This game has been crashing on my Switch (and from what I have read, it's happening in other platforms too) so I hope ironing out bugs will be given priority.
Hopefully we will finally see our progress in the offline grand prix mode, ie what cups we have won!
Also the second update should address the 45 second wait between races. Great game though despite these flaws.
@Nightwalker thought it was just me I found it really quite difficult at first to win in normal not so bad now I have the drift and turbo nailed great game though
Got Mario Maker 2 this month but I'm aiming to pick this up over the summer. Good reviews and apparently good post-launch support. As with an earlier poster, I'll be getting it on ps4 though.
Easy is Normal and Normal Hard.
The right game redone at the right price is a winner. Nintendo take note.
Id like to give a shout to Team Sonic. Another game well done at a good price. I hope it's not over shadowed by CTR.
Adding 60fps performance mode? LOL
Great to hear because I'm really enjoying this game. Like others have already said the difficulty is definitely there but I like the challenge. This game has great graphics and controls and besides the long loading times the switch version runs great. It's nice to have another good kart racing game after 5 years of MK8. Sorry Team Sonic racing but CTR is better.
@matt1040
The game is actually difficult tbh, normal feels more like hard in other games.
Just got off of a long haul flight back from China. Was disappointed to find when I was playing this on the flight that you can’t earn wumpa coins from the story mode whilst offline!
I’m super excited!
I hate that you have to be online to earn coins and to access the pit stop. Can they not make the game easily accessible to everyone? Why not have everything unlockable by ingame by game progress and skill?
I wish this game ran at 60fps and had 2 second load times on Switch! I'd be playing the hell out of it if it did. Still looking forward to trying it someday, but I swear, racing games have to run at 60fps!
If they don't improve the loading times, I don't see myself playng it beyond 3 weeks from now (and even then that's not guaranteed). It's fun and all, but not as good as it could be.
So no fix to the loading times? They're abysmal across all platforms.
@matt1040 That's why I love games with a challenge, it's a brilliant feeling beating something you were stuck on for ages
@graysoncharles Sure, but other versions don't load very well either. If anything, it's on the devs for cluttering the tracks with pointless stuff, even if it's reduced in the Switch version. Every time I see an unnecessary detail in the background I wonder if Beenox had their priorities straight - maybe other versions would be able to run at 60 fps if they had some more restraint.
Tawna available at pit stop at a later date? Good, I got worried!
I got CTR last night, so happy I did honestly. Great game, great price, FINALLY a break from Mario Kart 8, and they're supporting it with more content! Beautiful!!
An amazing game, so refreshing as an alternative to Mario Kart!! It's brim full of content, well worth picking up. Mario Kart and this should satisfy anyone's karting requirements. I also got Sonic Team Racing which I regard as a decent welcome addition. All 3 are very much worthy of purchase.....
Can we also eventually get the retro track that is currently exclusive to PS4?
Free additional content so soon after launch? Colour me impressed 😁
A bugger about the online requirement, as most of my gaming is on flights (I’m in the air almost every week). But I’ll still grab this - MK doesn’t really do it for me, but I adored Diddy Kong, so hopefully this scratches that particular itch. (Currently loving Horizon Chase Turbo too)
@StinkyHat thank you! Its insanely slow to load and thats just madness.
@LuciferOnReddit you must have bought a faulty copy, because mine is OK.
Juat as well we all don't like the same games.
Have this on Xbox one and the online multiplayer lobbys are empty plus no ranking system with online multiplayer either... what about switch version?
Tap here to load 32 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...