
<MAP NAME="boxmap-p8"><AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="14, 200, 103, 207" HREF="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm/privacy-policy.html?o=1" ><AREA COORDS="0,0,10000,10000" HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/thearmchairem-20" ></MAP><img src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/rcm/120x240.gif" width="120" height="240" border="0" usemap="#boxmap-p8" alt="Shop at Amazon.com">	Platform Playstation 2 Genre Racing Publisher VU Games Developer Vicarious Visions ESRB E (Everyone) Released Q4 2003

- Lots of power-up items - Solid racing game - Adventure mode is very cool - Lots of tracks - Good track designs

- Pulling off team moves can be difficult - Memorizing tracks may not appeal to all gamers - Lack of speed may be a turnoff to many gamers - Graphics in multiplayer aren’t as crisp as they can be

Review: Project Gotham Racing (Xbox) Review: Ridge Racer V (Playstation 2) Review: Sega GT (Dreamcast)
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Crash Nitro Kart

Score: 7.9 / 10

Crash Nitro Kart without a doubt doesn’t live up to the Mario Kart series. That doesn’t necessarily mean CNK is a bad game. It may be a clone of the Mario Kart games but CNK can be a bit more unique then Mario Kart in one way or another.

CNK is very similar to Crash Team Racing for the PSX, but CNK feels more polished of a game then CTR was. For the most part CNK is a solid racing game, it has everything you would expect from a kart game like your power-ups consisting of missiles, time freeze, tornadoes, and more. One aspect that makes CNK’s power-ups unique is the team power-ups. If you stay close enough to a team member you can unleash some pretty cool moves. At times there can be some slight problems trying to pull team moves off, but its still a nice welcome feature to the kart racing genre.

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The most unique feature of CNK over Mario Kart is its’ adventure mode. There are 5 different worlds which contain a total of 17 tracks. You will race against 7 competitors or sometimes you may go up against a boss character.

Like other racing games such as F-Zero GX you will have to memorize tracks like the back of your hand. You will also have to be very strategic at times which will require some thinking. Some gamers may be annoyed by this while other gamers might welcome the challenge.

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The biggest problem with CNK is its overall sense of feeling…well, slow. Perhaps I might be overreacting but speed is very important to a gamer like me when it comes to a racing game. Some people might feel very disappointed with the pacing of the game while others might take it as an opportunity to apply their strategic skills since some tracks do require thinking.

One thing I really have to give credit to CNK is its track designs. Some tracks are really nicely done and have a good layout. Graphics overall were nothing special but has a nice cartoony touch to it on both character models and track designs. I noticed when playing multiplayer the graphics seemed to be reduced and are a bit choppy compared to single player which is unfortunate. I didn’t find multiplayer mode to be as fun as single player but if you have some friends over, multiplayer mode is still decent, even with its faults.

The sound in the game is nicely done. The music is very similar to something you would hear in a cartoon which is a nice feature that fits in very well into the game, but the character phrases do get very annoying after a short period of time.

Crash Nitro Kart definitely isn’t as good as Mario Kart, but bring some friends over and you can still have one hell of a fun gaming experience.

- Jay Tonello

(February 14, 2004)