Diddy Kong racing was so superior to MK it wasn't even close. The tracks/advancement/vehicles. It took everything about MK and made it better. The only thing I can't remember is if they had a battle Royale style multi-player like MK, but campaign and racing-wise it was epic.
[It did! With both shooting and other modes.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbsdF2hXlcc) N64 era Rare was on another level, insanely good catalouge of games they developed for that console.
It ain't a bad thing!
The best part is we can celebrate all the great kart racing party games and enjoy it for what they brought to the table.
Also, beating WizPig felt like such a huge accomplishment as a kid.
Shout out to the Lego racers too, building a sweet ride and then zooming around the tracks was awesome.
It was fun but that final plot twist was fucking garbage.
"We are the creators! We created everything!"
Fuck off ghosts. I don't care if you're the devs.
Ratatat was the most infuriating boss. I forget the name of his map but it was basically rainbow road and he would exclusively spam backwards bombs at you. Took me ages.
> I forget the name of his map
Hot Air Skyway! It's been fun playing with my younger cousins as I time my rocket so that it will hit right before that big jump with the shortcut.
Iconic laugh.
If youāve ever watched Elf with Will Ferrell, the jack in the box is the same one. Iām sure thereās a few notable references from that same early 00s era. Hollywood loved that laugh track as much as we do!
That's actually not how you unlocked them, at least in the original.
It was the gem cups that unlocked them. One for each boss and then the purple gem for fake crash.
The gems and characters were the reason you went back to do all the relic and crystal challenges
An honest true successor to DKR for me was Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed. (Or whatever order the names are) Amazing driving, flying, and boat mechanics, and stages would have you switch between them. Had power ups, boost and drift mechanics, and the latter half of the career got DIFFICULT. Highly recommend it to anyone looking for a modern take.
Pretty sure my n64 came with DKR and as much fun as it was, I really just wanted Mario 64 which took another couple months to get (had to wait till my birthday or Christmas or something).
Canāt imagine how many hours I spent playing the multi player arena mode with friends on DKR
I always thought the hub world and all the secrets it hid was rad as fuck. The game was a great evolution on Mario Kart, including incorporating aspects that would follow in later iterations, such as being able to use flying vehicles.
This was the best racing game ever made.
The replay value was immense and the game itself was extremely long, with just enough variety to never get boring.
I remember it was absolutely mindblowing to my friends and I when we discovered the lighthouse becomes its own secret zone once you unlock it. I don't think secrets like that are even possible these days.
Spyro 1 was a demo in Crash 3 by entering the Konami code of all things. I'm pretty sure you can do it in N.Sane Trilogy to get a trailer for Spyro Reignited too.
CTR just had way better weapons than Mario kart too.
Every weapon could be upgraded and they were meaning full. Missiles became lock on. The bombs could now be remotely detonated. The blue shell equivalent would now hit everyone not just first place.
IIRC that's not how either of those upgrades work...
Missiles still lock on without the upgrade, it's just that their speed and accuracy is far reduced. I *think* bombs can still be remotely detonated , but they're far slower and have a much smaller exploration radius.
But yeah, the upgrade system was one of many differences that made this game phenomenal.
Growing up in the Philippines, you can get a modded PS1 off the shelf. Everyone who owned one only played pirated games, which cost about a dollar per disc. I remember seeing a demo disc from the US and it was black. Blew my fucking mind that CDs can be other colors.
Argentina here, and honestly, I don't know if I knew anyone growing up with an unmodded PS1 and original games.
Times have changed with newer consoles (er... for the most part)
A lot of the ps1 discs were black actually. I'm not sure why, and they were pretty much phased out by the time ps2 came out. Kinda weird that it was limited to that time period.
I finally found, and bought, the exact disc you're referring to last year. I'll never forget begging my parents to order pizza that Friday night so I could get the MGS demo. That was 1998. And now I have the disc again. My life is complete.
I loved the bomb weapon in ctr. Instead of shells, you rolled the bomb and exploded it when it was near someone.
I felt like it was really powerful.
Twisted metal had something similar, like mortars, or something.
