History YMMV / CrashTeamRacingNitroFueled

** Compared to her original more cartoony design, Pasadena now has a more humanoid build akin to the Nitro Squad.[[https://i.redd.it/ccmfkmm4c3x31.png The extra detailed render used for her promo art]] is particularly awkward, making her look like a PettingZooPerson mainly due to a frontal perspective being used for her face instead of a profile.[[labelnote:*]]Which is odd, as her expression for the victory podium animation version of her render's pose is more joyful and not sultry.[[/labelnote]]

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: Cool as it is, the Rustland GP is also terrifying. How so? The Youtube trailer actually ''asks the viewer their'' '''''date of birth''''' before it can be watched.

** Reindeer Crash from the Winter Festival GP; while the costume makes sense, some were a little confused that the santa one from [[https://www.crashmania.net/en/games/crash-bandicoot-warped/artwork/promotional-images/#block1-1 a Naughty Dog promo image]] for ''Warped'' wasn't used instead.

* NarmCharm: Fans that aren't put off by Rilla Roo's goofy-looking modern take on his face have found it funny in a ridiculous sort of way, even being somewhat comparable to WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}.

** Megamix had been an unlockable boss encounter in ''The Huge Adventure'', that tended to be taken out of context by fans and caused bafflement due to this unusual genetic accident of a design with body parts assembled haphazardly (including Dingodile's [[NightmareRetardant goofy-print pants]]). Luckily, it got a more consistent design that plays up how ''wrong'' it is, and was given personality traits that show [[RealityEnsues what logically happens to]] [[SplitPersonality 4 villains trying to use one body]], which made it [[CreepyAwesome more appealing]].

** When Rilla Roo was first released in Winter Festival, fans weren't pleased with his design, especially his mouth. Eventually, Beenox added Fixed Rilla Roo, a character that brought him back to more closely resemble how he looked in ''Bash''. Those who liked the Winter Festival design can still play as him!

* MemeticLoser: Geary is notable for having been the ''only'' base game character without a legendary skin for a long time. In addition, his appearance in this game makes him a lot [[YourSizeMayVary smaller]] than he was in ''Nitro Kart'', to the point of seeming completely harmless. Ditto with Pinstripe, as he hasn't received any new event-themed skin yet and only left with his lone Gangster skin.[[note]]Although he did get [[ConsolationPrize legendary exotic recolors for it]] in the same update Geary got his skin, at least.[[/note]]
** As part of the post-GP content update, Geary finally got his long-awaited legendary skin... which was completely overshadowed by the addition of an inanimate [[CompanionCube Iron Checkpoint Crate]] as a playable character.

** Nitros Oxide has become a minor example thanks to his "Hot Rod" skin's podium winning animation. When Oxide wins using this skin, the exhaust pipes in his head will ignite and he'll look to the sides while striking a "riding" pose. This frequently makes him look as if he's [[https://i.redd.it/07s1xjgs6qb31.jpg ogling the ass]] of whoever's in third place while metaphorically "revving the engine". His sticking his tongue out while doing so makes him appear lecherous, furthering any UnfortunateImplications.

* AntiClimaxBoss: Oxide in Adventure Mode is pretty easy. You race him at Oxide Station, which is pretty generous with speed boosts, and he throws red beakers when he gets in front of you, which are easy to avoid. It doesn't help that the bosses prior to him consistently built up [[CharacterShilling how much of a challenge he allegedly is]]. Of course, the fact that he was nerfed to tumble after being hit instead of spinning out probably doesn't help matters.

** Fans were disappointed that Nitros Oxide couldn't be unlocked in [[VideoGame/CrashTeamRacing the original version]] without cheat devices, at least partly due to technical limitations of the time. Said technical limitations no longer pose a threat, so he's now an unlockable character in the remake. He's also available right from the start if you buy the ''[[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition Nitros Oxide Edition]]'' of the game.

* TheScrappy: In a game where most of the added characters have been [[WinTheCrowd met with great enthusiasm]] by the fandom, Baby Crash and Baby Coco are notable for their unpopularity. They have commonly been criticized as clumsy and gimmicky attempts to follow in ''[[VideoGame/MarioKart]]'''s footsteps by including baby versions of established characters as playable racers. Fans have also mocked them (particularly Baby Crash) for being more grotesque than cute, as well as expressed disappointment in that they had been released before ''Warped's'' baby versions of Cortex and N. Tropy, who had been teased in an early datamine.

** As with the original games, you can't just get a certain goal time in Time Trials to label the Tropy/Oxide ghosts beaten. You must race the ghosts proper to defeat them. Unlike the original game, the ghosts are not enabled instantly after they're unlocked, meaning you have to go back to the main menu and manually enable the ghosts for your next run through a track. Doubly so for Oxide, should you decide to go beat his times too and unlock N. Tropy's Digital skin.

* HilariousInHindsight: With their release dates being only one month apart, this game and ''VideoGame/TeamSonicRacing'' were considered to be DuelingGames. As it turns out, Chick Gizzard Lips, Stew's co-host, is voiced by Creator/RogerCraigSmith, [[JustForFun/RoleAssociation Sonic's English voice actor]]. Then he [[PromotedToPlayable got the chance to drive]] later on, to boot.

** Thirteen days after the Geary Day celebration mentioned under MemeticMutation below, Geary wound up having a set of daily challenges themed after him.

** On the other side of this trope, we have the Speed characters. Unlike in the original game, USF speeds are different for each character class, meaning Speed characters are faster than the other classes even while using USF. Additionally, due to the advent of U-turning, the main weakness that Speed characters are supposed to have, is completely negated. This technique alone makes them feel like they have stats equivalent to [[GameBreaker PAL Penta]] in the original game, only they can powerslide on straightways, something that OG PAL Penta couldn't do easily due to his maxed-out turning. Before engine select got added with the Spooky GP, which allows any character to use the Speed stats, any single character in this stat category was almost guaranteed to be in the ComplacentGamingSyndrome group mentioned above with the biggest offenders being Crunch, Ami and Spyro due to them already being {{Ensemble Darkhorse}}s.

** A minor example: In the original ''Crash Team Racing'', the Invincibility music when you get the Aku Aku Mask included a cheery xylophone to go with the manic drumbeat. In ''Nitro-Fueled'', however, it's only the drums, making it sound like it was directly ripped from the ''N. Sane Trilogy''.
** Uka Uka's voice in Adventure Mode. While he's still voiced by Creator/JohnDiMaggio, he's a lot less scary than he was in the ''N. Sane Trilogy''. While this change in tone was also the case for when he was played by Creator/ClancyBrown in the original versions of ''[[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot3Warped Warped]]'' and ''CTR'', the difference here is a lot more noticeable and jarring, with a lot of people comparing his voice to Otto Mann from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSv0pEraKw0 Microtransactions]]. Adding the ability to pay for stuff in a game that ''already costs money to begin with'', alongside noticeably higher prices on bundles [[note]]such as the "Weird Science" bundle costing a whopping 9,900 Wumpa Coins since it was one of of only three bundles added in Back N. Time with the other two being only around 3,000, versus Nitro Tour which added five bundles of around 5,000 each[[/note]], brought in lots of displeasure from people who thought the game was already fine as it was, as well as the usual complaints about {{microtransactions}} being awful. Further adding fuel to the fire are accusations that the choice of adding them after launch was done deliberately to avoid the ESRB’s “in-game purchases” label with the launch versions of the game.

