This game is good but doesn't have the exact same appeals as the original.
First of all, they cut down the number of tracks from 18 to 13. That's a bad move right from the start, as it doesn't give a lot of choices in the way of tracks. Even if you play all of the courses before playing them over, they do get a bit tiresome. To compensate for this, however, the game makes most of the tracks longer. That's fine, but it still doesn't make up for the lack of tracks. A couple of them do stand out, like Clockwork Wumpa. But most of them just didn't give me a good appeal like the original CTR did.
The storyline is... predictable. There's a bit more in the story now, but it's been done already! Emperor Velo and his subjects are bored and decide to bring Crash and his crew and Cortex and his henchmen into the fray. They must now race for the fate of their planet. A decent thing I like is how the message was sent to Velo. Guess who spilled the beans? None other than Nitros Oxide, the villain of the last game. What bugs me a lot is that you can't play as ANY of the bosses. Well... almost none of them. The good news is that N. Oxide is playable in this one. That's... something, right?
As I mentioned, single-player mode is extremely tiresome. But... grab a few friends and you'll see that this game shines. The strongest thing about this game is the multiplayer. This is where you can battle in so many new ways or race each other for the position of Top Bandicoot. Some new battle features include the ever-popular Capture the Flag and the ever-insane Steal the Bacon! Very good battle mode and it sorta makes up for the overall lack in race mode.
With some other flaws in it, CNK can't hold a candle to the genius of CTR. But it still offers a great kart challenge, and it doesn't steal TOO much from the original Mario Kart formula.