Crash Team Racing

To do: Document about the unused spring item.

Crash Team Racing
Also known as: Crash Bandicoot Racing (JP) Developer: Naughty Dog Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Platform: PlayStation Released in JP: December 16, 1999 Released in US: September 30, 1999 Released in EU: October 20, 1999 This game has unused items. This game has unused sounds. This game has regional differences. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

Crash Team Racing is Sony's answer to Mario Kart 64, in which characters of the Crash Bandicoot series are pitted against each other in a race to save the planet.

Unused Audio

Placeholder Dialogue

Early NTSC versions of the game contained placeholder dialogues used for character sounds which weren't implemented in the game yet. Whilst most samples were removed from the retail disc, two samples were particularly notable for not merely existing within the game's code, but actually playing in-game via a mistake and contrasting largely from the rest of the character's audio. Penta Penguin's audio bank in particular contains voice samples from Gavin James, saying "Penguin yay one" and "Penguin yay two" in a deadpan tone. According to Rob Titus, the developers didn't notice about this until they played the retail copy themselves, which by then was too late to be fixed because the game's disks had been burned. This was later fixed in the PAL and the NTSC-J version. The placeholder dialogue still exists in the re-release on the Playstation Network store.

Penguin "Yay" 1

Penguin "Yay" 2

This placeholder became a reference of the remake of the game, Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled, when Penta Penguin actually said "Penguin yay one" after boosting when landing and his victory quote.

Title Announcement

A rather unusual sounding Dr. Neo Cortex announcing the title of the game, it was most likely to be used on the title screen. The enunciation in this clip is rather poor, thus impairing the music playing in the background. International versions lack any announcements at the title screen.

Menu Announcement

Press Start to Play

Select Player

Select Players

Choose a Racetrack

More unused voice clips from that "Clancy Brown sounding guy" found both in the final and prototype. It seems the menu was planned to have a announcer.

Unused Adventure Voice Clips

There exist numerous audio clips by Aku Aku and Uka Uka which were intended for Adventure Mode but are rendered unused in the final game.

The majority of them relating to hardware problems with the PlayStation.

Hardware Issue Notices

Issue	Aku-Aku	Uka-Uka	Quote
No Controller Notice			No controllers are plugged into controller ports. Please insert a controller into a controller port.
No Memory Card			There are no memory cards in any of the memory card slots. Put a memory card in a memory card slot and try again.
No CTR Memory Card Data			There is no Crash Team Racing data on this memory card.
No Memory Card Space			The current memory card is full. Put in a different memory card, or erase files from the current memory card.

The latter 6 clips were likely intended to be used in conjunction with the Load-Save Screen, but these warnings are displayed by text as opposed to voice, rendering the recorded audio unused.

Boss Key Congratulations

Good job! You've earned a key!

A congratulatory message for obtaining a Boss Key. The message was likely removed as a result of being deemed redundant by Naughty Dog, as the bosses congratulate you themselves in an in-game cutscene after beating them in a race.

CTR Token Congratulations

Excellent work! You've collected a CTR Token!

A similar case occurs with the CTR Tokens: Although audio does exist of the masks congratulating you on obtaining them, they aren't used and after the race has concluded, you spawn outside of the level's Warp Vortex with no message from the masks.

Ripper Roo speaking in English

Wa hahahaha! Are you crazy enough to race me?! Ya hahaha! I should face Oxide in the big race! Hahahahaha! I'll show you wild driving! Last one across the finish line is a ROTTEN BRAIN!

You ARE crazier than me! Hahahaha! Best get head checked if you think you can beat Oxide! Ya hahaha! Have a key! Wa hahahaha! Good luck, you'll need it!

At some point in development Ripper Roo was supposed to talk like in the Japanese version but it was scrapped in flavor of stock clips of Ripper Roo laughing along with subtitles added in.

Nitros Oxide as a playable character

According to Rob Titus, former Naughty Dog developer, Nitros Oxide couldn't fit into memory for multiplayer, plus he was too big, so he got cut as a playable. They ran out of memory all the time because the game is not streamed like the previous Crash games. However, when playing as him via GameShark codes, there will be extra voicelines that only appear when he is a playable character, such as hitting the wall, spinning or doing a high-jump:

Nitros Oxide would later become a playable character in the game's remaster, Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled.

Unused Nitros Oxide Dialogue

N. Oxide has unused voice recordings found in an early US version of the game. These recordings have a slightly different voice to the final Oxide, indicating that these were made during a different recording session.

Time is short, so find your best driver and get ready to race for the fate of your planet!

An extended version of a sentence Oxide says during the intro.

I'm sorry to interrupt this pitiful little party, but I am waiting, you know. What? No champion yet? So far, you slowpokes savages don't look like much of a challenge! You race so slow, I think it's more fun to watch Forgundian grass grow! Well, hurry up and bring me those trophies! I grow impatient!

Suggesting that there was going to be a cutscene where Oxide taunts the player.

Think you can save your planet? Believe me, it's doomed. No one has ever beaten Oxide in a race, ever! Still, you savages amuse me, so a fair chance is in order. Bring 16 trophies to my spaceship, proving you are the world champion. Then will we race for the fate of your planet.

