Nickelodeon Kart is a new racing game for Switch, Xbox One and PS4. Taking place in the Nicktoon world where some of the best of the best Nick characters race alongside the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This game is what it markets itself as, a racing game. The player chooses from 12 Nickelodeon Stars from Tommy Pickles of “Rugrats” fame to the likes of Arnold from “Hey Arnold” and even the titular Spongebob. While personally, I would have liked other Nickelodeon characters from the nineties, the Turtles fit in because they are modern Nick characters. It is nice to see characters that don’t ever interact are now able to race each other.
Players race around locales inspired by these hit shows, and try to win the race. They throw items and drift around tracks, doing all they can to take home the gold. Be it in free play or Grand Prix it’s all about winning. The player can choose the difficulty of both the race itself and of the AI. The player can take on the hardest track and the hardest AI or can mix and match as they please. It’s rather nice to be able to adjust to the player’s desired play level.
The game does also has a team racing mode where players all race around a track. They are divided into 4 teams based on color and then the winning team will be chosen based on the team members placement in games. If the parent is playing with a child this might be a great mode to use as they can offset the child’s inability to race well if that is the case.
The game plays fine but, it doesn’t have the shine of other racers. Drifting is certainly not as polished and that is important in a good racer. Though, it does give a reason for players to keep playing such as buying new parts for cars. The parts for cars all take ideas from the shows and that is great. Though, the player will have to play quite a few races to gather the coins needed to upgrade and customize the cars.
It is nice to see old characters back in the spotlight, and I’m glad for that. Nostalgia wise this game does hit home, in a classic childhood way, for me personally. Though I would have liked it more if there was actual music from the shows instead of the awful music that the game plays throughout races. This music is grating and all around worth turning off in lieu of just about anything else, preferably Nickelodeon music!
There is also a multiplayer mode where players can battle it out and race against each other. It’s always good for racing games to have a battle mode as sometimes, that is just what is needed. These modes aren’t necessarily for everyone, but they include tag, free for all, and capture the flag. Of course, these are games played by children so don’t expect anything super robust.
This game is fun in its way, yet seems to take from other games in its genre. The game that I see the most in it is definitely Mario Kart 8. There is just something about the design of the game that screams Mario Kart 8 tribute. Now, that isn’t a bad thing because Mario Kart 8 is phenomenal. But, just don’t jump into playing Nicktoon Racers thinking it will change the way racers work.
Nicktoons Racers is a solid game for kids and might be nostalgic for people who enjoyed some classic Nickelodeon. While it doesn’t do as much in the latter regard, it is nice to see a Nickelodeon game that is using at least a little bit of nostalgia. If anyone has an inkling to race around a track with some characters from the past this might just be the game to get!
*Review Code Given For Review Purposes