Schlagwort: beenox

  • CTR Nitro-Fueled Adds the Neon Circus Grand Prix This Friday

    CTR Nitro-Fueled Adds the Neon Circus Grand Prix This Friday

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    PlayStation Bandicoots, it’s time to gas up and hit the track in the latest Grand Prix season* for Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled — the Neon Circus Grand Prix! This Grand Prix starts at 7AM PST (3PM UTC) this Friday, November 8**. As always, the Neon Carnival Grand Prix comes at no additional cost to anyone who’s purchased Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled and downloads the update.

    First and foremost, you’ll want to experience Koala Carnival, the new track that comes along with this Grand Prix. Before you get out there, we’ve got some track-mastering tips and all the details on the new content.

    Back to the Track

    It’s a circus or “carnival” of fun on the new track, Koala Carnival! A new character, Koala Kong – the headliner of this season’s Nitro Gauge reward set – is the master of ceremonies on this course that is as colorful as it is death-defying. Race around this track fit for a circus hand while dodging cannon bursts, avoiding fire blasts from the ground, and be the first to cross the finish line. Also, don’t forget to put on a spectacle… this is the circus after all.

    On Koala Carnival, you can get in the race with three new karts that are available in the Neon Circus Grand Prix: The Nitro Bumper Kart, the Pressurizer, and the Daredevil. If you’d like to channel some carnival, pick up the Nitro Bumper Kart in the Pit Stop. Or earn the Daredevil and Pressurizer – a Crash Tag Team Racing throwback – through the Nitro Gauge.

    Circus Tricks and Tips

    Want to be a master of the Koala Carnival? Try out these three tips to see if you can outrace the competition:

    1. Track Knowledge: With any track, knowing the curves, bends, and details makes it that much easier to navigate. Make your first few races on Koala Carnival a “Crash” course in the track, so you can work your way to being on top of the big top.
    2. Power-Ups: Collecting power-ups during the race can be the difference in getting an edge on the competition. Consider always grabbing a power-up — you never know it may just what you need.
    3. Practice: Like all things, mastery takes time. Practice the track and try out different karts, driving styles, and routes to find what works best for you.

    Rally Up and Get Rings

    A new game mode that puts your skills and endurance to the test – Ring Rally has arrived with the Neon Circus Grand Prix as a new game mode. The time continually counts down from the moment you take off, making this a race to survive the longest and earn a high score. Time is added onto the clock for each ring you collect, and rings give you a boost to help you get down the track even quicker.

    Earn points in this mode by collecting rings and by finishing a lap with the time remaining on the clock to set a new record. In each successive lap the rings – laid out on the track’s optimal route – get smaller, making it even harder to collect and keep on driving. Endure on the track as long as you can and once you clock in a time face the ultimate challenge: can you beat your own record?

    If you’re looking for some tips to master Ring Rally, we’ve got you covered:

    1. Boost Power: The more you boost, the faster you go. Collect the rings to get boosts and help maintain top speed.
    2. Get Those Rings: The goal if Ring Rally is to finish each lap and gain a high score. Rings add seconds on to your timer and give you more points making them twice as important.
    3. Navigate: Some shortcuts contain rings, others don’t. Choose your path wisely to master the best route on the track and take that knowledge into other game modes.
    4. Style Points: Sometimes you might need to change up your driving style to clock in the best time. Don’t be afraid to switch things up and experiment to find what works best.
    5. Keep On Going: Each lap, the rings get smaller and smaller, upping the challenge to collect them. Consider changing your strategy and speed as you progress to keep hitting those rings.

    Hit the Big Top

    Koala Carnival and the Ring Rally aren’t the only pieces of new content in the Neon Circus Grand Prix. There’s a new set of rewards in the Nitro Gauge, a host of Challenges to earn Nitro Points and a new set of customization items in the Pit Stop — most importantly, new fan-favorite racers make their way to the scene with Pasadena O’Possum, Ebenezer Von Clutch and Koala Kong, himself!

    Plus, you have a chance to earn this season’s Signature Decal and Champion Kart (if you don’t already own it) if you make it to the top 5% of the Neon Circus Grand Prix Champion or Nitro Leaderboards. Experience the joy and the fun of the Neon Circus Grand Prix in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.