** To a lesser degree, Pasadena's reimagining, with the [[OnlyOneFemaleMold omission of most of her defining traits]] such as her flirtiness and her PrehensileTail, were met with disappointment as well, especially given the game's track record for [[MythologyGag capitalising on each characters' quirks and design defects]]. Her new voice was particularly contentious as well (see below).

** On the other side of this trope, we have the Speed characters. Unlike in the original game, USF speeds are different for each character class, meaning Speed characters are faster than the other classes even while using USF. Additionally, due to the advent of U-turning (which allows them to change how fast they turn in an instant, allowing them to both drift in a straight line and make ridiculous turns while in USF, allowing them to keep USF for longer periods) the main weakness that Speed characters are supposed to have (poor turning) is completely negated. This technique alone makes them feel like they have stats equivalent to [[GameBreaker PAL Penta]] in the original game, only they can powerslide on straightways, something that OG PAL Penta couldn't do easily due to his maxed-out turning. Before engine select got added with the Spooky GP (which allows any character to use the Speed stats), any single character in this stat category was almost guaranteed to be in the ComplacentGamingSyndrome group mentioned above with the biggest offenders being Crunch, Ami and Spyro due to them already being {{Ensemble Darkhorse}}s.
* UglyCute: Tiny Tiger. Between his victory animations and some of the stuff he says, he comes off as more purely childlike in this game than in any other.

** For the longest time, fand have complained about the sheer amount of invisible walls littered around several tracks as well as the botched out Global Leaderboards that saves Time Trial records from lap exploits. Come the post-Grand Prix update, the invisible walls were ''completely'' patched out as well as clearing out the Global Leaderboards from exploited records, leaving out the genuine ones.

* {{Adorkable}}: The playable Lab Assistant has some downright endearing animations, such as him looking quite worried and gulping over the opposition that he'll have to take on as well as being taken aback by his victory, almost to the point of [[TearsOfJoy tears]].
* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: While Gnasty Gnorc's inclusion via Spyro & Friends seemed odd from the onset, seeing as he is a villain, it's been reasoned by some fans that his relationship with Spyro is more of a [[FriendlyRivalry competitive rivalry]], since he's the only major ''Spyro'' villain to not want to kill dragons outright and his modern depiction stems from his [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex self-esteem issues]].
* AntiClimaxBoss: Oxide in Adventure Mode is pretty easy. You race him at Oxide Station, which is pretty generous with speed boosts, and he throws red beakers when he gets in front of you, which are easy to avoid. It doesn't help that the bosses prior to him consistently built up [[CharacterShilling how much of a challenge he allegedly is]]. Of course, the fact that he was nerfed to tumble after being hit instead of spinning out probably doesn't help matters...

** Fans were disappointed that Nitros Oxide couldn't be unlocked in the original version without cheating devices, at least partly due to technical limitations of the time. Said technical limitations no longer pose a threat, so he's now an unlockable character in the remake. He's also available right from the start if you buy the [[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition Nitros Oxide Edition]] of the game.
** Like Oxide before, the home console version of ''Nitro Kart'' made the boss characters Krunk, Nash, Norm (as both Small Norm and Big Norm), and Geary unplayable, with the GBA version of the game being the only version where they were unlockable. Now they join Oxide as being PromotedToPlayable.
** The fact that the game has characters from the post-Creator/NaughtyDog games is this for those who feared those games would be ignored entirely after the ''N. Sane Trilogy'' returned to the continuity of the first 3 games.

** Much like ''VideoGame/SpyroReignitedTrilogy'', you have the option to switch between the remastered soundtrack of ''Nitro-Fueled'' or the original "Legacy" soundtrack from ''Crash Team Racing'' and ''Crash Nitro Kart''. This was a point of major praise for ''Reignited Trilogy'' considering ''VideoGame/CrashBandicootNSaneTrilogy'' did not have this feature at all.
** A minor nitpick a lot of fans had was the ''Nitro Kart'' bosses using Uka Uka as their mask rather than the Velo mask they originally had.[[note]]Granted, this was also the case in the [=GBA=] version of ''Nitro Kart'' due to the mask being AdaptedOut there.[[/note]] The game's first big patch on July 3, 2019, which coincided with the first Grand Prix, brought back the Velo mask.
** Though well-liked, Nitro Tour was criticized for forcing players to exclusively use new content in order to gain Nitro multipliers: in particular the Nitro Squad in their Motorsport skins each carried a whopping 25% Nitro boost alone. In response, Back N. Time includes Nitro multipliers for both past kart parts and characters who receive new skins in the Pit Stop, allowing for more freedom of character variety online. This also saves players more on Wumpa Coins since most of the relevant content is either available at launch or free to earn in Adventure Mode.
** While the game was well received upon unveiling, many fans were still divided over the continuing of remakes over making a new ''Crash'' game. ''Nitro Fueled'' ultimately takes a happy medium, remaking ''CTR'' fully and faithfully (as well as reimagining a fair amount of ''Nitro Kart'' and a handful of ''Tag Team Racing'') but using the ongoing Grand Prix to add a plethora of new material. By the end of the Grand Prix run, there are enough new tracks, modes and characters to practically make a small scale sequel to ''Team Racing'' and ''Nitro Kart''.
** For those who wanted to play as their favorite characters but are sorely disappointed that they have to play as either a [[TierInducedScrappy Turning or Balanced Class]], the Engine Swap feature is now available to the player's liking as of the Halloween Grand Prix, which also introduced a drifting-centric class.

** The Drift class was heavily disliked due to it’s stats not matching up with it’s display, as of the October 10th update however, it was given a tweak now being able to represent it’s actual stats and able to go nearly as fast as the speed class.

** The Spyro and Friends GP was lambasted upon release for its signature track being tedious to get through, incredibly penalising for going off-road and having a terrible wumpa coin rate in addition to Spyro himself being the only GP star to not have a legendary skin. The Spooky and Neon Circus [=GPs=] on the other hand not only gave their stars legendary skins which included higher boosts, but each introduced a new game mode ([[TemporaryOnlineContent ghost hunting]] and Ring Rally respectively, in addition to the former GP adding the Drift class), doubled the nitro gains for the quick daily missions and their tracks are the quickest to get through on top of having some of the best coin rates in the game - Nina's Nightmare in particular is the fifth-most efficient track when comparing gains to Oxide times.
** Speaking of Spyro, those disappointed about him not coming with a legendary skin during his own GP were thrilled when the Winter Festival GP came: he finally got one in the form of Winter Guardian Spyro.