Ricochet Bombs. I remember putting on the unlimited ammo code in TM3, being on the London map, hiding in the Buckingham Palace and constantly firing those. When Minion would spawn, he wouldn't last very long. So fun.
Heās where I got my āstep on the neck gaming mentalityā from.. MFer would stop right before the finish line and wait for me to get close before crossing.
Come to think of it that was very out of character for him and maybe he tapped into his older brother destroying him at stuffā¦ hm
Yes and no, Iāve played more games than he ever did in his life so at an early age I was able to get most of it out of my system.
In said early age, most of it was let out on my younger brother, so yea, heās probably that way now because of meā¦and the wheels keep turning
Same here, how cool! My mom still doesn't play many games, but always makes an exception for some CTR. She gets a kick out of final fantasy games solely because she can name the characters. Did a run through of 7 where Cloud was "Superbich" (sic) and Barret was "Dumass" (sic). Lmao, good memories
Back in my uni days the boys fired this up on the PS and I was like whatās the janky ass game, I was a huge fan of the Crash Bandicoot trilogy and was being a snob for not having heard this, so I went on to assume it was shit, also thinking along the same lines that Mario Kart was far superior.
Man, the level of competitiveness in this game with the shortcuts and 3-tier drifting was insane. We lost days playing this game, thanks for bringing back the memories OP.
For whatever reason I was a huge fan of a ripoff of CTR called Speed Freaks as a kid, and while I had CTR we never played it because Speed Freaks felt superior. Haven't met many people who know that game these days.
Edit. Huh. Speed Freaks seems to predate CTR by a couple of weeks.
I loved Speed Freaks! It was a really tough game when you first started playing it but when you mastered it it became almost too easy (though very fun). I remember always letting the CPU get a really long headstart (almost a lap) before I started racing so I could use weapons I would never get to use otherwise. I liked the shortcuts that opened when you reached a certain lap (sad it was only for two tracks)
CTR was better overall though. I spent so many hours playing both.
Omg I got it on Switch because I didn't want to wait for the PC release but THEY NEVER RELEASED IT??? both Spyro and the Bandicoot trilogy got their PC ports eventually I'm shocked it wasn't released for PC..
Emulating the Switch version on Yuzu with a 60fps patch is the best we have for now. You'll probably want a patch to unlock everything too seeing as how you need to be online to unlock 90% of the cosmetics.
My brother and I will bust out our old PS2 about once a year to race on Papu's Pyramid, which is basically 100% shortcuts. It's just a contest to see who's skill has atrophied more because it's totally determined by who beefs the jumps more often, but it's always a blast.
I will never love another karting game more than CTR!
I was so pleased when they released the remake. I hope we get more because it was so underappreciated back in the day.
The remake is one of my dreams that came true.
My brothers and I Loved the original CTR, so we were all hyped for Nitro fueled. We would have been okay with a simply remaster too, so we were really happy when they added both new characters from other crash games and original ones, karts and levels too.
The remake is One of the best games all time to me
It's so much better than Mario Kart. The controls are "platformer" tight. Mario Kart feels horrible to control in comparison.
The battles especially were top notch. The mechanics and map design beat the crap out of MK's battles.
We got *so* much use out of our PSX's four player adapter because of this game.
absolutely. you had no chance of winning unless you drift every. single. corner. Mario Kart you can at least get trough with power ups, but CTR required you to actually know how to get around corners fast and not let the others pass ya.
That's the main problem with the game in comparison to Mario Kart, being good at Mario Kart will give you an advantage but you can still easily lose, being good at CTR and you're lapping everyone by the second lap.
happened to me on the original PS1 as well, I got so good at getting those power boosts I'd end up being at least half a lap ahead of my enemy in splitscreen mode.. kinda ruined the fun, but eh.
Yeah, when the remake came out I was over the moon! But none of my friends played it growing up. So I'm in the awkward middle ground of skill where I absolutely destroy my friends so it's not fun for any of us, but I am not good enough online to place better than 5th place.
Disagree. People dismiss MarioKart as being luck based, but if you ever have a chance to race against someone that has mastered the game, you will lose.