    Good Luck, Bandicoots!

    *Internet required for Grand Prix, Wumpa Coins, Nitro Points, online multiplayer (gaming subscription service sold separately), access to the Pit Stop and other features.

    **Grand Prix content and timing subject to change.

    Website: LINK

  • CTR Nitro-Fueled Adds the Neon Circus Grand Prix This Friday

    CTR Nitro-Fueled Adds the Neon Circus Grand Prix This Friday

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    PlayStation Bandicoots, it’s time to gas up and hit the track in the latest Grand Prix season* for Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled — the Neon Circus Grand Prix! This Grand Prix starts at 7AM PST (3PM UTC) this Friday, November 8**. As always, the Neon Carnival Grand Prix comes at no additional cost to anyone who’s purchased Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled and downloads the update.

    First and foremost, you’ll want to experience Koala Carnival, the new track that comes along with this Grand Prix. Before you get out there, we’ve got some track-mastering tips and all the details on the new content.

    Back to the Track

    It’s a circus or “carnival” of fun on the new track, Koala Carnival! A new character, Koala Kong – the headliner of this season’s Nitro Gauge reward set – is the master of ceremonies on this course that is as colorful as it is death-defying. Race around this track fit for a circus hand while dodging cannon bursts, avoiding fire blasts from the ground, and be the first to cross the finish line. Also, don’t forget to put on a spectacle… this is the circus after all.

    On Koala Carnival, you can get in the race with three new karts that are available in the Neon Circus Grand Prix: The Nitro Bumper Kart, the Pressurizer, and the Daredevil. If you’d like to channel some carnival, pick up the Nitro Bumper Kart in the Pit Stop. Or earn the Daredevil and Pressurizer – a Crash Tag Team Racing throwback – through the Nitro Gauge.

    Circus Tricks and Tips

    Want to be a master of the Koala Carnival? Try out these three tips to see if you can outrace the competition:

    1. Track Knowledge: With any track, knowing the curves, bends, and details makes it that much easier to navigate. Make your first few races on Koala Carnival a “Crash” course in the track, so you can work your way to being on top of the big top.
    2. Power-Ups: Collecting power-ups during the race can be the difference in getting an edge on the competition. Consider always grabbing a power-up — you never know it may just what you need.
    3. Practice: Like all things, mastery takes time. Practice the track and try out different karts, driving styles, and routes to find what works best for you.

    Rally Up and Get Rings

    A new game mode that puts your skills and endurance to the test – Ring Rally has arrived with the Neon Circus Grand Prix as a new game mode. The time continually counts down from the moment you take off, making this a race to survive the longest and earn a high score. Time is added onto the clock for each ring you collect, and rings give you a boost to help you get down the track even quicker.

    Earn points in this mode by collecting rings and by finishing a lap with the time remaining on the clock to set a new record. In each successive lap the rings – laid out on the track’s optimal route – get smaller, making it even harder to collect and keep on driving. Endure on the track as long as you can and once you clock in a time face the ultimate challenge: can you beat your own record?

    If you’re looking for some tips to master Ring Rally, we’ve got you covered:

    1. Boost Power: The more you boost, the faster you go. Collect the rings to get boosts and help maintain top speed.
    2. Get Those Rings: The goal if Ring Rally is to finish each lap and gain a high score. Rings add seconds on to your timer and give you more points making them twice as important.
    3. Navigate: Some shortcuts contain rings, others don’t. Choose your path wisely to master the best route on the track and take that knowledge into other game modes.
    4. Style Points: Sometimes you might need to change up your driving style to clock in the best time. Don’t be afraid to switch things up and experiment to find what works best.
    5. Keep On Going: Each lap, the rings get smaller and smaller, upping the challenge to collect them. Consider changing your strategy and speed as you progress to keep hitting those rings.

    Hit the Big Top

    Koala Carnival and the Ring Rally aren’t the only pieces of new content in the Neon Circus Grand Prix. There’s a new set of rewards in the Nitro Gauge, a host of Challenges to earn Nitro Points and a new set of customization items in the Pit Stop — most importantly, new fan-favorite racers make their way to the scene with Pasadena O’Possum, Ebenezer Von Clutch and Koala Kong, himself!