Audio suggesting that Oxide was at one point going to taunt the player into bringing all 16 Gold Trophies to his ship.

You're the fastest racer so far? You're the best this planet can offer? This is going to be a bigger joke than that last civilization I challenged. What was it called... on that red planet so close to here... Oh, yes. I think you call it Mars. Now that was an easy win. What? You say there is no civilization on the planet Mars? [laughs] Not anymore! They lost the race!

This one has Oxide explaining that he is the main reason as to why there is no civilization on Mars.

I win! This planet is toast!

This voice clip was meant to be used when the player lost Oxide's battle race.

Unused Placeholder Dialogue

Some characters have more lines than in the final version, including some grunts and, more interestingly, comments according to which place they finish the race. Not all of these lines were done, as some are just placeholders voice by Gavin James. Since a lot of these lines are missing, this feature was probably removed because there was no time to record them all until the game was released.

Crash

Crash finished first

Crash finished second

Crash finished third

Dingodile

Dingo finished first

Dingo finished second

Dingo finished third

Fake Crash

Fake Crash finished first

Fake Crash finished second

Fake Crash finished third

N. Oxide

Oxide finished second

Oxide finished third

Unused Race Position Dialogue

These are the voice clips commenting according to which place they finish the race.

Cortex

The World is mine!

Second best!

Third!

Coco

Alright! First place!

Second across!

Third'll work!

Tiny Tiger

Tiny take shiny trophy!

Tiny second fastest!

Tiny third!

N. Gin

I'm number one!

Second best!

In the top three!

Papu Papu

Booyah!

Big three!

Komodo Joe

I win!

Second isss mine!

I get third!

Pinstripe

I get the trophy!

Second looks good to me!

Hey, third is okay!

N. Tropy

First to finish!

Second place!

N. Oxide

Oh yeah!

Regional Differences

US and European

Hub World Names

In the European version, driving between the different areas causes the name of the area to show at the bottom of the screen. No such feature is seen in the US version.

Penta Penguin

Penta Penguin has different stats depending on the game's region. In the NTSC version, Penta Penguin shares his stats with Polar and Pura.

In the PAL and the NTSC-J versions, Penta has all his stats maxed out.

In the NTSC version, when Penta gets a mask powerup, the icon shows up as Uka Uka, but when activated Aku Aku appears. This was fixed in the European release.

Scrapbook

The scrapbook in the European version was shortened considerably due to disc space limitations. The space that the larger US scrapbook originally took up was replaced with the text and sounds for the multiple languages that the PAL version supported.

Default High Scores

Every default best time for each track is 9:59:00 in the US version. They have all been changed to regular times in other versions.

US/European and Japanese

Someone in charge of the Japanese localization apparently decided to have a field day and change just about everything in the game. As this version is based off the PAL version, changes from that version have been retained.

Intro

The Japanese intro has an announcer reading out the messages before the start of the game, and the music is completely different.

Main Menu

US, Europe	Japan

The logo of the game featuring Crash holding a trophy has been changed to him sitting in his kart.

Ripper Roo Dialogue

Ripper Roo now speaks in an actual language now, rather than his crazed laughing, which also means he no longer needs subtitles.

Characters Icons

Name	NTSC/PAL	NTSC-J
Crash Bandicoot
Coco Bandicoot
Dr. Neo Cortex
Fake Crash
Penta Penguin
Pura Tiger
N. Tropy

Some character icons were changed to a larger, different design, most likely to appeal more to the Japanese market.

Bonus Video

Like with the Japanese versions of the previous two Crash games, a hidden video has been added and can be viewed by holding L1 + L2 + R1 + R2 at the PlayStation logo during startup. Again, you have to reset your console after the video has finished playing.

(Source: Hacc)

Miscellaneous

• TNT crates no longer say TNT on them, instead sporting a generic bomb picture on them.
• The theme song is completely different, like most other Japanese localisations of the Crash Bandicoot series.
• When selecting a track in Arcade mode, there are stars indicating how difficult the track is. The western versions have no such feature.
• Due to the title change, the C, T and R items have been changed to C, B and R (Crash Bandicoot Racing).
• You need two boss keys to unlock the Skull Rock Crystal Challenge as opposed to one in Adventure mode.
• There is a counter on the HUD that appears when you chain 3 or more turbos during a race, and displays your highest turbo chain at the end of a race. This can be activated in other versions via cheat code. A similar boost counter is used in all regional versions of Crash Nitro Kart.
• Some of the cheat codes were changed. For example, a different code is required to unlock Penta and to access the Spyro 2 demo, you have to hold a specific button combination during the Playstation logo (much like the bonus video) as opposed to putting in a code at the main menu.
• Except for Megumi, the girl who appears in award ceremonies when Cortex and N. Gin win a race, the trophy girls all have brown eyes as opposed to light blue for Isabella, green for Ami and purple for Liz. Their eyes are their original colors in the end credits.
• The Scrapbook is also different in this version, featuring a few pieces of art not found in the other versions mainly from Japanese promotional material and the bonus videos found in the Japanese Crash games.