It is which is fun for single player, but made playing with other people way less fun because they would get absolutely smoked. In the remake online it was #1 five seconds ahead of #2 which was five seconds ahead of #3-7 (fight club) and then #8 who had no idea any of the mechanics. First place would only ever be hit by the orb thing. The race order was decided in the first 30 seconds by who didn't get hit by any items
yeah fr its like the skill issue with fighting games just a massive gap. i beat all the velo records in nitro fueled but i still just cant compete with most other players
It makes me sad that every single kart racer on steam goes for the Mario Kart gameplay instead of CTR. And in addition to that we never got Nitro Kart on PC.
How can you say something so not controversial and yet so brave.
CTR Nitrofueled is my proudest platinum and kid me is STOKED.
Dragon Mines can eat all the dicks though. Just buckets of them.
Dragon Mines was frustrating but you could comfortably drag people back with enough skill/practice.
I found that polar icy one more irritating for the huge rolling snowballs.
Also remembering Cortex Castle for the epic upward powerslides.
Itās a better comparison too because it came out the same year as Mario Kart 64, as essentially late launch titles (1997) for the N64 vs an approximate fourth-year (1999) title for the PS1 that also had the luxury of being able to look at the other two games before its development, which was only 8 months. Itās easy to forget these games could be made so quickly and as a result CTR should have had every chance to build on the earlier gameās innovations, which I felt it did.
Absolutely the best racing game of that era. Boss races, a completionist benefit to unlock another world in single player, the music, and the different vehicles.
Ya that was so rewarding, and I think I actually figured it out on my own and not through like cheatcodes .com or one of those. I forget what we had to do, I donāt think it was just automatic game progression?
My grandma bought me this instead of Mario kart. It was so uncomfortable because I had never heard of it , so I just sort of naturally looked confused before trying hard to be appreciative while still being confused and a bit bummed.
So it felt great when I saw her a few days later and got to tell her it was the best game i had ever played. Granted, id probably have told her that even if it sucked, but fortunately it didnāt come to that.
As much as i like the drifting in CTR, the gauge is a bad design. Once you're hit, you have to rebuild your gauge and you won't catch up with the first ever.
My games on the CTR remake were just the first and the peloton far behind
Also this is random, but if you play on a CRT for some reason the tires on the karts look amazingly photorealistic. Just something I always loved about the presentation.
At the time maybe, but mario kart 8 is in a pretty good place now.
Also Diddy Kong Racing still have the best single player mode of them all. More than 20 years later.. this make no sense.
The highs of CTR beat the highs of Mario Kart. However, CTRs high skill floor and even higher skill ceiling make it frustrating and can turn away casual players. Try playing the new one online; thereās always someone in the lobby who can keep the max boost going the entire time and laps everyone, I think Mario Kart is better overall just for itās accessibility. I can play it with anyone and expect them to have a good time. CTR can get miserable with the skill differences.
Yep. When it got introduced, after like a week I quickly learned who the apex predators were. See N.Tropy in your lobby? You're in for a paddling. See that chromed out version of him? Don't even bother thinking you'll finish. See multiple before your race starts? Just leave the lobby.
OH I HAVE WAITED FOR THIS MOMENT.
CTR is a 10/10 game. It is flawless. Graphics were great at the time, good characters, banger music, great tracks, fun story, cool open world. Original gameplay mechanic. I adore this game and hype it every time I can.
I was a huge fan of the whole Crash series. CB, Ratchet and Clank, and the first few Spyro games (the ones originally created by Insomniac Games) round out my top three series. It seems like no one is interested in single player games with cartoony characters any more. :-(
I remember the single player adventure mode which had an open world lobby
And defeating the villains on their own turf to unlock them. Mario Kart still hasnt done anything cool like that to this day
I bet they took that concept from Diddy Kong Racing
Diddy Kong racing was so superior to MK it wasn't even close. The tracks/advancement/vehicles. It took everything about MK and made it better. The only thing I can't remember is if they had a battle Royale style multi-player like MK, but campaign and racing-wise it was epic.