    Plus, you have a chance to earn this season’s Signature Decal and Champion Kart (if you don’t already own it) if you make it to the top 5% of the Neon Circus Grand Prix Champion or Nitro Leaderboards. Experience the joy and the fun of the Neon Circus Grand Prix in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.

    Good Luck, Bandicoots!

    *Internet required for Grand Prix, Wumpa Coins, Nitro Points, online multiplayer (gaming subscription service sold separately), access to the Pit Stop and other features.

    **Grand Prix content and timing subject to change.

    Website: LINK

  • Spyro Glides into CTR Nitro-Fueled in New Grand Prix

    Spyro Glides into CTR Nitro-Fueled in New Grand Prix

    Reading Time: 7 minutes

    Hello PlayStation players and CTR racers everywhere! We’re excited to be back with you with another blog post, right in time for our latest Grand Prix* season in – the Spyro & Friends Grand Prix! We’re thrilled to be bringing together two icons from the days of PlayStation past . . . gaming legends who have been spinning, jumping, wumping, gliding, and flaming bad guys for over 20 years. Now Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon will get the chance to take each other on . . . and no better place to do that than on the racetrack!

    As always, the Grand Prix is available at no additional cost for anyone who’s purchased Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled**, so make sure to jump in starting on August 30, as this Grand Prix season will bring new characters, new karts, and new items into the race, and introduce a whole new track. What makes this season so exciting is the fact that this time it brings together two classic franchises into one and is the perfect way to celebrate both. We at Beenox are huge Spyro fans and have not been able to keep our hands off of the Spyro Reignited Trilogy since its release last year. We are (obviously) also huge Crash fans, so being able to create a world where these two franchises can co-exist in all of their whacky glory has been an incredibly fun undertaking.

    This season you’ll see Spyro showing up all over the place in CTR – – in the opening menu screen, in the Grand Prix cinematic, and of course, in the game itself. Spyro, Hunter, and Gnasty Gnorc will be added as unlockable playable characters with all of the personality that you come to expect from them. You’ll also see some amazing new karts such as the Spyromobile and Gnasty Ride which give their namesakes some blistering rides to boast about:

    In addition to these, you’ll have the opportunity to unlock amazing new decals, stickers and paintjobs to deck out your karts with, and a ton of awesome new skins for characters new and old, such as the Dark Spyro and Gnome Velo skins you see below:

    Yet, our favorite part of this season is the track you’ll be racing on, which as you know by now is something that can be played online and locally from this season onward. We know you’ve been asking for it and we can finally reveal some details behind the creation of our favorite purple dragon’s track: Spyro Circuit. Spyro Circuit is a celebration of all things dragon. The design takes it inspiration from Spyro the Dragon all the way down to the gameplay ingredients themselves. We’re excited to give you the first deep dive, and the insider racing tips, for this scaled up course! With that said, let’s glide in!

    WHERE IS MY WUMPA FRUIT?!

    You will notice immediately that some items have undergone a drastic cosmetic change in this track, as opposed to the other tracks in the game. Power-up crates have been replaced by chests. Wumpa fruit has been replaced by gems. Even the invincibility masks have been replaced by Sparx! We’ve gone the extra mile to make sure the track feels like it was truly part of Spyro’s world all the way down to the soundtrack itself.

    TRAVELING PLACES

    Just like Hyper Spaceway, we saw an opportunity to travel to different places using Spyro’s magical portals. We asked ourselves, what if Spyro was racing on a magical campus of some kind? You might notice a few dragon statues placed here and there along the track as a tribute to some of the dragons from the Dragon Realms in the Spyro Reignited Trilogy. Starting with the first hub in the Artisans Homeworld as a base for the beginning of the track, we opened the doors to its main castle.

    ENTERING THE LIBRARY

    As soon as you hit the gas, you will be taken inside the main hall inspired by the Dark Hollow level filled with bookshelves and candles. No time to read though! Players can take advantage of the base of the two statues to get a boost jump and smash some of the floating chests above, or go around them to strategically grab a power-up. Some might decide to go straight down the middle, but they must watch out for the fireworks crate that’s been placed there! Good news for those who pass by right after the explosion as it will leave gems scattered around.

