The Neon Circus Update Brings A New Mode To Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled

Incoming comments whining about MTX in 3... 2... 1...

This GP has been fun so far. the King Chicken challenge was way more fun than last month's ghosts.

Koala Kong's return makes this game, for longtime Crash fans, the first instance of all major characters from the original trilogy being playable together for the first time ever.
If Rilla Roo - from the comparatively despicable (but still fun due to a hub world rather than boards) Mario Party ripoff Crash Bash - makes the cut next month or so, then all major animals from the PS1 era will be under the same umbrella.
Pretty happy right now, it's the Crash Bandicoot equivalent to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, fanservice-wise!

I can’t play this game I’ve got Mario kart reflexes 🤷🏻‍♂️

@sandman89 for me, it's the exact reverse. I feel me adapting to CTR over MK will lose me a friendship some day.

Passedena Opossum reminds me of Gadget Hackwrench, who made me feel very funny as a kid.

Finally Pasadena and von Clutch!!! <3

Don't know if I will be buying though, I wanted them on release.

@AlexSora89 Everyone is here!

This game is about to be the best Kart Racer of all time.

That's nice. If I wanted MTX and grind, I'd play Mario Kart Tour.

@sandman89 I can't play MK8dx very well anymore. It feels too slow and abnormal. I used to 3 star 150 and Mirror every time but now I lose to my friend who likes to play it when we hang out.

This was a great update, the ring mode is more like an arcade racer, a reason to return to adventure mode to get a secret character, a fun, albeit short blast of a track and the new cosmetic stuff looks fantastic.

@AlexSora89 I'd love a modern version of Crash Bash tbh heh

@Jayofmaya The ring mode kinda feels like Hot Wheels Stunt Track Challenge back on PS2/Xbox.

@AlexSora89 Not even close to Smash. You wanna get close to Smash, start adding characters from Twin-Sanity and Crash of the Titans......You know which birds from Twinsanity must be added -_-

Why are these Neon Circus paintjobs, karts, decals so ugly? Bumper kart looks alright, but earns less nitro points because it doesn't have wheels.

The track is fun though. I like the new Neon Circus track.

@sandman89 @Noid @Jayofmaya Yeah, changing between MK8 and CTR takes some time to reaquaint your muscle memory and get used to how the karts turn.

@AlexSora89 With everyone seemingly bring back PS1 games to current gen systems (e.g. Activision with CTR, Crash Trilogy, Spyro Trilogy; Square Enix with FF7-9, Sony with MediEvil) maybe Crash Bash is next.

Animated paint jobs came out with last month's GP.

@sandman89 I grew up playing CTR. I got easily adjusted to MK, but MK always felt so imprecise to me compared to CTR.

@Raccoonius I only ever played the ps1 Hot Wheels when I was a kid, not sure if it had that as I didn't play it as much as my other games! Sounds cool, though.

Ring Rally is a fantastic new mode! CTR mode is good, but not worth going back to since it isn't much of a challenge once you know where the letters are. Relic is better since it requires a bit more strategy and skill to complete, but right now, Ring beats everything.

Just discovered there's new stuff in Adventure mode. Love that they're not being repetitive with the new content.

@Woomy_NNYes Nitro Bumper earns 20%, whereas every other kart earns 10% and wheels earn either 5% or 10%. So you're not only not losing anything, you're also potentially gaining 5% if you don't have the right wheels.

@BloodyMurder mkt micro transactions are far, far worse than ctrs

I love how much free stuff they keep adding to this game... how can they afford it?

@Alpha008 Mario Kart is an evergreen seller, despite the assumption that most people who own a Switch own MK. CTR may be evergreen too, but I don't pay much attention to sales figures. The constant flow of (quality) content certainly helps and even though MTX are cordoned off to just get more wumpa coins, I wouldn't be surprised if people throw money at the game so they don't have to play it daily for 30 minutes just to get some new stuff.

@Alpha008 The microtransactions, it's pretty common now with non-Nintendo multiplayer titles to have some kind of setup where the content that everyone needs to play together is free (e.g. tracks in racing games, maps in FPS) meanwhile a microtransaction system is set up for everything else. Nintendo may follow some time in the future, they've already caved in to the mobile standard of aggressive microtransaction tactics for Mario Kart Tour.

@romevi oh it’s definitely a lot looser. That’s why I’m struggling with ctr I just can’t corner.

@sandman89 Ah. I think the main thing with CTR is controlling drifting. While I could get some good drifting with MK, it was never as tight as CTR. I would suggest practiciing drifting in CTR, and you may (or may not) consider CTR as really fun.

@SmileMan64
And that's something not even Naughty Dog back in the day could achieve, in spite of how comparatively simpler (compared to previous efforts Crash 2 and 3) the racers' models were.

Koala Kong and Komodo Joe could have been put in by reskinning the Tiny Tiger and Dingodile models, respectively. That was not the case, which makes their return all the more satisfying to me.

@Doktor-Mandrake
Oh, hayle no.
Unless of course they went the extra mile. The only reason Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled included Crash Nitro Kart content at launch and post-launch sorta-free DLC is because the game - already pretty complete by itself, with no other unfavourable comparisons - would be pretty lacking in a post-Mario Kart 8 Deluxe world.
Crash Bash, not so much. A 1:1 remake would be roughly 1/5th of what a Crash Bash comeback would need to be. More minigames, but still with no boards (as the hub world made the game much more enjoyable to me; granted, I played CB first, but that's beside the point - I care about Mario Party's minigames, rather than the tedious and RNG-heavy boards). That way I'd be on board.

@patbacknitro18
I'd have spat in the face of the absurdity you've come up with... but then Pasadena happened. It's definitely going in that direction, the Smash Ultimate of bandicoot kart racers.

@Grumblevolcano
I wouldn't put it outside the realm of possibility, yeah. But I'm definitely more curious to see a new console Crash game by Vicarious Visions would be.

@sandman89 As a tutorial, I played adventure mode on easy until I could beat the first 5 races (includes first boss), and that worked really well for getting used to CTR drifting, and getting good enough to play adventure mode on Normal. Difficulty is only selectable when creating a save file, so you'll need to make a separate save file for Easy. If you still struggle to keep up in adventure mode at this point, you're almost certainly missing the track shortcut -they can be tough to find, some require 3 boosts to use. I had to youtube a few tracks myself to find them. Using a speed class driving style helps too (look up air-brake turning)

I also think that Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is more fun than Mario Kart 8 (DX) basically because of the gameplay. CTR reminds me of Double Dash which has great physics and controls too.

@sandman89 @Woomy_NNYes Playing cups (or single races) is a great way to practise too, probably the best because you can choose difficulty level every time.