Given that he’s an web icon lately and the star of numerous memes, it’s a little bit of a shock that it’s taken this lengthy – 12 full years, the truth is – to discover a approach to get Shrek into one other online game. The final title to function the onion-layered ogre was DreamWorks Super Star Kartz, launched by Activision in 2011 for the Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, and 3DS. It’s considerably becoming, then, that he would return in one other DreamWorks karting sport, and equally becoming that it too feels two generations outdated.
DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing is the most recent providing from Bamtang Games, which was beforehand chargeable for the Nickelodeon Kart Racers trilogy (which began weak on Switch, bought higher with the second sport then misplaced its means once more with the ultimate entry). Sadly, whereas this DreamWorks-themed racer has various first rate concepts, the execution is as sloppy as a Bergin consuming a Troll.
The roster is first rate, with 20 characters to select from, eight of which can be found from the beginning. Most huge DreamWorks franchises are in there, and whereas Shrek is represented probably the most with six racers (Shrek, Donkey, Fiona, Puss in Boots, Lord Farquaad, and Kitty Softpaws), there’s nonetheless illustration in there from the likes of The Boss Baby, Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar, Trolls and even Megamind.
Not each DreamWorks manufacturing is in there, doubtless both because of licensing causes or only a normal lack of recognition, so in the event you’re a fan of The Croods, Rise of the Guardians, Antz, Monsters vs Aliens, Over the Hedge, and the like, you’re going to be upset. And in the event you had been a fan of The Road to El Dorado, you’re in all probability too outdated to be wasting your gaming time with this kind of guff anyway.
There are some positives right here. There’s clearly been some effort made to make this an genuine DreamWorks karting sport, moderately than a generic racer that’s simply had the lion from Madagascar and the annoying child from How to Train Your Dragon dumped into it.
The tracks cowl a bunch of areas from the films, that means Shrek followers get to race by way of Far Far Away and Shrek’s Swamp whereas Trolls is represented by Pop Village and Bergen Town. From the observe set contained in the Baby Corp constructing to the one within the New York City Zoo, we recognize the hassle that’s been made right here.
It’s only a disgrace that the whole lot that takes place in these areas detracts from that effort, not least the voice performing which options among the worst soundalikes we’ve heard in a sport. Naturally, we weren’t anticipating the likes of Mike Myers, Jack Black, and Ben Stiller to lend their voices right here, however given you might throw a stone on TikTok with out even wanting and hit 30 folks doing Shrek impressions, it’s virtually inspiring how this sport managed to search out somebody who sounds so terrible (and Shrek is the worst of a typically unhealthy bunch).
What’s much more disappointing is that the sport does truly do a intelligent factor with the dialogue, in that every racer has a set of character-specific traces that they will utter after they cross somebody. So when Kung Fu Panda bumps into Alex from Madagascar, he’ll say “Look out, Alex.” It’s a pleasant contact, it is only a disgrace that he sounds much less like Jack Black and extra like Jack Black’s cousin. Not the one which feels like him, the opposite one.
While the voice performing can at the least be turned off, the identical can’t be stated for the course design, most notably the annoying grime patches which might be discovered scattered in a few of them – not simply off the observe, however generally on it. The sport’s drifting feels a bit of on the awkward facet as it’s, however once you drift over one among these grime patches the drift is killed immediately (versus most karting video games the place the drift continues however you decelerate massively).
Not solely does this take away the pace increase you’ve been charging up – which might be irritating however very a lot a ‘git gud’ scenario – however as a result of drifting usually includes holding the Control Stick in the wrong way it additionally often ends in you wildly veering off the observe the second you hit the grime. Add to this the truth that the sport appears to be like blurry and exhausting to see at the very best of instances, and that these grime patches can seem with out a lot warning because of this, and it may be massively annoying.
The power-ups are additionally fairly underwhelming. Although there’s a Help display on the primary menu which explains all 16 of them, even after a couple of hours of play we saved forgetting what they did as a result of they’re so unremarkable. It’s not such as you don’t get a lot of an opportunity to make use of them – the extreme rubber-banding makes positive you may by no means actually get too far forward of the pack so that you’re at all times in amongst the ‘motion’ – they’re simply too boring for any of them to lodge in your mind as ones to look out for.
Above all else, the factor is simply clunky past perception. Even on the quickest of 4 pace settings, the sport can really feel painfully sluggish once you aren’t hitting boosts, and whereas the body charge makes an attempt to hit 30 frames per second, there’s an actual jankiness to issues which means it’s hardly ever constant. We additionally often discovered annoying ‘damaged’ bits, comparable to a bit the place we hit a bounce mistaken and slowly floated all the way down to the bottom as an alternative whereas our opponents raced off into the gap.
Ultimately, it’s tough to suggest DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing to anybody however probably the most die-hard DreamWorks fan, or probably the most affected person karting fan who’s keen to miss all its shortcomings in return for some new tracks to race round. When there are quite a few far higher examples of karting video games already on Switch, you’d have to be the kind of one who often listens to the Trolls soundtrack on Spotify to correctly get pleasure from this one.
In a means, it’s unlucky that the sport options ‘All-Star’ within the title, as a result of all that does is make us take into consideration the Smash Mouth track synonymous with the primary Shrek film, and remind us of higher instances. This sport, however, has us wanting type of dumb, with our finger and our thumb within the form of an ‘L’ on our brow.
Conclusion
Unless you are one of many greatest DreamWorks followers on the planet, you may battle to fall in love with DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing. Its makes an attempt at authenticity and its quite a few references are admirable, nevertheless it actually lets itself down on the observe with irritating design selections, unstable efficiency, and a forgettable vary of power-ups.