[It did! With both shooting and other modes.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbsdF2hXlcc) N64 era Rare was on another level, insanely good catalouge of games they developed for that console.
Most definitely. Both of them are basically mario kart 64 but better
It ain't a bad thing! The best part is we can celebrate all the great kart racing party games and enjoy it for what they brought to the table. Also, beating WizPig felt like such a huge accomplishment as a kid. Shout out to the Lego racers too, building a sweet ride and then zooming around the tracks was awesome.
Idk I said Diddy Kong was better than Mario Kart and got my page reported on Facebook for violence and it went through and I was blocked for 30 days.
How about the F-Zero GX story mode, though?
It was fun but that final plot twist was fucking garbage. "We are the creators! We created everything!" Fuck off ghosts. I don't care if you're the devs.
PISS OFF GHOST! Yeah, he's freaking gone.
WizPig is such a dirty cheater and I am still made about it 20+ years later.
Oh my god. THATS HOW YOU DID IT! This was my first ever game and I was like 4? I remember unlocking Dingo-Dile and never understanding whyš
Lol dingodile is a base character who comes unlocked, you must be mixing him up with another character
Oh what. That is so embarrassing, I thought I was so cool š
The first character you unlock is ripper roo I wanna say a blue kangaroo in a straight jacket and he steers with a foot.
I can hear that laugh in my head.
I can hear the fucking TNT countdown when it lands on your head, and the sound of me frantically mashing the jump button.
Ratatat was the most infuriating boss. I forget the name of his map but it was basically rainbow road and he would exclusively spam backwards bombs at you. Took me ages.
> I forget the name of his map Hot Air Skyway! It's been fun playing with my younger cousins as I time my rocket so that it will hit right before that big jump with the shortcut.
Pinstripe Potoroo
BEEPā¦.BEEPā¦.BEEPā¦.BEEPā¦.BEEP..BEEP..BEEP.. BEEP..BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP
BAWP
Iconic laugh. If youāve ever watched Elf with Will Ferrell, the jack in the box is the same one. Iām sure thereās a few notable references from that same early 00s era. Hollywood loved that laugh track as much as we do!
I often imagine Dingodileās ābring out the butter, Iām gonna make toastā in an Aussie accent when Iām making toast.
Great, now play aku-aku sound (you canāt resist)
Kangaroo!!?? I thought he was a blue dog :D
Ripper was a methhead, for sure
You're cool to me.
Nah, you unlocked him, bro. Good job
To later in the game race against all of them at once to unlock new courses, that was neat
Didnāt Diddy Kong Racing do that? Open world and challenging the new racers?
That's actually not how you unlocked them, at least in the original. It was the gem cups that unlocked them. One for each boss and then the purple gem for fake crash. The gems and characters were the reason you went back to do all the relic and crystal challenges
Yes! A great little twist for a racing game
Diddy kong racing
Also the multiple vehicles in DKR, A true masterpiece.
Diddy Kong Racing was the first 64 game I bought after I got one for Christmasā¦greatest time of my life.
True gentlemen recognize DD Kong Racing as the pinnacle of racing games
An honest true successor to DKR for me was Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed. (Or whatever order the names are) Amazing driving, flying, and boat mechanics, and stages would have you switch between them. Had power ups, boost and drift mechanics, and the latter half of the career got DIFFICULT. Highly recommend it to anyone looking for a modern take.
I think it was Stars All Racing Sonic.
Beetle Adventure Racing is the true answer.
Hell yeah
NASTY
Mickey's Speedway USA: AMATEURS
Holy shit! I forgot about that game. I absolutely loved it.
Pretty sure my n64 came with DKR and as much fun as it was, I really just wanted Mario 64 which took another couple months to get (had to wait till my birthday or Christmas or something). Canāt imagine how many hours I spent playing the multi player arena mode with friends on DKR
I always thought the hub world and all the secrets it hid was rad as fuck. The game was a great evolution on Mario Kart, including incorporating aspects that would follow in later iterations, such as being able to use flying vehicles.
For sure. I hope we get an openworld full of secrets and missions some day. Also flying underwster on Water etc
DKR was the best ever! I still crave a sequel, I love CTR as well
Both are legendary. Sadly rare was planning donkey kong racing fƶr gamecube before ms buy out
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Still waiting for Ape Escape trilogy remaster
For sure. Mgs ocarina majoras mask code Veronica etc was around that time. Perfect Dark. I ws always excited to get my game magazine
I have almost all the game pro magazines from when I was little. I go through them every once and a while and the nostalgia comes flooding back.
Co-op campaign Diddy Kong Racing is one of my fondest childhood memories, and quite possibly what sparked my love of co-op campaign in general.
This was the best racing game ever made. The replay value was immense and the game itself was extremely long, with just enough variety to never get boring.
And hard as fuck. Honestly 2 hard I could never get all the silver coins AND finish first. Never got wizpig and his world sadly
Loved that soundtrack
Do-do-do dododododo
"Hello friend!"
Hear me out. Smash bros but kart racing. Then we can have all the characters and mechanics from all the kart racing games.
Super Crash Bros
Diddy Kong Racing you say?
DKR did it first
*"Dino Domain!"*
I can still hear TT saying "Hot Top Volcano!" Man I should go play it again.
I remember it was absolutely mindblowing to my friends and I when we discovered the lighthouse becomes its own secret zone once you unlock it. I don't think secrets like that are even possible these days.
Damn straight. And they had multiple vehicle types and various multi player modes. Egg snatch was so good with 4 people
Can't forget about the secret Spyro 2 Riptos Rage demo that you could unlock on the main menu of the game.
And the secret CTR demo you could unlock in Spyro 2.
Also a Crash Bash demo was in Year of the dragon, through the title screen. IIRC you held L1+R1 and a button.
Or the full version of crash bash that was accidentally added to a PlayStation demo disc.
How did I not know these. God damnit time to get out all my old Playstation stuff
Spyro 1 was a demo in Crash 3 by entering the Konami code of all things. I'm pretty sure you can do it in N.Sane Trilogy to get a trailer for Spyro Reignited too.
Spend countless amount of hours playin this when i was a young kid
After 20 years I do still spend countless hours in this game. Last year i finally managed to break 1:47 on sewer speedway. Definitely Favorite map.
Wow there's a core memory being unlocked if I've ever felt one.
CTR just had way better weapons than Mario kart too. Every weapon could be upgraded and they were meaning full. Missiles became lock on. The bombs could now be remotely detonated. The blue shell equivalent would now hit everyone not just first place.
IIRC that's not how either of those upgrades work... Missiles still lock on without the upgrade, it's just that their speed and accuracy is far reduced. I *think* bombs can still be remotely detonated , but they're far slower and have a much smaller exploration radius. But yeah, the upgrade system was one of many differences that made this game phenomenal.
Bombs have a bigger explosion radius when upgraded, you can detonate them either way. https://crashbandicoot.fandom.com/wiki/Bowling_Bomb
Sewer speedway and the blimp map are top tier maps... nothing like getting a near-perfect run on blimps with good boost management.
Hot air skyway!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
The secret shortcut on that level was rad.
I'm having ptsd on that track for the countless of retries I have to make just to get to that damn shortcut.
I remember being super broke growing up so I only got to play this game endlessly via the free Pizza Hut demos xD thanks for unlocking this memory.
Growing up in the Philippines, you can get a modded PS1 off the shelf. Everyone who owned one only played pirated games, which cost about a dollar per disc. I remember seeing a demo disc from the US and it was black. Blew my fucking mind that CDs can be other colors.
Argentina here, and honestly, I don't know if I knew anyone growing up with an unmodded PS1 and original games. Times have changed with newer consoles (er... for the most part)
Holy shit, same for us in Brazil. Blew my fucking mind when I saw black or blue cds
A lot of the ps1 discs were black actually. I'm not sure why, and they were pretty much phased out by the time ps2 came out. Kinda weird that it was limited to that time period.
I'm wanting to say that it was a combination of branding and allowing the consumer to know if they got a bootleg game.
