BA4 - Creating Coherent Worlds

Contextual studies 

CTR Crash Team Racing (1999)

1. How is the game structured? Does it have levels?

There is a single player story mode, where you start on a central island, or ‘hub’ from which; you can choose to participate in races of your choice. You drive onto a teleportation pad, and the game whisks you away into another part of the same world to play the race. You go onto unlock new ‘hubs’ by completing levels and beating bosses. There is also battle, time trial and arcade mode, which are not directly joined to the narrative story in single player, rather they are there for people to enjoy together as a group, in a lighter spirit of play.

2.Do you have to follow a set path to complete the game? How much freedom do you have to explore the game world?

CTR is more about having fun racing, as opposed to a deep, immersive narrative. To ‘complete’ the game, requires the player to win each race, and finally race and win against a boss character. But to complete the game 100%, the player must, in addition, collect all the CTR tokens, Relics, Gems and beat each track in Time Trial mode.  The entire game is assumed to be present day Earth, although this isn’t really important for exposition or gameplay. Exploration of the game world is very limited in some senses. You must complete the majority of the game in a strict order, and don’t really have a chance to explore the world by yourself. There is some choice however; you can drive around the ‘hubs’ of the game, indefinitely. The ‘hubs’ are each supposed to represent some portion of the Crash Bandicoot world.

3.What does your game look like? What is the visual feel?

The style is typical of previous Crash Bandicoot titles, in that it’s very cartoony. The game is primarily aimed at children; therefore the art style is friendly, fun and comedic. 

4.How do the visuals affect the player?

The visuals are a reflection of the nature and tone of the gameplay. The visuals are exciting, they encourage the player to keep playing. In the past, Crash Bandicoot has been a 3d  platforming game. The player assumes the role of Crash, running through levels etc. In CTR, players of previous Crash games suddenly find themselves with Crash now strapped into a 'Kart', unable to move in the same sense he did in the previous games. But this is a vital change due to the nature of the game.