    Following an S-curve, the library forks into what would look like an 8 shape from above. Players must plan before entering the first portal. Taking the left and right portion of the track will lead them to a boost pad with 2 power-up chests. Players can also go right down the middle to be rewarded with a chest filled with gems (but at the risk of losing their boost if they hit the side walls).

    THE FIRST PORTAL

    Taking the first portal will warp players into an area inspired by the High Caves level in the Magic Crafters Homeworld. Players must take advantage of the straight line and prepare for two sharps turns leading to the next portal all while avoiding projectiles fired by a duel of wizards. Hit the second turn with enough speed and you should cut the corner shot by jumping over the grassy area.

    THE SECOND PORTAL

    The second portal takes you inside the castle with architectural elements inspired by High Caves and Wizard Peak. The narrow pathway makes a sharp right turn to take you through a giant room filled with a magical vortex created by a group of wizards. Don’t panic and bounce off the floating platforms held by these crazed magicians!

    THE THIRD PORTAL

    The third portal leads us back to the Artisans Homeworld, but we’re not at the finish line just yet! The track ends with a loop followed by a jump in the end . . . this is where it can get messy. If you can manage to avoid the explosive crates in the loop, maintain your boost and hit the jump just right, you can maintain that momentum through the finish line. But be careful – – if other players are on your tail with just the right powerup, you could lose your position at the last minute!

    We think this track is going to create some intense racing competition with new elements to watch out for (firework bundles), and fewer shortcuts than usual. We wanted Spyro Circuit to be a knock-down-drag-out, Bandicoot v Dragon fight all the way down to the finish line. There are no places to hide on this one so make each boost and power-up count!

    SEE YOU IN THE DRAGON REALMS!

    So that’s the deep dive of Spyro Circuit, and a quick overview of the new content coming in this exciting Grand Prix season. We’re thrilled to be bringing Spyro into the CTR mix, and can’t wait for players to enjoy these retro gaming icons together on the PS4 for the first time!

    The Spyro & Friends Grand Prix starts Friday August 30 at 7:00AM PDT (2PM PDT UTC)*
    You can pick up Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled here [link to CTR product page] and the Spyro Reignited Trilogy here [link to the Spyro Reignited Trilogy Product Page]

    * Grand Prix content and timing subject to change.
    ** Internet required for Grand Prix, Wumpa Coins, Nitro Points, online multiplayer (PlayStation® Plus subscription sold separately), access to the Pit Stop and other features.

    Website: LINK

  • Beenox Introduces Post-Launch Grand Prix Content for CTR Nitro-Fueled

    Beenox Introduces Post-Launch Grand Prix Content for CTR Nitro-Fueled

    Reading Time: 6 minutes

    We at Beenox have been waiting for this for a long time. Today we’re thrilled to announce the plans for post-launch content for Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled! Aside from all of the tracks, characters, modes, and customization you already know about from the main game, expect even more content in the form of the CTR Nitro-Fueled Grand Prix: themed seasonal content and challenges available to anyone who has purchased the game, for no additional cost. This includes an additional track released at the start of each season, and available to play both online and locally from that season onward! The first of these seasons — the Nitro Tour Grand Prix — begins on July 3; less than two weeks after the game launches on June 21. This is our way to give Crash fans everywhere even more ways to race!

    Grand Prix Content is not only new, but it’s also introduced by Chick and Stew

    We know you’ve got questions, and luckily, we’ve got some answers. But first, let’s give a warm welcome to Chick Gizzard Lips and co-host Stew — ace rooster commentators for CTR TV, your CTR news channel! Yes, the chicken reporters from Crash Tag Team Racing are back and settling into their new roles as hosts for each new season of content! Simply tune in to CTR TV through the game and listen to Chick and Stew introduce each Grand Prix, explaining all the different challenges and rewards you can win by simply participating!

    We’ve Got Grand Plans for the Grand Prix

    What is a Grand Prix in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, exactly? Think of it as a themed season, constructed around a newly-themed track with a number of different challenges to undertake. Finish a challenge, and you’re awarded Nitro Points (think of Nitro Points like Experience Points). Complete more challenges to continue to fill that Nitro up. When you’ve filled Nitro up to certain levels in your Nitro Gauge, rewards are earned. Examples include new characters, karts, skins, and kart customization items.

    You’re easily able to see your Nitro Gauge in the game, which shows your progress, the items you’ve earned along the way, as well as the ones you’re still driving toward! Just keep playing the game to complete these challenges and fill the Nitro Gauge before the end of that Grand Prix to earn every challenge reward. Challenges include top speed, power slide, reverse, and other competitive challenges, and they vary from easy to quite hard, increasingly testing your skill as the season goes on.

    If you reckon you’re the best Bandicoot in the racing business, it’s time to prove it: with global leaderboards for every Grand Prix Season, you can compete to be the best in the world and win special in-game reward items!

    Redeem Those Wumpa Coins: Head to the Pit Stop

    As well as completing Grand Prix challenges to earn Nitro Points, filling up the Nitro Gauge, and unlocking a specific set of rewards every season, you can also earn Wumpa Coins by participating in Grand Prix challenges too. As you learned a couple of weeks ago, as you gather these Wumpa Coins, you can redeem them in CTR Nitro-Fueled’s Pit Stop for even more items.
    Speaking of the Pit Stop, we’re also excited to announce that during each Grand Prix a new set of items will be introduced to it, like even more characters, kart sets, wheels, paint jobs, decals, stickers, and skins. With this, players have the ability to redeem their Wumpa Coins to play as racers that go beyond the original CTR and to find many unique ways to customize their characters and karts.

    Season 1: Time to Get Warped — Welcome to the Nitro Tour!

    Now that we’ve laid the foundation for what the Grand Prix is, let’s dive into the first Grand Prix, set to launch on July 3! It’s called the Nitro Tour Grand Prix and features a track called “Twilight Tour”, which reimagines the Ancient Egypt and Arabian Town levels from Crash Bandicoot: Warped — so look for some familiar sights and sounds as you’re racing!

    Season 1: Say Hello to Tawna Bandicoot and the Nitro Squad!

    This one has been difficult to keep as a secret for so long! We’re excited to announce that as well as an enthralling new track to perfect in the first Grand Prix, players are also able to earn Tawna the Bandicoot as a playable character. Players are able to unlock Tawna by earning Nitro Points during the first Grand Prix, and are also able to earn an amazing new Motorsport Tawna skin which lets the world know that she means business!

    In addition to Tawna, players will be re-introduced to Ami, Isabella, Megumi, and Liz. Together, they are now known as the Nitro Squad (formerly known as the Trophy Girls in the original CTR), and are now characters that you can race with! They can be unlocked using Wumpa Coins in the Pit Stop during the first Grand Prix. These global bandicoots hail from all over the world, and are ready to compete! There will also be new Motorsport skins for them as well, to really show off their speed and style.

    Season 1: More than just new Characters

    In addition to the new characters, you will see a bunch of other items that will be a part of the first Grand Prix, including international-themed items for players to show their national pride, new kart parts, and even the return of Le Chaux, the fan favorite kart from CTTR!
    In short, make sure that starting on July 3, you are beating challenges in the Nitro Tour Grand Prix to fill up your Nitro Gauge, keep earning those Wumpa Coins by playing any mode in the game, and make sure you are heading to the Pit Stop to see what’s new!

    Looking to the Future

    That’s a deep dive into the first Grand Prix season, but as teased today, this is only the beginning! We have some incredible Grand Prix seasons coming up, including one that revolves around everyone’s favorite purple dragon… (if that doesn’t excite you, I don’t know what will).

    Our goal with the Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled Grand Prix is to make sure that the race lives on, and we’re thrilled to finally be able to talk to you about it. Make sure you start practicing when the game comes out on June 21, because the real challenge begins on July 3!

    Website: LINK

  • Your First Look at CTR Nitro-Fueled’s Dragon Mines and Retro Stadium Tracks

    Your First Look at CTR Nitro-Fueled’s Dragon Mines and Retro Stadium Tracks

    Reading Time: 6 minutes

    Today’s PlayStation Underground episode shows off a couple more exciting pieces of content from : a deep-dive into one of our favorite remastered tracks from the game, Dragon Mines, as well as a reveal of the PlayStation-exclusive track, Retro Stadium. Now, I’m happy to give you guys a closer look at each of these tracks.