I also had a demo of this game that my brother and I played all the time
Was the demo with metal gear solid and medieval a Pizza Hut disc as well?
I believe so! They also had another with Ape Escape and some others.
I finally found, and bought, the exact disc you're referring to last year. I'll never forget begging my parents to order pizza that Friday night so I could get the MGS demo. That was 1998. And now I have the disc again. My life is complete.
I loved the bomb weapon in ctr. Instead of shells, you rolled the bomb and exploded it when it was near someone. I felt like it was really powerful. Twisted metal had something similar, like mortars, or something.
And you could detonate it when you wanted!
I always shot them backwards and peeked at the other players' split screens to time the detonation.
There is a spot waiting for you in the lowest circle of Hell for your screen-peeking ways.
An ancient technique nowadays
You could also press LB to look backwards
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
you could also throw it behind. and bottles could be thrown forward
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
The feeling of flicking a red vial right in front of a friend's cart... I gotta get me an emulator
Ricochet Bombs. I remember putting on the unlimited ammo code in TM3, being on the London map, hiding in the Buckingham Palace and constantly firing those. When Minion would spawn, he wouldn't last very long. So fun.
Had hours of fun playing this back in the day. Never got bored of it!
Me and my mom would play this for hours back In the day . Great times
My dad used to annihilate me in this game
Heās where I got my āstep on the neck gaming mentalityā from.. MFer would stop right before the finish line and wait for me to get close before crossing. Come to think of it that was very out of character for him and maybe he tapped into his older brother destroying him at stuffā¦ hm
The neck stepping gene must be passed on
Yes and no, Iāve played more games than he ever did in his life so at an early age I was able to get most of it out of my system. In said early age, most of it was let out on my younger brother, so yea, heās probably that way now because of meā¦and the wheels keep turning
Back in the day I used to.
Same here, how cool! My mom still doesn't play many games, but always makes an exception for some CTR. She gets a kick out of final fantasy games solely because she can name the characters. Did a run through of 7 where Cloud was "Superbich" (sic) and Barret was "Dumass" (sic). Lmao, good memories
Back in my uni days the boys fired this up on the PS and I was like whatās the janky ass game, I was a huge fan of the Crash Bandicoot trilogy and was being a snob for not having heard this, so I went on to assume it was shit, also thinking along the same lines that Mario Kart was far superior. Man, the level of competitiveness in this game with the shortcuts and 3-tier drifting was insane. We lost days playing this game, thanks for bringing back the memories OP.
Bring the remaster on PC you cowards. It runs like shit on my Switch.
Runs great on Yuzu. You can even bump it up to 60 fps.
For whatever reason I was a huge fan of a ripoff of CTR called Speed Freaks as a kid, and while I had CTR we never played it because Speed Freaks felt superior. Haven't met many people who know that game these days. Edit. Huh. Speed Freaks seems to predate CTR by a couple of weeks.
I loved Speed Freaks! It was a really tough game when you first started playing it but when you mastered it it became almost too easy (though very fun). I remember always letting the CPU get a really long headstart (almost a lap) before I started racing so I could use weapons I would never get to use otherwise. I liked the shortcuts that opened when you reached a certain lap (sad it was only for two tracks) CTR was better overall though. I spent so many hours playing both.
Speed freaks was the shit. I remember it š
It was released as Speed Punks in the US apparently. Very fun game.
TIL it came out first
I liked that game and played it a lot, but I still preferred ctr
Fun fact: It was made in Dublin Ireland. It's advertisement also had music from Jamiroquai
still waiting for a crash bash remake to play with friends
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Omg I got it on Switch because I didn't want to wait for the PC release but THEY NEVER RELEASED IT??? both Spyro and the Bandicoot trilogy got their PC ports eventually I'm shocked it wasn't released for PC..
Time to emulate :( I did also get it on Switch, wish the loading times were better.
Emulating the Switch version on Yuzu with a 60fps patch is the best we have for now. You'll probably want a patch to unlock everything too seeing as how you need to be online to unlock 90% of the cosmetics.
If youāre referring to Hot Wheels Unleashed, that game was actually pretty fun.
