Crash Nitro Kart

Crash Nitro Kart
Also known as: Crash Bandicoot: Bakusou! Nitro Kart (JP) Developer: Vicarious Visions Publishers: Universal Interactive Studios, Konami (JP) Platform: PlayStation 2 Released in JP: July 8, 2004 Released in US: November 11, 2003 Released in EU: November 28, 2003 Released in AU: December 3, 2003 This game has unused modes / minigames. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused abilities. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

This page is rather stubbly and could use some expansion. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue this article?

Crash Nitro Kart is essentially Crash Team Racing 2 in everything but name, right down to the concept of a tyrannical racing-obsessed alien forcing the marsupial, his friends, and his enemies to race for the fate of Earth. There are new karts capable of running on anti-gravity sections, though, because you gotta have something original here.

To do: Rip the Voodoo Doll, early Static Orb and Big Norm icons. There's a couple of unused audio files. The game contains altered character icons in different versions of the game. Rip them for comparison (and completions) sake.

Unused Voice Clips

Velo Mask

Velo mask was planned to have its own quotes during races like Aku Aku or Uka Uka, but for some reason they were cut off in the final version. The reason it was removed is still unknown.

Interestingly, these clips can be loaded in-game if you play as Emperor Velo, as all of the voice clips are present within his audio folder.

Wrong way!

Turn around!

Go the other way!

Wrong direction!

That's not the right way!

Out of bounds!

Do not fail me!

Now, prove your worth!

Now, stay on track this time!

Why do I even bother rescuing you?

Don't attack your own team!

Aim for the enemies!

That's your teammate!

Virtual Lobby

Welcome to the Virtual Lobby. Here you may practice your skills while you wait for the race to start.
When a player joins the game, an icon will appear on the left of the screen.
The game will begin once the host enters the Warp Vortex located in the center of the arena.
To begin a battle you must drive to the center of the arena and enter the warp vortex.
The vortex will take you and any players that have joined, to the level you selected.
To begin a race you must drive to the center of the arena and enter the warp vortex.
The vortex will take you and any players that have joined, to the level you selected.
Press the Start Button to change your level.
Press the Start Button to change your level and other game settings.
The color next to your character icon represents your team color.
To switch to a different team, drive over one of the four colored pads that represent each team color.

A vast portion of the game's text concerns a mode which wasn't even present in the final version, known as the "Virtual Lobby". Judging by the strings found in the game's code, it would've served as an online mode where players can race or battle each other in color-assigned teams. The surviving text is rather comprehensive, implying it went a long way in development prior to getting cut.

Unused Text

A huge amount of unused strings exist in the game's coding, the vast majority of them corresponding to the aforementioned Virtual Lobby that never was. However, there are also a small number of miscellaneous oddities within the code.

NETWORK SETUP
ENTER IP ADDRESS
ENTER NETMASK
ENTER GATEWAY
ENTER DNS
SELECT NETWORK
CHOOSE SERVER
USE PASSWORD
ENTER YOUR SERVER PASSWORD
ENTER PASSWORD FOR SERVER
CHOOSE TEAM
PRESS\nSTART BUTTON\nTO JOIN
NO PASSWORD 
CHANGE SERVER
NAME CHANGE 
PASSWORD ENABLE
SETUP RACE
SETUP BATTLE
SETUP OK net_players_list wrap
CHANGE SETUP
CONNECT
Initializing the network system.
Connecting to network \ninterface
Closing network interface.
Network interface failed to \ninitialize. Check your network \nsettings.
The network link is down. Make \nsure the network cable is \nconnected.
No Ethernet network hardware \nfound.
Detected unsupported network \nhardware
#Failed to initialize networking \nhardware.
LEAVE GAME
WAITING
RACING
CNK SERVER
Scanning for servers . . .
Connecting with server . . .
Failed to connect with server.
Network connection closed.
\nServer shutdown.
Failed to connect.
Server is full.
Network connection timed out \nand closed.
\nInternal buffer overflow.
\nIncorrect password.
ENTERING RACE AS A SPECTATOR...
JOIN (COLOR) TEAM
ENTERING LOBBY WORLD...
THE SERVER HAS SHUTDOWN.\\nRETURNING TO MAIN MENU.
NETWORK CONNECTION LOST.\\nRETURNING TO MAIN MENU.
CHOOSE REGION

As mentioned above, these correspond to the Virtual Lobby.