    Breathing Fire into Dragon Mines

    At Beenox, Dragon Mines has turned out to be one of our favorite tracks in CTR Nitro-Fueled, because we feel it really exemplifies the injection of personality that we’ve tried to put into every facet of the game. Back in the original CTR, Dragon Mines was a fun track from beginning to end, with awesome details of being down in the caves, minecarts whizzing by you, the beautiful glow of the subterranean lake, the giant gears making the whole operation run — racing in this track really enveloped you in the setting. Yet, with ‘90s-era technology, a lot of the heavy lifting had to be done with your own imagination. The pieces were there to help inspire this, but it was really your mind taking the relatively limited detail and creating a beautiful and immersive landscape out of it.

    With the tools at our disposal today, we don’t have to rely on imagination, alone, to fill in the gaps. Like all of the other tracks In CTR Nitro-Fueled, we have tried to give Dragon Mines an incredible level of detail and life that will envelop you like it never has before. Aside from the graphical updates and the art direction that went into the 2019 version of the track, a huge part of this process was giving a story to the track. This is something we’ve done with a lot of the tracks for the game — providing context to the detail that we have added. For Dragon Mines, the original track didn’t actually have any dragons in it (although it gets its name from being Komodo Joe’s home track).

    For CTR Nitro-Fueled, we felt it would be fun to bring that element into it. The track’s story is simple: a group of miners have discovered an aging dragon’s treasure deep under the earth and have now built an entire community to harvest the treasure out. Creating this story gave us the direction to start animating a ton of fun details into the track, like miners working to the beat of the music, mischievous rats getting into trouble, and even a slumbering dragon, sitting on what’s left of his treasure, trying to breathe fire on the racers as they pass by (but unfortunately, only mustering a feeble puff of smoke before he loses interest and goes back to sleep).

    A miner desperately reaches for a stubborn bat at the starting gate. Another tries to engage in a (literal) game of whack-a-mole while being mocked by a family of them. A whole underground town bustles as the workday goes on. These are just a few more examples of the humor and details we felt would give this track a setting that players would want to re-visit over and over and is also something we wanted to make sure to do across the entire game. It’s worth noting, though, that we also wanted to make sure that the track layout was just as fans remembered from the original.

    The turns are the same, the hills are the same — even the shortcut is the same! [As a tip for you readers, when you come across the minecart rails that cross the racetrack at about the halfway point, you can follow them to the right and through the tunnel to gain an extra bit of ground on your opponents. But make sure to go in with a boost, since the minecarts will be hot on your tail!] As with all the remastered and re-imagined tracks in the game, we wanted to give fans a sense of nostalgia while also giving them an environment that will wow them. We feel that Dragon Mines is a perfect example of this.

    Going Old School for PS4 Players

    Now, switching gears entirely, I’m excited to talk to you about another track in the game which is on the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of modern-day detail — Retro Stadium. Fully revealed today, this track rounds out the set of retro content offered exclusively to PS4 players of the game. Together with the retro skins for Crash, Coco, and Cortex, and their retro karts, this bonus track brings you back to the days of low-polygons and minimal-pixel textures!

    The track is based off the original Turbo Track in CTR, and to create it our team had a lot of fun reversing the mindset we were taking with all the other tracks in the game. While we’ve been spending most of our time seeing how we can bring the original tracks from CTR and CNK into the next stratosphere in terms of graphics and detail, with Retro Stadium we turned off the texture filtering in the level, scaled back details with a “less is more” mindset, and embraced the pixelated look of video games of the late ‘90s. With the high-fidelity qualities that we’ve been putting into all the other tracks in CTR Nitro-Fueled, we felt it would be fun to offer PlayStation players a way to step into the past with this track if they wanted to.

    In addition to this, we really did want to make this track an homage to the PS1, and the history of the Crash franchise on the PlayStation platform. The platform and the franchise essentially got their start together and have both created a ton of great memories for me, for all of us at Beenox, and for millions of players across the world. This track is a way to hearken back to the early days of these two gaming icons, and it is simply fun to be able to think back to when graphics like these were blowing you away!

    With Dragon Mines and Retro Stadium, we have highlighted two tracks that are polar opposites in terms of graphics and detail, but both of which we have tried to pack with the spirit and fun that CTR Nitro-Fueled is all about. We can’t wait for PlayStation players to try them both out on June 21!

