Crash Team Racing (1999)
In many ways, PlayStation’s early cultural appeal was defined by all the ways in which it distinguished itself from Nintendo. Still, I think plenty of PlayStation owners were keenly aware, by 1999, that the system didn’t really have anything that could compete with Mario Kart. That all changed with the arrival of Crash Team Racing, a kart racer so good, some justifiably felt it beat Nintendo’s series at its own game. CTR’s visuals were vibrant and appealing, the racing was thrilling, the tracks were brilliantly designed and had terrific shortcuts–it had all the pick-up-and-play fun of a kart racer along with the high skill ceiling genre enthusiasts crave. To top it all off, its Adventure Mode, which has you racing against bosses, unlocking new stages and making story progress, was the most elaborate and exciting single-player mode ever offered in a kart racer at the time. — Carolyn Petit
