Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D

Developer: Vivendi Games
Price: $5.99
Version Reviewed: 0.7.6

Graphics / Sound [rating:3/5]
Game Controls [rating:4/5]
Re-use / Replay Value [rating:4/5]

Overall Rating:

Another entry in the arcade Mario Kart type games, Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D was one of the first racing games released for the iPhone. The price has dropped from the original $9.99 to $5.99. For that price it's a pretty good value. This game is a port from another platform and while it's a well done game, it barely takes advantage of the unique iPhone hardware.

The controls involve tilting your phone for steering and touching the screen for power-ups / jumping / drifting. This works pretty well and has been improved in this latest version. Also included is a tilt sensitivity setting in the options menu. The game play in general is pretty good.

And while the graphics are fairly well done, they are pretty darn chunky. Remnant from this being a port or just not tuned to the iPhone hardware, who knows? It could be much better. The developer, Polarbit, has done much better in it's other release for the iPhone, Raging Thunder.

Crash Bandicoot is a pretty well done game that satisfies the needs of an arcade racing game fan. It provides multiple play modes, unlockable levels and characters. Throw into the mix the usual kart features of various power-ups and you have everything to provide good replay value. All this variety adds up to enough to keep you coming back. The only sad part is that it could be so much better.