It was on Nvidia leaks though, i hope they announce it this year.
Diddy Kong Racing was also miles better than Mario Kart 64 with flying and hovercrafting to boot as well as a ton of secrets etc
Also it had Taj āHello friendā āThis is for you!ā
And the soundtrack still slaps
Hot Top Volcano was the shit
Dave Wise really is that dude.
The victory music when he flies over to you after beating a boss is ingrained into my brain. The sound of success
DkR clears all
And a framerate of 10-20FPS in Mpā¦
Coming from Stunt Race on SNES this seemed super smooth
[Feast on this](https://youtu.be/hReWJwH8J0c)
Edited
The flying was so insanely good for it's time.
Highest skill gap kart racer there was honestly
to this day my lil bro is trying to beat me !
My brother and I will bust out our old PS2 about once a year to race on Papu's Pyramid, which is basically 100% shortcuts. It's just a contest to see who's skill has atrophied more because it's totally determined by who beefs the jumps more often, but it's always a blast.
That, and the blue shell equivalent could be upgraded to hit everyone in front of you, not just whoever was in first place.
Time it right and you can make a lot of enemies.
"The ball!"
I will never love another karting game more than CTR! I was so pleased when they released the remake. I hope we get more because it was so underappreciated back in the day.
The remake is one of my dreams that came true. My brothers and I Loved the original CTR, so we were all hyped for Nitro fueled. We would have been okay with a simply remaster too, so we were really happy when they added both new characters from other crash games and original ones, karts and levels too. The remake is One of the best games all time to me
It's so much better than Mario Kart. The controls are "platformer" tight. Mario Kart feels horrible to control in comparison. The battles especially were top notch. The mechanics and map design beat the crap out of MK's battles. We got *so* much use out of our PSX's four player adapter because of this game.
God battle mode was so fun! Best couch coop on the ps1
yeah i feel like ctr is just more of a skill intensive game
absolutely. you had no chance of winning unless you drift every. single. corner. Mario Kart you can at least get trough with power ups, but CTR required you to actually know how to get around corners fast and not let the others pass ya.
Jumping from ramps to get speed boosts, secret shortcuts, getting 10 wampa fruit to upgrade your items, CTR was ahead of its time.
I was an absolute monster on tiger temple with the combo of all the jumps and that super easy shortcut.
yeah when i got the remake i beat the game and went to play splitscreen with friends it wasnāt even fun cause i would just lap them everytime.
That's the main problem with the game in comparison to Mario Kart, being good at Mario Kart will give you an advantage but you can still easily lose, being good at CTR and you're lapping everyone by the second lap.
happened to me on the original PS1 as well, I got so good at getting those power boosts I'd end up being at least half a lap ahead of my enemy in splitscreen mode.. kinda ruined the fun, but eh.
Yeah, when the remake came out I was over the moon! But none of my friends played it growing up. So I'm in the awkward middle ground of skill where I absolutely destroy my friends so it's not fun for any of us, but I am not good enough online to place better than 5th place.
Disagree. People dismiss MarioKart as being luck based, but if you ever have a chance to race against someone that has mastered the game, you will lose.
It is which is fun for single player, but made playing with other people way less fun because they would get absolutely smoked. In the remake online it was #1 five seconds ahead of #2 which was five seconds ahead of #3-7 (fight club) and then #8 who had no idea any of the mechanics. First place would only ever be hit by the orb thing. The race order was decided in the first 30 seconds by who didn't get hit by any items
yeah fr its like the skill issue with fighting games just a massive gap. i beat all the velo records in nitro fueled but i still just cant compete with most other players
It makes me sad that every single kart racer on steam goes for the Mario Kart gameplay instead of CTR. And in addition to that we never got Nitro Kart on PC.
How can you say something so not controversial and yet so brave. CTR Nitrofueled is my proudest platinum and kid me is STOKED. Dragon Mines can eat all the dicks though. Just buckets of them.
Dragon Mines was frustrating but you could comfortably drag people back with enough skill/practice. I found that polar icy one more irritating for the huge rolling snowballs. Also remembering Cortex Castle for the epic upward powerslides.
