Review: Crash speeds onto the iPhone raceway
iPod Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D • Racing • Vivendi Universal • Buy It
From it’s humble beginnings on the PSone, the Crash Nitro Kart series has always offered a fun alternative to Mario Kart, and this iPod iteration is no exception.
Featuring 12 tracks and 6 characters from the long-running series, CBNK3D has all the frills of a console title packed into one little package. Racing environments include Crash’s jungle habitat, Cortex inspired space stations, Egyptian plains and a lollipop-laden candy land. Initially only Crash and Dr. Neo Cortex are unlocked, but by collecting the CRASH letters which are scattered around tracks you can open up the rest of the crew. The game’s cup mode challenges you to compete in a trio of four race championships of increasing difficulty. Once those are out of the way, the story mode opens up a whole new series of events that will task you with various goals such as bombing Dr. Cortex three times while finishing the race in first place. Unfortunately, the game is devoid of any multiplayer modes which means this is strictly a solo experience. Overall though, there’s more than enough game play here to warrant the $5.99 price tag.
However, all of that wouldn’t matter if the game play itself wasn’t fun and fortunately, it is. It might take a few laps to get used to the accelerometer controls, but once you get a feel for the steering it becomes easy to concentrate on passing your opponents and nabbing any power-ups you come across. Your racer is constantly on the move which adds a hectic feeling where your reaction time can be the difference between first place and dead last. Although you don’t control the acceleration of your kart, you do have the option to brake and reverse at any point, which is helpful when trying to get missed CRASH letters.
Visually, CBNK3D is one of the iPhone/touch’s most impressive games with graphics comparable to the PSone’s Crash Team Racing, the first game in the Crash Kart series. Framerates do get a bit sluggish when there’s a lot of action going on, but not enough to hinder you’re experience.
There might be a few arcade racers on the AppStore that run cheaper than CBNK3D, but for some extra pocket change don’t hesitate to pick up this fun game that should easily keep you occupied for a few hours. Although the lack of a multiplayer mode does hurt it a bit, this is still a great title that deserves to be in any iPhone/touch gamer’s collection.
RATED 4 out of 5 | Version 0.7.6 Reviewed
February 26, 2009 at 8:08 am
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