The Karters

Tried it for a solid 25 minutes. Literally unplayable. Countless of bugs and SO not ready to be released. Given the devs postponed the game countless of times as well you should expect at least a game where the menu navigating and singleplayer should work properly. This is not the case. I do not recommend anyone buying this game.

Update 13/01/2023: After four years consisting of a single update, the game is no longer available for purchase. The Karters 2: Turbo-Charged is expected to enter beta in March. Let's see how it holds up. Update 05/01/2023: The misleading screenshots have been removed, and the game is being remade in The Karters 2: Turbo-Charged. On the one hand I'm optimistic about this given the gameplay trailers and frequent updates, and on the other hand, the current state of this version of the game remains fresh in my mind. As far as I can tell this version of the game will not receive any updates despite remaining in Early Access and charging £15.49. Update 12/08/2022: The screenshots on the storepage do NOT represent the game as it is now. While it does say "upcoming," it bears mentioning that the game you can purchase looks nothing like those screenshots [i]now[/i]. This is the first I'm seeing of this after over four years of little forum communication and flip-flopping on development progress. This wouldn't be a problem if the game wasn't charging £15, and showing nothing of what the game currently represents. **Contrary to the "Early Access Review" tag, this review was written on the day of its "proper" release before it went BACK into Early Access. It has likely been tagged as that because I have made some edits such as this one. I will continue to update it as the game's development goes on.** Never have I had to write a review about a more painfully disappointing game. The Karters, on paper and in beta, is a solid idea - it takes inspiration from one of the karting kings, and puts it on Steam. What should have been a simple translation from the Playstation One to 2018 has been disastrous, despite my strong faith in the Closed Beta phases. However, its storied development history is the cause of much cynicism; the game has been delayed numerous times, opting out of the Early Access programme to instead deliver two limited Closed Betas. When it eventually dribbled onto Steam to its jaded yet excited playerbase, the game has been dogpiled for its evident bugs, some being in the game as early as the first Closed Beta. Upon starting the game, you're greeted with the same UI as in the beta, only without a working Options menu. Should you get into it, adjusting the controls is inconsistently functional. Sometimes mapping controls works, and sometimes they reset the moment you leave the menu. The Adventure Mode allows you to play as any character within the game, with an "upgrade" at certain milestones in the campaign. One good thing I can say about this is that the Adventure Mode progress is not shared amongst characters, increasing what little replay value you might find. It's also an attempt to stay loyal to Crash Team Racing's influence, which in all aspects it does very well. But it is a video game in its own right, and with that come certain other expectations. From what little I've seen of the powerups (that have been removed in order to be fixed), there's approximately eight but I only have two; Boosters, which are self explanatory, and the Toxic Jar akin to CTR's test tube voodoo placed powerup. I've not seen the effects of the jar because the AI doesn't drive into it. It's quite clever, and tricky, but often will it bug out by simply driving into walls and being unable to reverse out of them, or find itself stuck in a surface. [The AI & Trophy mode have been removed in order to be fixed] Two other modes exist within the Adventure mode besides standard races; time attack and letter mode, the latter once again being similar to CTR's CTR mode. No, that's not a typo. Again, very well done in terms of its loyalty to Crash, but as a video game on its own merits it has its flaws with hit detection when touching crates for items and letters. The controls are just as smooth as they once were, though without boosting the karts are incredibly slow. Given how they are go-karts, that's to be expected, and it encourages what Crash Team Racing once did - there's just no way you're going to win if you're a powerslide pariah. Besides the animations, there's no impact felt from falling or making a jump, which could be greatly improved with the simple enabling of vibration or a slider for it. The Steam controller would be ideal if such a thing is to be implemented. Alas, many more things need to be implemented and I'm not sure if they ever will be. Tracks for one thing - while they are OK, they rely on competitive players with powerups galore to keep them exciting. The Karters and Meow Motors could do with swapping out their powerup frequency, then you'd have a pretty wild ride in both games. Visually, the game looks OK if I'm being generous with the excuse of "it's an indie game", ignoring the myriad of wonderful, beautiful kart racers that exist (All-Star Fruit Racing, Bears can't Drift?!, Toybox Turbos, I could go on....), but it hardly stands out amongst the others. Truly, its biggest selling point and the best thing it does is the CTR stuff, but brought down by the rocky foundations it's built upon. The sound design is the only unique thing I can comment on positively, as the soundtrack is upbeat and joyous, the karts grumbling and roaring is beautiful and other miscellaneous sound effects are pretty nice all 'round. I cannot recommend this game, not even to die-hard Crash Team Racing fans. It's not that it's a bad kart racer; like Garfield Kart it's one of the best on Steam, but like GK it's a bad product. There's bugs galore from pause menus not working to progress being wrongly calculated, from being unable to find matches to being unable to find resolution settings. I can't fault the devs if they give up on this given the feedback, but if they want to soldier on, it's going to be an up-hill battle all the way. Then again, their company logo seems to suggest they're prepared. I certainly hope so. Perhaps it would've been better if Nitrous Oxide turned the whole planet into a concrete parking lot after all. Need a second opinion from me? Check out the ("FINAL" RELEASE) video below! https://youtu.be/6AFCKGq3Koo