Look this is from IGN:
Crash takes the best parts of Nintendo's Mario Kart and Diddy Kong Racing (which by the way was also fabulously unoriginal), brews them up in to a fresh polygonal world, and puts a Crash Bandicoot face on the kart genre. But the kart formula hasn't changed much here since Mario Kart on the Super NES. Race for first place and tag buddies with as many power-ups as possible to dismantle, destroy, and undermine their chances in every single lap. At the same time, players need to look for shortcuts, learn the ins-and-outs of the courses, and become a better driver, too.
Players can choose from all of the goofy characters in Crash's world, including Crash, Dr, Neo Cortex, Tiny Tiger, Coco Bandicoot, Pura, Polar, Dingodile, N. Gin, plus bonus characters, and play through several play modes. For quick and dirty one-off, players can choose Arcade Single, but if they want to blast through more than 17 of the courses than they should choose Cup, a race that pits you in four races in which the winner gets the best accumulative point score. There are four cups, each with four races in them, and a big winners parade at the end.
Also selectable is Adventure, which mimics Diddy Kong's single-player mode almost perfectly, except they don't get to pilot a plane or a hovercraft (Darn!). Players do, however, get to explore new and freaky areas of Crash's world, from sandy deserts to polar caps to mountainous ranges, too. Each time Crash wins trophies, keys or special icons, he opens up a new course, or an entirely new realm filled with new challenges. Bosses appear at the end of each of the worlds to signify your success in that area.
Another mode to play is Time Trial, which is based solely on time, and then save their best times as a ghost to play against in any future race. Or, when as many as three other friends are available, you can turn to Battle, a multiplayer kart racing section that makes use of the Multitap peripheral.
For those who have played kart games before, and I've played many, CTR pays a lot of attention to the games in its heritage, and in so many ways it excels over them, especially in the technical department. First off, there aren't really any kart games on the PlayStation to compare this game to. The rest all pretty much suck. So I'm going to compare this straight up with Mario Kart 64 and Diddy Kong Racing, the two best on the console circuit. Naughty Dog took apart every aspect of those games, at least that I could see, and made CTR a better game. First, the game is fully polygonal, and the characters are all polygonal, too, something that Mario Kart wasn't, but Diddy Kong was. That basically enhances the game's looks, and gives it a better overall gloss. Diddy Kong, despite its marketing technology called "RDA" (realtime dynamic animation), still suffered from slowdown. CTR suffers from none whatsoever. Not even in multiplayer.
Second, Mario Kart offered several courses based on a variety of racing, dirt bike, kart, street racing, whatever. So does Crash. It's got the frozen, icy levels, the desert levels, your tubular courses, and the floating-in-mid-air courses. What would we do without the obligatory hovering-somewhere-in-the-atmosphere courses? But CTR is riddled with little differences that make the game more enjoyable than your average kart game. Bash though at least one tube section and watch as your kart scrapes the wall, while little fiery sparks fly off. Nice subtle touch. In the icy levels, when any one of the riders hits the actual frozen lake sections, the sliding physics are remarkably realistic, far more than in any kart game on the PlayStation. Grab 10 apples and watch as your arsenal grows more powerful and your speed increases, just like in Diddy Kong. And while taking certain turns, some of the road shoulders are up on another level, and the karts adjust in 3D without a hitch. These are just some of areas Naughty Dog addressed that make CTR a superior kart game.
The list goes on and on, and with at least one exception, I think they're all totally credible. This one is just too damn close for comfort, and it simply must have been left in as a ridiculous joke. When playing as Crash, he says at least two things, one when he's smashed, and another when he is sent spinning. When he spins off, he says, "woah-whoa-whoa-whoa," EXACTLY like the voice of Luigi in Mario Kart. Is that some kind of joke or what?
These are the closing comments:
But most folks have only a few choices come the winter the winter holidays. So, here's the bottom line, all cynicism aside. Like I said in the beginning, once you get past the insanely capitalistic smile of Crash, the game is rock solid in playability and graphics. Hell! It's a four-player kart game that's on the PlayStation. Isn't that enough? I mean, not only that, but none of the problems of the other kart games even exist in this one. So what's all the fuss about? If you want a pure party game -- and the best kart game on PlayStation or Nintendo, for that matter -- get Crash Team Racing.
Now I admit he says some negative things, but I think the final comments really sum it up. Also, CTR got 8.5 on IGN and MK 64 got 8.1.
