• wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    7 months

    Something to remember is that CTR came out three years later than MK64. That was a lot of time for that generation of games.

    That said, I remember not liking CTR as a kid because while it had more depth, the friend who had it had put a ton of time into the campaign so I had no chance of keeping up with him trying to pick it up casually through the occasional multiplayer match.

    • riquisimo@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      7 months

      CTR had two methods of play:

      1. Casually playing a kart game and using fun items.

      2. Learning the mechanics of nitro reserves to maintain a high top speed for as long as possible.

      You start at 1 until you realize 2 exists.

      • MoreZombies@quokk.auEnglish
        7 months

        I don’t think nitro reserves were a mechanic in the original CTR

          • MoreZombies@quokk.auEnglish
            7 months

            Appreciate that! I don’t recall there ever being anything explaining that in the game - I played through it and unlocked all the characters, beat the Tropy ghosts and some of the Oxide ghosts, but never heard of this stuff the entire time.

            • riquisimo@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
              7 months

              I didn’t know about it either, but when I heard about it before nitro fueled released I knew what they were talking about.

              It was more of something I felt but didn’t fully grasp at the time. Like a “boost as much as possible and the boost gets way better” thing.

  • Instigate@aussie.zoneEnglish
    7 months

    Diddy Kong Racing was the best racing game of this era and yes, I am most definitely willing to die on this hill.

    • ouRKaoS@lemmy.todayEnglish
      7 months

      I will join you to die on the hill, as long as the hill is made of Wizpig’s lifeless corpse…

    • LunatiQue Goddess @lemmy.worldBannedEnglish
      7 months

      I actually played that. Didn’t it have a boat mechanic where the karts would turn into inflatable tubes with rockets or something?

      • Instigate@aussie.zoneEnglish
        7 months

        Essentially, yeah! There were three driving modes - kart, hovercraft, and plane. Some tracks only allowed certain driving modes and you would pick your driving mode before the race started. It was pretty novel for the era!

        • bitwolf@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          7 months

          Oh wow, Nintendo was really early in that! I thought that was just introduced in MK7

  • Aielman15@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7 months

    I suppose it depends heavily on nostalgia.

    I have no attachment to Nintendo brands nor Mario Kart in particular. My sister bought a Mario Kart Wii game a few years back and I didn’t care much for it. Having grown up with CTR on PS1, and Spyro and Crash as platformers, I immensely enjoyed the remake.

    I like how the kart handles, and the turbo mechanic is a lot of fun and has a lot of depth. But I suppose that MK fans have other things they enjoy from their franchise.

      • riquisimo@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        7 months

        CTR had much more depth.

        CTR also rewarded you for understanding the mechanics more. Some boost pads gave you a boost with a higher top speed (blue flame). If you knew how to maintain a boost, you could maintain that blue-flame boost indefinitely.

        It’s just that to do that you had to hit nearly every boost pad, triple boost at nearly every corner, and avoid all the obstacles (including touching walls). It’s hard to maintain it, but even maintaining it for a little bit can really launch you towards the front.

  • MrFinnbean@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7 months

    CTR has so much higher skill ceiling it changes the game completely when comparing to other kart games.

    In Mario Kart difference between good player and great player is pretty minor and they can both enjoy playing against eachother.

    In CTR good player can think they are playing perfectly, but still they are going to get lapped by great players.

    I personaly loved CTR, but playing with friends that havent played it meant nobody is going to have goodtime.

    • ChapulinColorado@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7 months

      Both my cousin and I had the game. Every time we get together we play Mario Kart (SNES) or CTR. CTR feels like Mario kart 8 in a lot of ways with the wide controllable drifts and triple boosts. It was ahead of it’s time for sure, especially for a first entry. I can’t say I’ve enjoyed the sequels as much. Even the remake does not play as well, especially on the sewer level from what I recall.

  • rocci@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    7 months

    Crash Team Racing is a great game, and I certainly enjoyed it more than Mario Kart 64 (I was never a fan of MK64 though to be fair). The campaign mode was super cool and kept the game fresh.

  • kadu@scribe.disroot.orgEnglish
    7 months

    I want to understand why the hell CTR is not on Steam already. The trilogy remake is on PC, Crash 4 is on PC, and CTR was even ported to the Switch - so clearly they have no trouble porting the game to weird architectures. GIVE ME CTR ON PC.

  • _donnadie_@feddit.clEnglish
    7 months

    CTR feels a lot better. While I’ve had fun playing Mario Kart with friends, CTR feels a lot more fun to master and adds a lot more challenge to its courses.

  • jqubed@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7 months

    My experience was only playing at friends’ houses who had Play Stations, but I never felt like one was better than the other. I appreciated the mechanic of upgrading items helped to give a different element to the game instead of it being the same thing Nintendo was doing but with different characters. What we really played a lot with friends, though, was Battle Mode on Mario Kart. I don’t think CTR had that, or else no one thought it was as good. It really hasn’t been as good in Mario Kart either since the Wii version I’d say.

  • LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    7 months

    Oh yeah for sure. I still go back and play the main story mode of Crash Team Racing every year as a ritual, on the other hand I’ve literally never played mario kart so the answer is obvious.

  • bitwolf@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    7 months

    Funny you bring it up. When Mario Kart introduced the coins, I immediately thought of the Wumpa Fruits in even the first CTR.

    I read it as Nintendo running out of ideas. But it seems the Switch 2 Mario Kart adding the cross country game mode is somewhat more novel than the coins.

    • cfi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7 months

      Coins were part of the original Super Mario Kart, they disappeared after that

    • LunatiQue Goddess @lemmy.worldBannedEnglish
      7 months

      Just took 26 years. Lol Nintendo doesn’t put much effort into their games anymore. I checked out the new Pokemon game and it was so soulless