** After two decades of being [[HufflepuffHouse underutilised as a setting]] outside of ''Bash'''s final boss battle, Gasmoxia got featured as the focus of the final GP, with a track that shows it off more properly.
** For the longest time, people have complained about the sheer amount of invisible walls littered around several tracks as well as the botched out Global Leaderboards that saves Time Trial records from lap exploits. Come the post-Grand Prix update, the invisible walls are now ''completely'' patched out as well as clearing out the Global Leaderboards from exploited records, leaving out the genuine ones.
** While otherwise beloved, the Grand Prix events wore out players that felt pressured to collect the themed racers and items via the Nitro Gauge and leaderboards, with the concern of losing them for a long time. The post-GP update has not only put the majority of existing items back in the Pit Stop, it also introduced a new Wumpa Coin-based achievement system, allowing all players to clear them at their own leisure.

** The track challenges from ''Crash Nitro Kart'' seem to be under the impression that you're playing ''Nitro Kart'', as they're pretty generous compared to the ''Team Racing'' tracks, which does thankfully make the [[ThatOneSidequest N. Tropy time trials a bit easier]]. The only noticeable exception is Tiny Temple, as noted under ThatOneLevel.
** In regards to Relic Races, both Slide Coliseum and Turbo Track are surprisingly easy to get Platinum on (especially on easy) when compared to previous levels like N. Gin Labs and Cortex Castle. In fact, anyone who knows about power-sliding could very well get the rank without even trying.

* CaptainObviousReveal: In the roadmap for the second batch of grand prixes, the character headlining the Neon Circus GP is a [[FaceFramedInShadow silhouette]] of a pigtailed girl. Despite this subterfuge, perceptive veteran ''Crash'' fans have recognized her to be [[VideoGame/CrashTagTeamRacing Pasadena O' Possum]]. In the same token, the roadmap for the GP had part of the Koala Carnival track name removed to keep Koala Kong's inclusion a surprise, but some eagle-eyed fans managed to spot his mug on the screenshot for it anyway.

** Before engine select got added with the Spooky GP, Speed characters were by far the most used characters in Online Matchmaking; moreso ones wearing a skin that has a Nitro multiplier (which provides an extra Nitro boost on top of the character themselves), which changed depending on the current Grand Prix at the time. During Nitro Tour, for example, Motorsport Ami was the most frequently seen due to being the *only* character that fit these criteria, while Back N. Time featured Tiny and N. Tropy, who received new Nitro skins. Those gained through the Grand Prix-exclusive Nitro rewards were also common, such as Tawna and Racer Crunch during Nitro Tour and Baby T and Dashing Fake Crash during Back N. Time.
** Thanks to the new engine swap that was introduced in the Spooky Grand Prix, Speed engines have been the go-to choice as a whole. While the character may not matter much beyond flavor, Speed still dominates online races and Time Trial records.
** Roo's Tubes and Android Alley are highly popular when playing online because of how easy they are to get through and their excellent coin rates compared to the average amount of time it takes to get through them. As far as Oxide times are concerned, Tiny Temple is the most financially efficient track in the game but that's based on extensive periods of retaining blue fire.

** Isabella, Ami, Liz, and Megumi of the Nitro Squad. While they already had a minor following in the original ''Crash Team Racing'' as the Trophy Girls, they otherwise weren't seen as anything special beyond [[{{Fanservice}} charming]] [[LivingProp visual flair]]. Thanks to a grand return in ''Nitro-Fueled'' as playable racers with newly-established personalities (alongside Tawna, who became their leader), the girls' popularity exploded and they have become more beloved for it.

** In the Rustland GP datamine, an unidentified driver referred to as "[=DriverWhoAmI=]" had been spotted, with datamines for the subsequent two major updates respectively changing the codename to "[=DriverWhoCouldIBe=]" and [[NameThatUnfoldsLikeLotusBlossom "DriverIAmAsImportantAsTheBandicootSoIShouldBeTheMainCharacter"]]. The general consensus among fans have determined that this was an attempt to hide a secret character meant for Beenox's time trials, which initially had a mention in earlier datamines as well. As for the character themselves, the strongest beliefs are for Willie Wumpa Cheeks, determined due to the Wumpa Fruits' function in the series and how the codename fits [[SmallNameBigEgo his personality]], and Willie Wombat, an early concept for Crash Bandicoot. It was eventually revealed to be [[JokeCharacter Iron Checkpoint Crate,]] to everyone’s surprise.
** As of the end of the Gasmoxia GP, the presence of Ripto's voice actor Creator/GreggBerger in the additional voice credits has been seen as conspicuously strange, since none of the characters are voiced by him. While some fans believe it could be an oversight in regards to plans for Ripto being scrapped, others think it's an accidental leak towards his eventual addition, with some pointing out that Pinstripe being mis-credited to Creator/JessHarnell had been fixed, yet this issue's been left alone. Adding to this theory is the fact that the Spyro GP's content was not fully datamined prior to its full reveal aside from the racers themselves in an initial roster datamine.
** "Was the Beenox Pack the last content drop or not" has become another widely, and heatedly discussed topic as well... On one hand, they never specified if players would be seeing anything more added to the game after the Beenox Pack(muddying the waters further on that is the lack of additional content on the game's first year anniversary, which would have been the prime time to have added something more). But on another note, they also didn't specify if the Beenox Pack was the last thing they were adding to the game(keep in mind that their last blog post prior to the Beenox Pack read "while the Grand Prix is ending, there will still be more items coming to CTR Nitro-Fueled," implying more content beyond one last update). Adding more fuel to that fire was the introduction of Legendary Skin Recolors. While we did get a couple dozen new skin recolors added to the game, there's still an enormous amount of legendary skins that have not received any recolors. It makes no sense to introduce a new concept and not go further with it. And while Geary finally received his first Legendary in the Beenox Pack, there's still many more characters that are missing out on Legendary Skins(Pasadena, Von Clutch, Gnasty Gnorc, Hunter, Komodo Moe)... And of course, there's also the topic of datamined characters. As of now, the only three characters missing from the original datamine are Ripto, Willie Wumpa Cheeks, and the Sorceress, with Gregg Berger's presence remaining in the credits leading players to remain hopeful that these characters will, eventually, make it in(After all, Baby Cortex and Baby Tropy had been missing for months and were just added in the Beenox Pack, so why not add those final three?). Many inquiries have been made on whether or not players will be seeing additional content added to Nitro Fueled, but have been met mostly with silence(which some will point out as being incredibly odd, as they were good with announcing the end of the Grand Prixs). And, of course, the lack of comment on the topic has been interpreted in many different ways as well, from Creator/{{Activision}} pulling the plug on Beenox but making sure they didn't say anything, or, alternatively, they ARE working on something, but are keeping it a tightly guarded secret.
** And on the same vein, "are we seeing a PC Port or not?"
** The Pit Stop Bundle announcements on the official Crash Bandicoot Twitter are starting to become one as well. A sign that there'll be nothing new coming out for the game, or a build-up toward something big?
** Jossed as of September 1st. After several months of silence, Beenox has confirmed that March's update was THE last update.

