CTR will be turning in its grave. CNK is not a quality sequel to the original but more of a shameless rip off.
Then Naughty dog sold the Crash Bandicoot franchise to Universal Interactive. Four years after the release of CTR, Universal Interactive and Vicarious Visions announced a follow up to CTR. Can I just say firstly that Crash Nitro Kart is a shameless rip off of the original and that I am thankfull that they did not name it CTR2.
The story is not very good, but that is to be expected of a racing game. It seems to have the same pattern as the original so its a bit 'been there, done that'. Basically you are forced to race by Veo (or Nitrous Oxide if playing CTR) otherwise he will destroy (or turn into a parking lot if playing CTR) the earth. So theres nothing new there.
This game is so badly put together that it has to load the loading screen. After selecting a race, you will get a window saying 'starting race' and then after that a loading screen. If it was actually doing what it was saying then it would not require the second loading screen.
Vicarous Visions have tried to make Crash Nitro Kart feel as much like an upgraded version of CTR. In my opinion they are just pissing on CTR's grave because they over do the cartoon feel.
The sound really is the final nail on the coffin. To the corny soundtrack and the characters shouting out really bad racing movie quotes or the just plain annoying Dingo-dile, who has a really over the top bad Australian accent.
To summarize don't buy this game if you have fond memories of CTR for the Playstation 1. Universal Interactive and Vicarious visions have ruined my fond childhood memories and have destroyed what was let of the respect i had for the franchise.