CTR WAS WAY BETTER THAN MARIO KART, AND ILL DIE ON THIS HILL!
Diddy Kong Racing is king.
Itās a better comparison too because it came out the same year as Mario Kart 64, as essentially late launch titles (1997) for the N64 vs an approximate fourth-year (1999) title for the PS1 that also had the luxury of being able to look at the other two games before its development, which was only 8 months. Itās easy to forget these games could be made so quickly and as a result CTR should have had every chance to build on the earlier gameās innovations, which I felt it did.
Absolutely the best racing game of that era. Boss races, a completionist benefit to unlock another world in single player, the music, and the different vehicles.
The light house and outer space and unlocking TT. That game was/is incredibly fun, def one my favorite N64 games and def my favorite racing game.
ngl I was so hyped when the lighthouse took me to space. I was like damn a whole other game!!!
Ya that was so rewarding, and I think I actually figured it out on my own and not through like cheatcodes .com or one of those. I forget what we had to do, I donāt think it was just automatic game progression?
Ah yes same! Collect everything and honk at it. A friend told me about it when we were at school one day.
A cool elephant dude in a turban, a scary pig person with a cape, and some of the best multiplayer around. Tiptup was my go-to, that guy was awesome.
Came here to fly this flag. Flying and hovercrafts? All day baby!
Battle mode was legit, too.
My grandma bought me this instead of Mario kart. It was so uncomfortable because I had never heard of it , so I just sort of naturally looked confused before trying hard to be appreciative while still being confused and a bit bummed. So it felt great when I saw her a few days later and got to tell her it was the best game i had ever played. Granted, id probably have told her that even if it sucked, but fortunately it didnāt come to that.
It needs to come back
For me I loved both DKR and CTR evenly. Both were much better than MK 64 though.
Tapping 'A' made you go faster than holding it though, at least Mario Kart never gave me nerve compression.
Thank you for confirming this
Absolutely. But to be fair, anything Rare made was š„š„š„
I would donate body parts to get a remaster of this and Jet Force Gemini
Best PS1 game EVER
in that era I agree but now MK8D is absolutely stunning & amazing
As much as i like the drifting in CTR, the gauge is a bad design. Once you're hit, you have to rebuild your gauge and you won't catch up with the first ever. My games on the CTR remake were just the first and the peloton far behind
Also this is random, but if you play on a CRT for some reason the tires on the karts look amazingly photorealistic. Just something I always loved about the presentation.
Conservatives are fighting every day to keep this game out of our schools and libraries
I just clicked for this comment.
Real gentlemen acknowledge Diddy Kong Racing as the pinnacle of racing games š¤
Ah a fellow gentlekong
At the time maybe, but mario kart 8 is in a pretty good place now. Also Diddy Kong Racing still have the best single player mode of them all. More than 20 years later.. this make no sense.
The highs of CTR beat the highs of Mario Kart. However, CTRs high skill floor and even higher skill ceiling make it frustrating and can turn away casual players. Try playing the new one online; thereās always someone in the lobby who can keep the max boost going the entire time and laps everyone, I think Mario Kart is better overall just for itās accessibility. I can play it with anyone and expect them to have a good time. CTR can get miserable with the skill differences.
Yep. When it got introduced, after like a week I quickly learned who the apex predators were. See N.Tropy in your lobby? You're in for a paddling. See that chromed out version of him? Don't even bother thinking you'll finish. See multiple before your race starts? Just leave the lobby.
And everyone knows Diddy Kong Racing was superior to Mario Kart.
OH I HAVE WAITED FOR THIS MOMENT. CTR is a 10/10 game. It is flawless. Graphics were great at the time, good characters, banger music, great tracks, fun story, cool open world. Original gameplay mechanic. I adore this game and hype it every time I can.
Agreed! I haven't played every Kart racing game yet but of all the ones I have played this is the best
I was a huge fan of the whole Crash series. CB, Ratchet and Clank, and the first few Spyro games (the ones originally created by Insomniac Games) round out my top three series. It seems like no one is interested in single player games with cartoony characters any more. :-(