** Quite a few people have latched on to the idea of pairing Crunch and Ami, since both of them are fitness-inclined bandicoots who love flexing, so it's a natural fit.

** A stronger one occurred with ''Mario Kart Tour'', most noticeably in regard to their respective rosters.
* FountainOfMemes: Liz. ''Good lord, Liz.'' Practically every other line coming out of her is comedy gold coated in British snark and it works brilliantly.

** YMMV on whether it even is a bug, but starting with the Rustland GP, randomly selected players have noticed that they receive 70%-75% more Wumpa Coins offline than usual that could last the entire GP.

* GrowingTheBeard: The use of the Grand Prix allowed the game to be expanded and polished through updates with each new event. The October "Spooky" GP however is considered when it really ups its game. Not only does the event mark a good helping of the most awaited characters such as Nina and N. Brio playable at last, but the GP challenges are more varied and utilise unique mechanics to make grinding for items more fun and less repetitive. The update with the GP also brought in some beloved extra bells and whistles such as the engine selection option and a new cup, with a lot of long-awaited bug fixes implemented by this point (even if the first few days of this GP introduced some glitches of its own).
* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: Those who are used to Creator/RobbieDaymond's roles in Eastern video games ended up being impressed by his performance as Pinstripe, showing how much range he truly has. If that wasn't enough, he was later revealed to voice Hasty as well as Small Norm and Hunter.
** It's generally agreed that Creator/DebiDerryberry's reprisal of Nina is much better than her prior performances in the animated shorts and Nintendo DS version of ''VideoGame/CrashOfTheTitans'', sounding less like her usual voice and more like Amy Gross' version.

** Crash and Coco do a highfive and then dance together in the true ending.

*** And in the first post-GP DLC, they gave the fans a free "Thank you" package with four free legendary skins ([[CueTheFlyingPigs including one for]] '''[[CueTheFlyingPigs Geary!!]]'''), a kart, a paint job, a wheel set and a decal.
** The Lab Assistant’s victory animation is a ThrowTheDogABone after spending nearly twenty years as a hapless {{Mook}}, as he stands there in disbelief at first, before jumping around happily, and looking like he’s about to cry.
* HilariousInHindsight: With their release dates being only one month apart, this game and ''VideoGame/TeamSonicRacing'' were considered to be DuelingGames. As it turns out, Chick Gizzard Lips (Stew's co-host) is voiced by Creator/RogerCraigSmith, [[JustForFun/RoleAssociation the voice of Sonic]]. Then he [[PromotedToPlayable got the chance to drive]] later on, to boot.
** During production on Nitro Kart, the idea of [[https://www.crashmania.net/images/games/crash-nitro-kart/artwork/environments/environments-5914708ac2c5c-2.jpg bringing back CTR tracks with updated graphics]] had been thrown around but ultimately scrapped. 16 years later and it's the Nitro Kart tracks getting that treatment in a Crash Team Racing remake.
** The twitter user [=NitroNeato=] [[https://twitter.com/nitroneato/status/1177694147123261447 drew Tawna as a witch]], a few days before her official witch skin got unveiled.
** Back in ''[[VideoGame/CrashNitroKart Nitro Kart]]'', Cortex [[MistakenForClown dismissively referred to the Norms as clowns]] in a cutscene, which causes Big Norm to call him one in retaliation. Cue the Neon Circus Grand Prix, [[JokeAndReceive in which]] [[IronicEcho Cortex gets a clown skin]].

** As it turns out, Stephanie Sheh had subtly teased her role as Yaya Panda over a month before her official reveal...[[https://twitter.com/PasadenaPassion/status/1206049833892663296 on a Twitter post about pandas]].

** Canadian Guy Eh [[https://twitter.com/Canadianguyehh/status/1242682031546535941 posted this montage of pitched-up N. Tropy voices]], the day before Baby Tropy was confirmed (with an even higher-pitched voice to match).
** The sheer volume of characters coming from practically every corner of the series led to the fanbase making a bunch of joke suggestions for who should become a racer, with one particular Crash subreddit claiming that an iron checkpoint crate deserves to be playable. [[JokeAndReceive Cue the post-GP update,]] [[AscendedMeme in which it actually happened]].

** As was the case in the original game, Komodo Joe is fought solo, with his brother Moe being nowhere to be found. Fans of the duo were disappointed that the battle wasn't changed to accommodate both brothers (akin to the Norm boss race in ''VideoGame/CrashNitroKart''), not even for the Nitro-Fueled version of Adventure Mode. Komodo Moe would eventually join the game in the Spooky Grand Prix.
** One of the criticisms given to the game was that it runs at 30 frames per second as opposed to 60 (seen in ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'', for example). Some were hoping that the new game would yield higher framerates than the original ''CTR'', but that wasn't the case.
** Battle Mode is one of the few elements of the game to not gain much of any enhancements through the game's updates and Grand Prix. With no new battle arenas or modes, along with very minimal coin rewards for winning battles, many gamers find little incentive to play them besides the Wumpa Challenges (which also tend to be some of the most repetitive).
* MemeticBadass: William P., Beenox's technical designer, is notable for having ''incredibly fast'' Time Trial records on difficult to master tracks, such as Turbo Track, Dragon Mines, Out of Time, Megamix Mania, etc. Players who have beaten his records have reported having difficulty beating him even with their best skills, making him this in regard.

* MemeticLoser: Geary is notable for having been the ''only'' base-game character without a legendary skin for a long time. In addition, his appearance in this game makes him a lot [[YourSizeMayVary smaller]] than he was in ''VideoGame/CrashNitroKart'', to the point of seeming completely harmless. Ditto with Pinstripe, as he hasn't received any new event-themed skin yet and only left with his lone Gangster skin.[[note]]Although he did get [[ConsolationPrize legendary exotic recolors for it]] in the same update Geary got his skin, at least.[[/note]]

** Coco's "Bandicoot Power!" line has caught onto the fanbase, even moreso than in the original ''Crash Team Racing''. It helps that there are more bandicoots in this game besides her, Crash and Fake Crash compared to the original game, such as Crunch, Tawna, the baby versions of Crash & Coco and all four Trophy Girls of Tawna's Nitro Squad.

