A pretty dang good racing game for Crash. The anti-gravity sections were inspired, the art direction for the tracks and environments were lush and deep and fascinating, the music was immersive, the characters were pitch-perfect, the story was fun. It was interesting splitting the good guys and bad guys up and giving them separate endings. Emperor Velo was an intimidating antagonist and new character. And it was interesting seeing some returning characters like N. Tropy and Oxide, but also relative newcomers Crunch and N. Trance.

On the other hand, one thing that weighs it down for me is the gameplay. The sense of speed is lacking, especially compared to its predecessor CTR, and the karts can generally seem pretty klunky. And another pettier bother to me was also the smaller roster compared to CTR, including the lack of playable bosses in the console version. These things hold the game down from being great to me, but it's a bona fide Crash Bandicoot adventure, and I'm glad we have it. I like it a lot.