CTR: Crash Team Racing - NTSC-J
Note: All of the improvements from the PAL version were carried over to NTSC-J.
Title Screen
The animation and appearance of the title screen was heavily changed to reflect the Japanese artwork of the game. The music is entirely new as well.
Character Icons
Some of the character icons were changed.
Boost Counter
There is a boost counter in the Japanese version that peeks in from the right side of the screen whenever you get 3 consecutive boosts. It disappears once you stop boosting. At the end of the race, you're presented with the maximum number of consecutives boosts you achieved.
Note that this counter is also present in other versions, but it must be turned on with a cheat code.
Difficulty Ratings
Every track now has a difficulty rating that goes from 1 fruit (easy) to 5 (hard). The ratings are:
- Crash Cove *
- Roo's Tubes *
- Mystery Caves **
- Sewer Speedway *
- Coco Park *
- Tiger Temple **
- Papu's Pyramid ***
- Dingo Canyon **
- Blizzard Bluff ***
- Dragon Mines ***
- Polar Pass ****
- Tiny Arena ****
- N. Gin Labs *****
- Cortex Castle ****
- Hot Air Skyway *****
- Oxide Station *****
- Slide Coliseum ***
Scrapbook
The scrapbook features multiple images of the Japanese Crash, including the guy in the costume from the Japanese commercials and promotions doing his usual, crazy stuff.
Bonus Video
(contributed by Zoton2 and Hacc)There is an unlockable bonus video with scenes and hints from the previous games, as well as Crash and Fake Crash's zany antics with a woman reporter. It can be viewed by holding all the shoulder buttons when the PlayStation logo appears, before the game starts.
Isabella
Isabella has brown eyes in this version instead of blue. It's likely that this change was made so people wouldn't mistake her for Tawna, who happens to have blue eyes in Japan.
Ripper Roo
Instead of speaking through laughter, Ripper Roo actually talks in this version (thus eliminating the need for subtitles).
CBR Challenges
Since the game is called Crash Bandicoot Racing in Japan, it's shortened to CBR instead of CTR. This means that tokens now sport that acronym as well, and the second letter in their respective challenges is now a B instead of a T.
Skull Rock
The Skull Rock crystal challenge in Adventure mode now requires 2 boss keys to unlock instead of 1.