** We can't forget to mention [[FountainofMemes Liz]] and her iconic "[[YourMom Your mum's]] an armadillo!" line.

*** Farming Dingo Canyon/Thunder Struck.[[note]]Similar case to the above, but cuts down time to single-digit seconds per lap if done properly. Dingo Canyon had an oversight in the collision near the starting line which allows racers to bypass a check to trick the track that they have raced the entire track normally. Thunder Struck requires more precision despite not relying on invisible solid collisions but can help score more Wumpa Coins than Dingo Canyon. After causing a similar flood of racing requests thanks to N. Gin Labs being patched, both have been fixed in a sudden major update.[[/note]]
** Armadillo Liz/Armalizzo/Lizadillo[[note]]A further mutation of Liz's already memetic "Your mum's an armadillo!" line by the Twitter community... namely by turning her ''into'' an armadillo.[[/note]]

*** #[=GearyDay=][[note]]To honor Geary because of his (former) lack of Legendary skins, fans across all the Crash-related social media paid respects for him by racing as him in Single Player or Online Matchmaking events on February 1st.[[/note]]
*** More skins for Coco[[note]]Prior to the first post-GP update, Coco recieves the most amount of Legendary skins out of all roster alongside Crash. However, the distribution of Coco's skins were almost consistent between Grand Prixes than Crash's (Crash recieved skins in Nitro Tour and Back N. Time before going into a halt for three [=GPs=] before recieving more in Winter Festival and Rustland, meanwhile Coco recieved skins in Spyro & Friends and Spooky before halting at Neon Circus, then continuing at Winter Festival and Rustland), making hers more noticeable by fans. This has received sarcastic remarks on if Coco will get a skin in future updates.[[/note]]
** [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent Mergumi]][[note]]A Twitter user known as Coco Happy made fanart of Megumi as a mermaid, leading to this portmanteau and other artists drawing her as such afterwards.[[/note]]

** Why isn't the boulder playable yet!?[[note]]The aforementioned iron checkpoint crate's promotion into a racer led to an increased movement of fans half-jokingly suggesting that the giant boulder, [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot1996 from the first game]], should become a racer as well.[[/note]]

** While all of the Nitro Squad members are considered to be rather cute, Megumi is the biggest example, thanks to being a GenkiGirl and because she is the {{nice|Guy}}st member of the group (to the point where, even when she loses, [[GracefulLoser she still claps and gives thumbs up to the person who won with a smile on her face]]).

** Lab Assistant using pitched-down Crash voice clips, alongside his newfound {{Adorkable}} personality, has made him hilariously endearing to people.

** Oh god, ''[[HybridMonster Megamix!]]'' This complete beast is a fusion between Dr. Cortex, N. Gin, Tiny and Dingodile. While he looked a slight {{Narm}}-ish in the GBA game, here, his design is genuinely unsettling and disturbing, with pores popping all over his flesh, the metal from N. Gin's head melting into his skin and Tiny's lower jaw and teeth, as well as the spikes from his uniform ''tearing through his shoulders''. His goofy pants, taken directly from Dingodile do give a slight NightmareRetardant, but just barely. And on top of it all, his voice is a disturbing mix of all four baddies in one. It really goes to show how wrong it actually is.

** ''Crash Nitro Kart'' was similarly planned to be a nostalgia game for CTR, with recreated tracks from the first game and even an early online mode planned late in the game's development. ''Nitro Fuelled'' takes these ditched elements and makes them the centrepiece.
** Although some fans aren't keen about the brainwashed mutant Coco skin being labelled Evil Coco instead of the ''Twinsanity''-inspired Dark Coco, there is a precedent for this; ''[[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot2NTranced N-Tranced]]'' had Coco get this designation for her boss level while under N. Trance's influence.
** While it's occasionally believed that the CTR initials on Isabella's track suit are a new detail, it was actually there in a [[FreezeFrameBonus blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment]] during her old podium animation for the original ''Team Racing''. They could also be seen in some of Naughty Dog's promotional images for CTR, such as [[http://crashland.elynx.fr/ressourcebonus/siteofficiel/ctr-production_fichiers/winnercircle-poster.jpg this one]].

** Most of the characters debuting in ''Crash Nitro Kart'', including the PromotedToPlayable bosses and Zam, whose updated design and more expressive dog-like personality have given him a fair few fans. Zem remains a pretty contentious character, though he has received new skins that tone down his {{Gasshole}} characteristics.

** Aku Aku and Uka Uka's ''Titans'' and ''Mind Over Mutant'' designs were heavily divisive, with the former barely having a resemblance to the classic design and the [[YouDontLookLikeYou latter completely different]]. In here, both of these designs have been repurposed and combined into a brand-new mask called Apo-Apo, allowing all of these masks to coexist, and add some nice flourish to the Rustland skins' victory animations.
** When Rilla Roo was first released in Winter Festival, people weren't pleased with his design, especially his mouth. Eventually, Beenox added Fixed Rilla Roo, a character that brought him back to more closely resemble how he looked in ''Bash''. Those who liked the Winter Festival design can still play as him!

* TheScrappy: In a game where most of the added characters have been [[WinTheCrowd met with great enthusiasm]] by the fandom, Baby Crash and Baby Coco are notable for their unpopularity. They have commonly been criticized as clumsy and gimmicky attempts to follow in ''[[VideoGame/MarioKart Mario Kart]]'''s footsteps by including baby versions of established characters as playable racers. Fans have also mocked them (particularly Baby Crash) for being more grotesque than cute, as well as expressed disappointment in that they had been released before ''Warped's'' baby versions of Cortex and N. Tropy, who had been teased in an early datamine.

** While the cosmetics have been incredibly well received, the Pit Stop you buy them in and the Wumpa Coins you buy them with have not. The Pit Stop works on a daily rotation, meaning that you'll have to wait a while in order to get costumes for characters that you like. This would be less of an issue if Wumpa Coins were easy to get, but how you get them is obtuse. You get a number of coins for every race, but the number of coins depends on the actual track, which range from 20 coins to 80 coins. Items in the Pit Stop cost well over 1000 coins. In order to gain more coins than the pitiful amounts given per race Players must race online. For the first thirty minutes of race-time-total, a five-times multiplier is given to all coins earned with an overall double bonus during weekends outside of the bonus time. Because it requires a farily stable and speedy online connection, not to mention being the subscription services necessary to be online in the first place, this can get pretty expensive for some players. To cap it off, if a player is incapable of being online at all, they cannot earn Wumpa Coins nor can they access the Pit Stop. Needless to say, quite a number of players are not happy about this. Another potential negative for the Pit Stop is that an interview with Canadian Guy Eh and a Beenox developer revealed that the some Pit Stop items and even the Grand Prix rewards could be anywhere from seasonal or even TemporaryOnlineContent, depending on what direction they take for the items.
** While you can select a difficulty when starting a Nitro-Fueled Adventure, you are locked into that difficulty for the entire playthrough. Find an event too hard? You'll have to start a completely new save if you want to change it.

