that winning the races will win their freedom, but threatens them with the destruction of Earth if they refuse to race. After both teams accept the challenge, Velo explains that the racers will compete on four worlds of his choosing, and promises a race against the galactic champion if the champions of those worlds are defeated. When Krunk, Nash, Norm, and Geary, the champions of Terra, Barin, Fenomena, and Teknee respectively, are defeated, the Earth racers go up against the galactic champion: Emperor Velo himself. The racers defeat Velo, but he refuses to send them back to Earth unless they win all of the time relics and defeat him again. Velo loses again to the Earth racers and literally explodes in a bout of fury, revealing himself to be a robot suit controlled by a small gremlin-like version of himself. If Team Bandicoot win the race, Velo, having lost his influence over his subjects, dejectedly relinquishes his empire to the Bandicoots. Crash considers becoming the next emperor of the galaxy, but decides otherwise and gives control back to Velo in exchange for sending the Bandicoots back to Earth. If Team Cortex win the race, Velo struggles with Cortex over the possession of his scepter, only to be stopped by Tiny. Cortex uses the scepter's power in an attempt to return to Earth, but the scepter breaks and sends Cortex, N. Gin and Tiny to Terra instead. When they are confronted by the natives, Tiny repairs the scepter and is subsequently revered as a king, much to Cortex's annoyance. Development and release The game that would become Crash Nitro Kart was initially conceptualized and developed by Traveller's Tales. The original concept involved vehicles that would sustain damage until they were reduced to a single wheel; the vehicle could be repaired by collecting special items scattered around the tracks. The character Nina Cortex, who would later appear in Crash Twinsanity, was created and designed by Duke Mighten during this stage of development. Development duties of the game were subsequently transferred to Vicarious Visions, where the game was tentatively titled Crash Team Racing 2 during pre-production. The characters of the game were designed by series veteran Charles Zembillas, while the environments were designed by Joe Pearson (another veteran of the series), John Nevarez, Alan Simmons and Di Davies. The karts were designed by Perry Zombolis Jr. and Andy Lomerson. Recognizing that full motion