The Last Powerslide

When I was growing up, my dad bought a Playstation 1 for my brothers and I to play. He got us 3 starting games; Twisted Metal, Crash Team Racing, and Warhawk.

Personally, my favorite was Crash Team Racing, since I already loved the Crash Bandicoot series when some of my cute little schoolfriends told me about it.

It was love at first button push, as I found a true love for the powersliding curves and the creative dialogue when I infrequently played the story mode.

My brothers and I played it for years, until I recently dug up the disc. I was heartbroken when it didn't work.

I really wanted the to play the game, as I recently found footage of it on youtube. I went to all the local stores to try and find a copy, but the search came up unsucessful.

Then I remembered that there are PS1 emulators on the internet, so I downloaded an emulator and searched for an ISO of the game.

And I have never regretted something more than this.

I started to the computer to get on the internet and looked for an ISO. The first search result was CoolROM.com.

I saw the familiar box art and fell into a wave of happiness.

I knew this game was good, but I wanted to know what other people felt of this terrific game.

The comments were strange; they all said these wierd things, as if the game was haunted or something.

"I miss Crash, he will be missed."

The comment struck me as odd; I mean, I had never beaten the story mode as a kid, but did Crash really die at the end?

I downloaded the ISO, but i couldn't get that strange comment off of the moon that is my head. It echoed like a sound bouncing off a mountain.

After downloading the file, Chrome crashed, which was very unusual, since my computer really has no trouble running the internet.

I didn't need it anymore, so I just left it alone.

I unzipped the file and found a text file named THO12fd.

I wanted to play the game, so I skipped the text file.

The game started up as usual after i took the emulator's tutorial on how to open an ISO.

When I heard the opening theme, I got up and danced. Hapiness swelled within me that I finally got to play CTR again!

I immediately went to the Story mode, where there was a file that said His Last Powe

It was cut off due to the limited number of characters.

I chose Crash, only because N.Gin was too slow for me.

I got into the first world, N.Sanity Beach, and found that all of the boss key doors were open. Not just open, GONE.

I went to Gemstone Valley, and I found the door to Nitrous Oxide, the main villian and final boss of the game, was open, but the keyholes on the bottom of the door were missing.

I wanted to fight Oxide, so I went in.

He had no starting dialogue, and the race started as usual. But instead, at the bottom,instead of saying Oxide Station, it simply read Overturn.

Oxide got a head start, and I got off to a late start.

Oxide continually dropped nitro crates, and I eventually hit one.

Crash, instead of getting up, just lay there, lifeless.

I smashed every button on my keyboard, but Crash didn't move. He was dead.

For some reason, my mental attachment to him made me start to cry.

It than warped to Oxide's Spaceship, Where he started to speak.

"You Lose, PLAYER! AHAHAAAHAAAHAAA!!"

Then, he held up Crash's severed head, and he just kept laughing, and laughing, until I shut off my computer.

I loved CTR before, but now,

I can't look at his happy face without breaking into an Eliptical sob that whines and drones through my brain forever.

2 weeks after the incident
KENTWOOD,MICH

A 13 year old was found strung to a ceiling by his neck this morning at around 8:00 this morning.

"I know my Johnathan," his mother said,

"And he would not do this to himself."

Incidentally, a note was found near his hung body.

The note simply read THO12fd.