** For much of the online community, the [[ComebackMechanic N. Tropy clock and Warp Orb powerups]] have become this. In the original game, since AI racers didn't have access to the items and the game only allowed up to four players in multiplayer mode, getting hit by these items was relatively uncommon and seldom ever happened multiple times in a row. In ''Nitro Fueled'''s online multiplayer, however, all eight racers can potentially have access to the powerups, which frequently results in one being bombarded with them over and over, utterly killing the pace of the race. In the worst cases, players have reported as many as five Warp Orbs traversing the race course simultaneously.
** During the middle of the Back N. Time Grand Prix, it was discovered that whatever chooses the daily challenges can choose impossible ones when a No Boost Needed challenge involved Hyper Spaceway, one of the tracks where boost pads cannot be avoided as they are too large to jump over and are required to make the many jumps across the track.
*** This reared its ugly head again very early in the Rustland Grand Prix, where a challenge was to score a certain total of flags in Capture the Flag mode in Coco Park, which, obviously, is ''not'' a Battle Arena.

** It is harder to unlock N. Tropy now. Previously, you only had to beat his Time Trial Ghost in 18 tracks, because those are all the original ''CTR'' has. The addition of ''CNK'' tracks in the base game, however, means that the number of tracks you have to beat him in adds up to ''31''. And to make the experience even more grueling, the N.Tropy ghosts now take certain shortcuts it simply ignored in the original game, such as Sewer Speedway's halfpipe jump and Blizzard Bluff's leap across the frozen lake.
** By extension to the above, N. Oxide can now be raced on said 31 tracks. Which would be all well and good, since defeating him was optional, except that there is a reward for doing so this time; [[BraggingRightsReward an unlockable skin for N. Tropy]].

** The Tropy and Oxide ghosts on Oxide Station. The original game featured an [[GoodBadBugs unintentional shortcut]] which eliminated much of the difficulty; in ''Nitro Fueled,'' it was removed. Tropy's time is a mere three seconds slower than Oxide, and is significantly harder than any of his other ghosts. Merely ''unlocking'' Tropy's ghost requires coming within two seconds of his own time--most tracks have more wiggle room to trigger the unlock (several seconds). In order to have a ghost of a chance, you absolutely must hold on to the USF for as long as possible, which is much easier said than done, and the methods through which this is done vary depending on the speed, acceleration, and handling of your character.

** Similarly, Sewer Speedway, due to the ludicrously high shortcut that the Tropy and Oxide ghosts (''especially'' the Oxide one, which will ''always'' take that shortcut every lap) will take. Getting through it requires timing your jump perfectly in order to take it, unless you don't mind smacking headfirst into a wall (thankfully, it has been made more lenient with the August 2nd update). And the less said about the barrels, the better...
** In regards to regular tracks, Hot Air Skyway, already notorious for lacking railings à la Rainbow Road and having the most difficult boss race before Oxide, inexplicably got ''even worse,'' as the developers decided to add dense packets of clouds obscuring most of the edges and turns ahead of you as well as patching out nearly every shortcut and exploit to keep you from skipping large swathes of the course.
** Dragon Mines is also just as bad as it was in the original, with very steep turning needed for the ramp up the mines and an incredibly risky shortcut midway through the track. The ghosts here are also no joke and will be the bane of the N. Tropy sidequest alongside the previously mentioned tracks.
** Deep Sea Driving is probably the ''Nitro Kart'' track that has caught the most amount of heat by the fans for its difficulty. While the track layout itself isn't that difficult, what makes it an example of this trope are the spinning sawblades that appear throughout most of the track. Their pattern is extremely difficult to predict, and there are five of them, two of them right nearby one another, in the tube section. This, coupled up with the invisible walls in that same section, makes holding USF for the entire race a massive ordeal. Even the Oxide and Velo Ghosts have trouble navigating that part cleanly.

** Out of Time is often regarded as having the biggest difficulty spike between Oxide's and Velo's Ghost by a wide margin. While the Oxide ghost is [[BreatherLevel relatively easy]] compared to most other Oxide ghosts on other tracks, The Velo ghost is a whopping ''33'' seconds faster than Oxide's and requires holding USF for a large majority of the race once you get to the windmill at the end of the lap while taking relatively hard shortcuts such as the fence jump.
** Among the special Grand Prix tracks, those that have gained the most ire from fans for their difficulty are Spyro Circuit, Gingerbread Joyride, and Drive-Thru Danger.

** Getting the higher-ranked Relics remains as nail-bitingly tricky as ever, especially as, like with Time Trials, you have to do it across thirty-plus tracks. Your reward for accomplishing this task is [[BraggingRightsReward special Gold and Platinum]] paint jobs for your kart- which is thankfully obtainable just by getting Relics on the original ''Crash Team Racing'' tracks. Papu's Pyramid's Relic Race in particular deserves special mention: everything listed on [[VideoGame/CrashTeamRacing the original game's]] ThatOneSidequest section still applies here.
** The Gaxmoxia Grand Prix added Emperor Velo ghosts to all tracks which are even harder than the Oxide ghosts. Not helping matters is the addition of two Champion kart skins which require beating Oxide's and Velo's ghosts on all tracks. This makes all the time trial tracks under ThatOneLevel to become even more brutal as well as making tracks under BreatherLevel actually difficult.
*** To compound this, Beenox had stated they had intentions of adding developer times that were faster than the Oxide times beforehand. The Velo times are not those times, and the developer times are, in fact, ''[[SerialEscalation even faster]]''.

** While most of the ''Crash Nitro Kart'' track redesigns were well-received by the fanbase, Hyper Spaceway's redesign caught some flack for cutting out the first anti-gravity section (and consequently the second jump through the colosseum) altogether instead of reworking it, making the track feel more like a series of straight lines than the ultimate final showdown it was in the original game.
** A minor example: In the original ''Crash Team Racing'', the Invincibility music when you get the Aku Aku Mask included a cheery xylophone to go with the manic drumbeat. In ''Nitro-Fueled'', however, it's only the drums, making it sound like it was directly ripped from ''N. Sane Trilogy''.
** Uka Uka's voice in Adventure Mode. While he's still voiced by Creator/JohnDiMaggio, he's a lot less scary than he was in ''N. Sane Trilogy''. While this change in tone was also the case for when he was played by Creator/ClancyBrown in the original versions of ''[[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot3Warped Warped]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/CrashTeamRacing CTR]]'', the difference here is a lot more noticeable and jarring, with a lot of people comparing his voice to Otto Mann from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''.
** Another minor example comes from the credits. While the minor changes to the epilogues themselves have been accepted, the removal of the Nitro Squad has not. Even with their reintroduction as racers, the credits have not been changed to accomodate this. Further, the CNK racers were not included either so they continue to feel like an afterthought to some players' eyes, nor were any characters introduced via the Grand Prixs.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSv0pEraKw0 Microtransactions.]] Adding the ability to pay for stuff in a game that ''already costs money to begin with'', alongside noticeably higher prices on bundles [[note]]such as the "Weird Science" bundle costing a whopping 9,900 Wumpa Coins since it was one of of only three bundles added in Back N. Time with the other two being only around 3,000, versus Nitro Tour which added five bundles of around 5,000 each[[/note]], brought in lots of displeasure from people who thought the game was already fine as it was, as well as the usual complaints about {{microtransactions}} being awful. Further adding fuel to the fire are accusations that the choice of adding them after launch was done deliberately to avoid the ESRB’s “in-game purchases” label with the launch versions of the game.