    Website: LINK

  • Your First Deep Look at Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled’s Adventure Mode

    Your First Deep Look at Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled’s Adventure Mode

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    It’s the Survival of the Fastest, and you’ll need to bring your best as you race for the fate of the planet! With Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled, we at Beenox are thrilled to bring back the groundbreaking campaign mode from the original CTR, the Adventure Mode, which pits you against the nefarious alien Nitros Oxide. Oxide claims to be the fastest racer in the galaxy, and his challenge is simple: he will square off against the best racer on Earth. If he wins, he turns the planet to a parking lot. If he loses, he leaves Earth alone. Choose your favorite racer, earn your place as Earth’s best by collecting trophies and defeating bosses, and then square off against Oxide to save the planet… talk about high stakes!

    The Adventure Mode’s Legacy

    My introduction to Crash Team Racing in 1999 was with the Adventure Mode, and it is still the part of the game that has left the biggest impression on me over the years. At Beenox, we believe that so much of the joy of CTR Nitro-Fueled will come from racing against your friends in local or online play. But we also feel strongly that a big part of what made CTR special in the ‘90s, and what will make CTR Nitro-Fueled special in 2019, is this single-player campaign experience. It was a unique thing to see a campaign mode in a kart racer. This was relatively new for the genre, and in true Crash Bandicoot fashion it was filled to the brim with the wacky personality you came to expect from the franchise. I remember endless nights honing my skills, feeling that sense of progression, and experiencing the satisfaction of earning new characters as I raced my way to the final confrontation with Oxide. It was the most engaging experience I ever had with a kart racer, which is something that I have kept in mind while working on the Adventure Mode for CTR Nitro-Fueled.

    The Adventure Mode: Nitro-Fueled

    In bringing the Adventure Mode back, we knew we had to hit all the elements that made the original so special. The challenges are the same — there are trophy races, boss races, relic races, token races, and gem cups. The characters are back — choose from Crash, Coco, Cortex, Polar, Pura, Tiny or any of the other starting lineup characters you remember from the original. And the thrill of earning new characters (like Ripper Roo and Pinstripe Pontoroo) is still a huge part of the fun.

    However, we wanted to take things a step further for CTR Nitro-Fueled. Instead of just earning the boss characters like in the original, players will now earn something every time they win a race. Players will be getting new kart parts, character skins, or kart customization items with every victory. Also, players will now earn the boss characters immediately after they beat that boss, instead of after Gem Cups (which now unlock a new set of valuable prizes). This includes the ability to earn Nitros Oxide himself — though that is no easy task!

    Finally, players will now have the opportunity to change to any racer, kart, or customization item they have already unlocked at any point in the Adventure Mode. Are you feeling like Crash gives you the best chance in Crash Cove, but Pura will dominate the competition in Tiger Temple? Swap him in! Do you dig that sweet new paint job you got after beating Ripper Roo? Immediately style your kart out with it. Did you earn enough Wumpa Coins to grab N. Trance from the game’s Pit Stop? Get ready to bring that egg-shaped villain into the fray. It’s all about earning new items, new characters, new karts, and making the experience feel like your own.

    However, we know that there will be players out there who want to commit to one racer and one kart from the outset, just like in the original. For that reason, players will have the option of playing the Adventure Mode in one of two different ways: Classic or Nitro-Fueled. In the Classic setting, racers will still be earning all of the awesome items, characters, and karts as in the Nitro-Fueled setting, but won’t be able to change their racer or kart in the middle of the Adventure Mode. For those players looking to mix things up along the way, the Nitro-Fueled setting is for you.

    An Engaging Single-Player Experience

    We’re super excited about everything you can now earn in the Adventure Mode, but it’s important to emphasize that the story and a great single-player experience are still at the heart of it. There are new intro and victory cinematics that give life to each of the boss battles. We’ve spent a lot of effort to make sure that the hub worlds are more detailed than ever before. Working through each hub world and finally beating Oxide will bring an amazing sense of accomplishment. In short, in CTR Nitro-Fueled, the Adventure Mode will take you for a ride, will test your skills, and will immerse you in the true Crash Team Racing experience!

    Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled peels out onto PS4 June 21.

    Website: LINK