PLACE HOLDER

An obvious placeholder string with no clear purpose.

CONCEPT ART

This suggests that at one point, Crash Nitro Kart may have gone the way of Crash Twinsanity and included unlockable concept art as one played through the game.

MAKING OF

Perhaps at one point there was to be a "behind the scenes" documentary of sorts showcasing the development of the game?

OUT TAKES (?)

These were very likely intended to be a 100% bonus for finishing both Adventure modes, featuring comedic spins on the CGI cutscenes in the game's story. Time may well have forced their abandonment and it appears not even the developers were sure about their inclusion at the time of when this was written.

Voodoo Doll Item

Demo builds of the game featured a Voodoo Doll power-up which acted very similarly to the "Team Frenzy" boost present in the final, in addition to creating an "angelic" aura around the user. As the Team Frenzy meter builds up over the course of the race in accordance with how well you drive, the excessive power-ups it grants you are well justified, so to have a regular item generate the same effect would likely make it overpowered. As such, its removal in the final appears justified...

...Until glancing through the coding reveals it wasn't actually removed from the game at all – it was merely disabled and still present in the "item cycling" animation after hitting a crate, with cheat codes being able to force the item to appear from the crates scattered around each track. The weapon has unusual yet devastating effects when activated in the final game, cursing the racer in first place by shrinking them as well as slowing them down and distorting their turning, complete with a rain cloud similar to the souped-up Beaker items in Crash Team Racing. On top of that, it also blesses the user by speeding them up while creating the same light effect, only lacking the pseudo Team Frenzy effect from the demo.

It is largely unusual how the item's effect not only differs between the demo and final builds, but that the item is considerably more unbalanced in the final despite not being used.

Cut Battle Arenas

Included with the Battle Courses in the game's files is a string simply known as "ARENA 6". It would seem that a sixth Battle Course was planned, but was never elaborated upon further in development. As each Battle Course is based on each of the four hub worlds, in addition to Velo's Citadel, it is unknown what this arena would have corresponded to. There are also some unusable files for a seventh arena (appropriately called "arena7").

Yellow Gem/Token

Despite the original CTR having Tokens and Gems in five colors (Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Purple) like the previous games, CNK only uses four of them (Red, Blue, Green, Purple). However, this was not always the case. Mentions of the yellow gem and yellow token can be found in a few of the game's files, such as .\common\gameprogression\goalstorewardsconverter.csv:

"# Rewards - trophy, key, relic, token_blue, token_green, token_red, token_purple, token_yellow",,
"# Rewards - gem_blue, gem_green, gem_red, gem_purple, gem_yellow",,

If a warp pad is given a yellow token as one of the rewards for any of the races on it, then it also gains a yellow coloring to its shine, similar to how other tracks have the same color as their token. However, if the rewards are modified, nothing happens if the player collects a yellow token or yellow gem, except for Aku Aku (or Uka Uka) still playing the corresponding congratulatory message.

Early trailers for the game also listed the track count as 17, four more than the final game, which has 13.

Unused Adventure Mode Race Requirement Settings

The requirements needed for a race to be unlocked go a bit further than what's used in the game, as can be seen in .\common\gameprogression\adventuretracksmanager.csv:

"# Reward Needed is the reward need for this submode on this warp pad, it should be one of the following: (relics can be either relicnumber or relic_type)",,,,,,
"# trophy, key, relic(or relic_saphire), relic2(or relic_gold), relic3(or relic_platinum)",,,,,,
"# token_blue, token_green, token_red, token_purple, token_yellow, gem_blue, gem_green, gem_red, gem_purple, gem_Yellow",,,,,,

A specific number of a specific type of relics can actually be used as a requirement for a race, though this feature is never used. Despite this, however, Aku Aku (or Uka Uka) will tell the player that they need to "earn more relics" if they approach a warp pad that has gems as its requirement, such as the warp pad for Hyper Spaceway's Relic Race. However, approaching a locked warp pad that requires relics will have the masks tell the player they need more trophies to unlock it.

Furthermore, "relicnumber" is actually non-functional, or a typo.