*** To the point that in the first post-GP DLC, Beenox added "Fixed Rilla Roo", a variation of Rilla with a face closer to the original model (but still keeping the new frame and the goatee).

** Hell, even Megamix gets this at times despite being NightmareFuel incarnate, particularly when Tiny takes over. This can be seen in its podium victory animation where it stands around with a big, goofy grin on its face before jumping around in joy.

** All the characters from the post-Creator/NaughtyDog era games have been considered unexpected at some point, since the canon status of their games wasn't clear after the ''N. Sane Trilogy'' went back to the beginning of the continuity. The first one to be confirmed was Crunch Bandicoot, though at that time it was revealed that the game would have tracks from ''Nitro Kart'', so [[IKnewIt most fans saw him coming]].

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Carried over from the general quality of ''VideoGame/CrashBandicootNSaneTrilogy'', the environments are rendered in gorgeous stylistic detail, and match the character models ported from there perfectly. In addition, models made explicitly for ''Nitro-Fueled'' have particularly excellent detailing to them, such as the slight weathering on Oxide's carapace to imply his age, or the karts and how they interact with the terrain. And all of this is put through the usual cartoony filter of the series, with animation that uses all sorts of animation tricks to give the characters that extra bit of life.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: Cool as it is, the Rustland GP is also terrifying (as noted under NightmareFuel above). How so? The Youtube trailer actually ''asks the viewer their'' '''''date of birth''''' before it can be watched.
* WTHCostumingDepartment: Circus Isabella from the Neon Circus GP; while the choice of an acrobat outfit didn't raise any eyebrows by itself, some found the addition of a mohawk replacing her standard hairstyle awfully unfitting for a character as elegant as Isabella (well, whenever she's not [[HairTriggerTemper angered]], that is).
** Also happened to a lesser degree with Reindeer Crash from the Winter Festival GP; while the costume makes sense, some were a little confused that the santa one from [[https://www.crashmania.net/en/games/crash-bandicoot-warped/artwork/promotional-images/#block1-1 a Naughty Dog promo image]] for ''Warped'' wasn't used instead.

** Creator/DebiDerryberry replacing Shanelle Workman as Pasadena O'Possum received the most flak out of all recasts. While Debi's previous voicework as Nina has been recieved well, her take on Pasadena's has been criticized for sounding ''too'' much like Coco, almost omitting out the southen accent.

** Although not hated entirely, Andre Sogliuzzo replacing Creator/SteveBlum as Emperor Velo XXVII has been a let down to many fans who had been anticipating his return, in which Sogliuzzo's performance as the Emperor is criticized for sounding too high-pitched, not quite accomplishing the same BadassBaritone ColdHam Blum gave him.

** An ad showcasing various games that are on the [=PS4=], including ''Nitro-Fueled'', had shown a mysterious mask trailing behind Coco and near Crash, Aku Aku and Neo Cortex. The mask hasn't been seen anywhere in the series before, so some fans took it as an early tease towards an upcoming game or a ''Nitro-Fueled'' character related to said mask, while others assumed that it could be an oversight by a staffer that might not be entirely familiar with the ''Crash'' series. The first side was ultimately proven right with the announcement of ''Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time!''.

** The final DLC tracks, Megamix Mania and Drive-Thru Danger, just so happened to have levels eerily similar to them revealed in the launch trailer for ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot4ItsAboutTime''. Whether the tracks were meant to [[ProductionForeshadowing foreshadow]] locations in that game is a matter of serious discussion, especially since Beenox has confirmed to work on that game's [[ArrangeMode N. Verted Mode]], so they would have had knowledge of them. Adding to this, the fact that most of the characters in ''Nitro-Fueled'' were added [[RememberTheNewGuy without prior context]] has made fans wonder which ones, if any, would show up in ''It's About Time'', due to the multiverse premise. The former was confirmed to a degree with Hazardous Wastes (even featuring a poster cameo of Megamix) and Bermugula's Orbit, while the latter [[spoiler:largely amounted to cameo appearances in the 100% epilogue, likely indicating that they'll be used for future mainline entries]].

** N. Brio has the Bandicoots' theme as his victory podium theme, even after numerous patches. In ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot4ItsAboutTime'', it's revealed that he [[BlueAndOrangeMorality deliriously believes every single action he does is for the greater good]] ([[ObliviouslyEvil even harming people in other dimensions]]), and the bandicoots fighting him is seen by him as working together with them.

* OvershadowedByControversy: While the game is generally agreed to be a great remake of the original, Activision sneaking in microtransactions a month after launch remains a very divisive topic, although the backlash has slowly calmed down with new updates and DLC. The microtransactions include Wumpa Coins used to unlock characters and cosmetics. While Wumpa Coins can be obtained by completing races in-game, the amount of Wumpa Coins needed to unlock characters/cosmetics increased tenfold from before the update that sneaked in microtransactions, making obtaining them either a grindfest or [[BribingYourWayToVictory pay-to-win]]. Activision's sneaky play a mere one month after launch was a strong indication to players that they had planned the game to have microtransactions all along, and had only withheld them at release to bypass negative reception from the press until the reviews had moved on to the next game, thus encouraging more unsuspecting people to buy it thinking microtransactions would not appear. It really didn't help that the developers at Beenox had assured fans that the game would have no microtransactions before launch, prompting heated accusations at Beenox and/or Activision of lying.

* OvershadowedByControversy: While the game is generally agreed to be a great remake of the original, Activision sneaking in microtransactions a month after launch remains a very divisive topic, despite the backlash slowly calming down with new updates and DLC. The microtransactions include Wumpa Coins used to unlock characters and cosmetics. While Wumpa Coins can be obtained by completing races in-game, the amount of Wumpa Coins needed to unlock characters/cosmetics increased tenfold from before the update that sneaked in microtransactions, making obtaining them either a grindfest or [[BribingYourWayToVictory pay-to-win]]. Activision's sneaky play a mere one month after launch was a strong indication to players that they had planned the game to have microtransactions all along, and had only withheld them at release to bypass negative reception from the press until the reviews had moved on to the next game, thus encouraging more unsuspecting people to buy it thinking microtransactions would not appear. It really didn't help that the developers at Beenox had assured fans that the game would have no microtransactions before launch, prompting heated accusations at Beenox and/or Activision of lying.

