Kartrider: Rush I have played quite a bit, a couple of years ago at least. I remember it being one of several free-to-play games with a “Mario Kart feel” that Frank and I spent some time with, but it would be outright lying to say that I remember it as particularly successful. Charmingly playful, colorful graphics and nice presentation but the driving itself was nothing further. Despite this, I’ve been looking forward to the newly released Kartrider: Drift where the focus is of course on sliding through entire tracks, sitting in a cute little mini-go-kart.
Kart Rider: Drift Is Just Like Crash: Nitrokart, Diddy Kong Racing, Sonic Racing, Cartoon Network Speedway, Dreamworks Super Star Kartz, Nicktoons Racing, Star Wars: Super Bombad Racing, Pac-Man World Rally, Chocobo Racing, Konami Crazy Racers, Modnation Racers, Little Big Planet Karting and Warped Kart Racers a shameless, low-concept Mario Kart copy. It’s very, very fascinating how many Mario Kart ripoffs have been released over the past 30 years and the fact that they’re still being developed and pushed out to all sorts of platforms is the ultimate proof of how well Nintendo has cared for its beloved racing series over the years.
This is an ad:
If, like me, you play on Iphone/Android, the kart throttles itself as you throttle, steer and activate items that are picked up. The drifting mechanics are super simple and basically just involve you turning, then you start a skid that you can hardly get out of. To claim that the amount of grip/friction that the developers put in here is too stingy, would be a bit like saying that Jonas Mäki wears “somewhat” too small sweaters. They fit tighter than a sausage skin and in Kartrider: Drift you skid more than you drive straight, and it might have been fun if the drifting contained finesse or some kind of challenge. This is more reminiscent of driving a car on soap and the difference in surface (between, for example, asphalt, ice or gravel) is equal to zero. Non-existent. The game mechanics are evidently developed by a team that just couldn’t be bothered and for its own part it became boring, monotonous and simple already during the tutorial portion of this game.
Added to that is the lackluster feel of speed and a track design that has been adapted for the slippery soapy kart physics which makes it feel like you’re traveling more sideways than forward, which kind of defeats the whole point of racing, if you ask me. The graphics then? It looks like Kartrider: Rush, almost identical in parts. I think the presentation is nice and the ability to customize your map with colors, decals and styling is definitely approved but I can’t recommend this game for several reasons. The driving is abysmal, the sound is horrible (a short skidding sound is looped, for an eternity which in the end just sounds like rubbing a piece of styrofoam on a pane of glass) and the racing quickly becomes monotonous. Plus in the margin for the free bit and the crossplay portion but that doesn’t save this disappointment.
