Mobile Game Review of "Crash Nitro Kart"

I tried looking this game up, and it seems that this game is a REMAKE of the original which came out 4 years ago, but strangely, the version I got seems to be much more limited somehow. This game is copyrighted 2008 by Vivendi Universal, and is listed as a new game circa May 2008. So is it any good? Hmmm... Not really.

The story is makes this technically a sequel... Nitrous Oxide has returned, and Crash and friends must do an interplanetary race to save Earth. Blah-blah-blah. It's just a text screen, no animated intro, no nothing. Hello!

And instead of the variety of characters to play as, you can play only as four: Crash himself, Pasadena, Nina Cortex, and Dr. Cortex. Each of the vehicles are specialized in except Crash's buggy, which is pretty balanced.

The racing is actually VERY simple, and in effect, boring. You driving around in the "behind" 3rd person look. The vehicles are all sprites, as are all the objects on screen, thus making this an Outrun derivative when we know cellphones can support true 3D racing such as Fast and Furious: Fugitive, WRC 3D, or NFS: ProStreet. Just for that, you'd want to score a few points off.

When you actually get racing, it gets worse. Initially this sounds exciting, as you have 4 cars on the road, constantly shooting at each other or leaving traps for each other. However, instead of the dozens of weapons in the console version, you're left with only 4: the invincibility mask, the missile, landmine, and nitroboost.

The idea of a weapon is that you can hit someone ahead so they'll stop, and you get ahead instead. Same with the landmine, except you use it to STAY ahead. Best play to put the mines is very close to the "boostpads", which gives you a kick in speed, as if you've lit off a nitrous charge. You get one of those free per lap, so don't waste them.

The problem with this racing is you can't stay ahead. The objective is to stay close enough so that you can collect the weapons and nitrous charges to get ahead in the final lap. And there are only 3 laps. And even if you do get ahead, a missile will send you flying back to the end of the pack.

There is no aim reticule, so it's pretty much a "guess and shoot". There's also no range indicator, so it's quite possible you've shot one off at somebody out of range. The invincibility stuff only lasts like 3 seconds, but it can prevent a mine from going off. The Karts themselves are pretty unremarkable, but at least each has a different design. Some are good in one area, but lousy in others. They look different, but they are very obviously 2D sprites.

Music repeats within 10 seconds, and starts to be VERY annoying indeed. AND only about 10 circuits? Come on! There's nothing complicated with a circuit, is there? The really weird thing is... the background does NOT shift! And this is supposed to be a "CIRCUIT"? The circuits aren't that hard to start with, and the enemies do rubber-band (i.e. they get a bonus if you're ahead, and penalty if you're behind). The problem is you aren't warned of incoming shots or such, so you're just driving along, and suddenly you "die" as you reset onto the road. ARGH!

Sorry, but this game stinks about as bad as the old one. 6.0, and that's being generous. You can find much better racers. Even the Monkey Kart Racing is better than this one.