** "Was the Beenox Pack the last content drop or not" has become another widely, and heatedly discussed topic as well... On one hand, they never specified if players would be seeing anything more added to the game after the Beenox Pack(muddying the waters further on that is the lack of additional content on the game's first year anniversary, which would have been the prime time to have added something more). But on another note, they also didn't specify if the Beenox Pack was the last thing they were adding to the game(keep in mind that their last blog post prior to the Beenox Pack read "while the Grand Prix is ending, there will still be more items coming to CTR Nitro-Fueled," implying more content beyond one last update). Adding more fuel to that fire was the introduction of Legendary Skin Recolors. While we did get a couple dozen new skin recolors added to the game, there's still an enormous amount of legendary skins that have not received any recolors. It makes no sense to introduce a new concept and not go further with it. And while Geary finally received his first Legendary in the Beenox Pack, there's still many more characters that are missing out on Legendary Skins(Pasadena, Von Clutch, Gnasty Gnorc, Hunter, Komodo Moe)... And of course, there's also the topic of datamined characters. As of now, the only three characters missing from the original datamine are Ripto, Willie Wumpa Cheeks, and the Sorceress, with Gregg Berger's presence remaining in the credits leading players to remain hopeful that these characters will, eventually, make it in(After all, Baby Cortex and Baby Tropy had been missing for months and were just added in the Beenox Pack, so why not add those final three?). Many inquiries have been made on whether or not players will be seeing additional content added to Nitro Fueled, but have been met mostly with silence(which some will point out as being incredibly odd, as they were good with announcing the end of the Grand Prixs). And, of course, the lack of comment on the topic has been interpreted in many different ways as well, from Activision pulling the plug on Beenox but making sure they didn't say anything, or, alternatively, they ARE working on something, but are keeping it a tightly guarded secret.

** On the other side of this trope, we have the Speed characters. Unlike in the original game, USF speeds are different for each character class, meaning Speed characters are faster than the other classes even while using USF. Additionally, due to the advent of U-turning (which allows them to change how fast they turn in an instant, allowing them to both drift in a straight line and make ridiculous turns while in USF, allowing them to keep USF for longer periods) the main weakness that Speed characters are supposed to have (poor turning) is completely negated. This technique alone makes them feel like they have stats equivalent to [[GameBreaker PAL Penta]] in the original game, only they can powerslide on straightways, something that OG PAL Penta couldn't do easily due to his maxed-out turning. Before engine select got added with the Spooky GP (which allows any character to use the Speed stats), any single character in this stat category wass almost guaranteed to be in the ComplacentGamingSyndrome group mentioned above with the biggest offenders being Crunch, Ami and Spyro due to them already being {{Ensemble Darkhorse}}s.

** Although not hated entirely, Andre Sogliuzzo replacing Creator/SteveBlum as Emperor Velo XXVII has been a let down to many fans who had been anticipating his return, in which Sogliuzzo's performance as the Emperor is criticized for sounding too high-pitched, not quite accomplishing the same BadassBaritone ColdHam Blum gave him.

** Compared to her original more cartoony design, Pasadena now has a more humanoid build akin to the Nitro Squad.[[https://i.redd.it/ccmfkmm4c3x31.png The extra detailed render used for her promo art]] is particularly awkward, making her look like a PettingZooPerson mainly due to a frontal perspective being used for her face instead of a profile.

* AntiClimaxBoss: Oxide in Adventure Mode is pretty easy. You race him at Oxide Station, which is pretty generous with speed boosts, and he throws red beakers when he gets in front of you, which are easy to avoid. It doesn't help that the bosses prior to him consistently built up [[CharacterShilling how much of a challenge he allegedly is]]. Of course, the fact that he was nerfed to tumble after being hit instead of spinning out probably doesn't help matters...

** The final DLC tracks, Megamix Mania and Drive-Thru Danger, just so happened to have levels eerily similar to them revealed in the launch trailer for ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot4ItsAboutTime''. Whether the tracks were meant to [[ProductionForeshadowing foreshadow]] locations in that game is a matter of serious discussion, especially since Beenox has confirmed to work on that game's [[ArrangeMode N. Verted Mode]], so they would have had knowledge of them. Adding to this, the fact that most of the characters in ''Nitro-Fueled'' were added [[RememberTheNewGuy without prior context]] has made fans wonder which ones, if any, would show up in ''It's About Time'', due to the multiverse premise.
** Beenox's statement about the end of updates had them tease the prospect of future game projects in the same breathd. This, combined with the rumor of a ''Crash'' Player vs. Player game mentioned by the insider [=TheGamingRevolution=] had several fans believe that they would be the main developer of the next spin-off game in the series, with some believing that it could be a party game (since Beenox already did a racing game via ''Nitro-Fueled'').

** Among the tracks, Turbo Track is seen as this. Not only is it [[EverybodyHasStandards consistently avoided by online players]] due to its [[ThatOneLevel infamous difficulty]] even compared to the GP tracks, it's the ''only'' track to have not been included in any cups (unlike Oxide Station and Clockwork Wumpa, which were left out in their origin games), especially with Megamix Mania and Drive-Thru Danger getting their own dedicated themed cups.

** The final DLC tracks, Megamix Mania and Drive-Thru Danger, just so happened to have levels eerily similar to them revealed in the launch trailer for ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot4ItsAboutTime''. Whether the tracks were meant to [[ProductionForeshadowing foreshadow]] locations in that game is a matter of serious discussion, especially since Beenox has confirmed to work on that game's [[ArrangedMode N. Verted Mode]], so they would have had knowledge of them. Adding to this, the fact that most of the characters in ''Nitro-Fueled'' were added [[RememberTheNewGuy without prior context]] has made fans wonder which ones, if any, would show up in ''It's About Time'', due to the multiverse premise.

** The sheer volume of characters coming from practically every corner of the series led to the fanbase making a bunch of joke suggestions for who should become a racer, with one particular Crash subreddit claiming that an iron checkpoint crate deserves to be playable. [[JokeAndReceive Cue the first post-GP update,]] [[AscendedMeme in which it actually happened]].

** For the longest time, people have complained about the sheer amount of invisible walls littered around several tracks as well as the botched out Global Leaderboards that saves Time Trial records from lap exploits. Come the first post-Grand Prix update, the invisible walls are now ''completely'' patched out as well as clearing out the Global Leaderboards from exploited records, leaving out the genuine ones.
** While otherwise beloved, the Grand Prix events wore out players that felt pressured to collect the themed racers and items via the Nitro Gauge and leaderboards, with the concern of losing them for a long time. The first post-GP update has not only put the majority of existing items back in the Pit Stop, it also introduced a new Wumpa Coin-based achievement system, allowing all players to clear them at their own leisure.

* NeverLiveItDown: The first thing you'll hear about the game whenever it's discussed is that there are microtransactions in it, despite their implementation here being more benign than many games that include them.