Parents' Guide to Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled

Though this is a remake of a twenty-year-old game, it still manages to be a lot of fun, and not just in a retro/nostalgic way. Like the original Crash Team Racing, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is a cartoony, arcade-style go-kart racing game in which characters from the Crash Bandicoot series engage in what's essentially their version of Mario Kart. Not only do they drive circles around twisty tracks — some of which have branching pathways — but they also try to get an edge by using weapons against each other, triggering defenses to protect themselves, and using boosting pads build into the tracks for when they want to get extra speed to get ahead.

As for what this version has that the original did not, well, not only does it look and sound lot nicer thanks to upgraded visuals and audio, but it also now lets you race against people online. It also includes tracks and other items from the 2003 sequel, Crash Nitro Kart. But as fun as this all may be, it does have some minor issues. While you can switch the gas pedal from one of the front buttons to the right trigger, making this more like most racing games, you can't do the same with the brakes. It also doesn't help that the button you use to do a little hop is also used to power slide around corners, which makes it trickier to do the latter. Even with these minor quibbles, though, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled still has enough of the original's charm and challenge to delight fans of cartoony racing games, whether they're too young to remember the original, or too old.