Activision has announced that a Crash Team Racing remaster is real, and it already has a release date.
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is due out on June 21, 2019 for PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, confirmed by Activision at The Game Awards after a match with orange dice was held this week.
Nitro-Fueled is developed by Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions devs Beenox Interactive and brings back all original content from the original PlayStation CTR, built from the ground up with new visuals and audio. All characters, circuits and arenas will return, with Adventure, Arcade Single and Cup Race, Time Trials and Battle modes all returning. Nitro-Fueled will also feature online multiplayer for these modes.
Building on work done on Crash Bandicoot from the Vicarious Visions: N. Sane Trilogy, the visuals for Nitro-Fueled should be familiar to players from the remakes of the trilogy, and it was largely Beenox's effort to stay true to the original experience.
"We booted up our PS1 and started playing Crash Team Racing again, getting a feel for what that experience was like and what the game was like that we fell in love with in the first place," Beenox's Thomas Wilson told IGN ahead of the announcement, citing the authenticity of the original experience as a key part of the remaster's development.
"What we do is make sure that when we're fine-tuning the controls, it feels right for the people who fell in love with the game in the first place and it feels right for newcomers."
Wilson also told IGN Beenox the plans for Nitro-Fueled's audio component, for those wondering if their score will be intact.
"We wanted to keep [the sounds of CTR] as close as possible, so we're remastering the original soundtrack," he said.
Added to the game will be the addition to play as villain Nitros Oxide, which is unlockable through adventure mode challenges. Players can also purchase the Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled - Nitros Oxide digital deluxe edition, which will unlock Nitros, his Hovercraft kart, space-themed character skins for Crash, Coco, Cortex, and more.
The standard edition of Nitro-Fueled will cost $ 39.99, while the Nitros Oxide edition will cost $ 59.99.
For more on the latest Activision remakes, check out our review of the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane trilogy, as well as the Spyro Reignited Trilogy.
