AppSmile.com review of the iPhone App Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D

Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D was released for the iPhone OS by Vivendi Games on September 25th, 2008. As of this writing it has received no updates and is still at release 0.7.6.

Nitro Kart is one of the earliest released racing games for the iPhone OS. Overall it gives a proper kart racing experience in the spirit of the Mario Kart series for Nintendo.

The game presents you with 12 race tracks that are unlocked according to your success as you progress through the game. You can also unlock characters to race with. The tracks offer good features (items/weapons and obstacles) and get more difficult the farther along you are in the game. We found the racing to provide an adequate amount of difficulty that will guarantee your interest in returning to the game after your initial download.

All steering controls are handled by the iPhone’s accelerometer and you can brake and throw your car into reverse by touching at the bottom of the screen. Jumping over obstacles is accomplished by taping the upper right of left side of the screen. Touching the lower right screen will activate any items you’ve collected.

As you race on each track (or circuit) you can collect items placed throughout the course. Items can be used against opponents and include TNT, Missiles, Speed Boost, Trophy Clock, Bombs, Shield, Kart Jacking (switches your position with the car in front of you), Cursed Candle, Aku-Aku (Speed Boost), Oil Can, and C.R.A.S.H. Letters which give you bonus points. We think Vivendi did a great job providing so many variables to enhance the games experience in the Items category. This is probably the closest feature Crash Bandicoot shares with Mario Kart.

Once you have completed the 12 circuits in the Cup mode of racing, you should check out the Story mode. It provides some extended game play by challenging you to drive the same tracks, but this time trying to foil the evil plans of Oxide and Dr. Cortex (Crash’s Arch Enemies).

Here is a list of what we like and dislike about Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D.

Nitro Kart Features We Like:

• Bright and colorful graphics
• Responsive controls
• Mario Kart like experience
• Collectable items/weapons
• Over-all game play speed
• 3 Modes (Cup, Story, and Time Trial)
• Pretty good and memorable music

Nitro Kart Features Needing Improvement:

• No updates since release
• With no touch-to-accelerate controls, screen will auto-dim during game play
• Characters have expressionless faces
• Only 3 Cups (12 tracks)
• Other iPhone games are displaying better graphics
• Cannot listen to iTunes while playing
• Long splash screen at game start-up
• Ugly Mini Map during race

We think you’ll like the experience provided with Nitro Kart. The graphics are bright and happy and the characters are pretty cool. Vivendi also included some memorable music and other great features. We wish that Vivendi would release some updates to the games (maybe new tracks or better character animations), but as it is you should get some satisfying play time from this title.

We give Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D our 4-Dimple rating: