The Kart Racing genre isn’t overly congested, but it only has a few titles that are worthy of mention. If I mention Mario Kart, Crash Team Racing and Sonic Team Racing then you’ll more than likely have seen them or even divulged in the fun those games offer. I like to try and test any other games that attempt to sit on the pedestal with the greats, and now we have a new contender in Starlit Kart Racing. Rockhead Studios have many creations that mainly span across mobile devices and are now dipping their toes into the console market. How does their karting entry to the wider world convert to the big screen, will it rev your engine or spin out of control? Keep reading and let’s find out.

Introduction

I was a little confused at how this game pushes itself as a free-to-play experience with microtransactions but features no online multiplayer functionality. Whilst I welcome games with no entry cost with open arms, it seemed a little suspect to me, and I wondered if I would be locked out of specific features unless I stumped up some cash. Starlit Kart Racing takes clear inspiration from the games I have already mentioned and brings its own formula to the mix which is suitable for all ages and abilities.

Gameplay

The layout of modes on offer in Starlit Kart Racing is near identical to Mario Kart in the sense that you can quick race or dive into a cup which has several races with a point scoring system. There is a ranked mode against other AI characters, but I found that playing this did give you rankings, but you couldn’t really build currency to unlock future goodies. The control scheme is as you’d expect with the triggers being utilised to accelerate and brake with other buttons being used to activate power-ups.

Mechanically the racing is actually solid and careering around the tracks is great fun, but I felt that a lot of the time the AI had a clear advantage over me. What I mean by this is that they could recover from a projectile attack fairly quickly and zoom off almost instantly. When I had my progress on the track hampered it felt painfully slow to get going again. There was a wide range of power-ups to get hands-on with and this made the overall experience far more fun. I’ve played a fair few similar titles recently where you don’t have enough variety in this area, but Starlit does well here. Personally, I had enough fun with everything I could access to the point where I played it all through and it’s worth going through to unlock some gear and achievements.

Graphics & Audio

Visually Starlit Kart Racing is quite pretty, and I was quite taken aback really as I wasn’t expecting it to fare so well in the visual department with it being a free-to-play title. Whilst it is clearly aimed at a younger audience aesthetically with cute cartooney characters with a cascade of warm and vibrant colours, it’s pleasing enough to look at. Sure, it isn’t the best kart racer I’ve ever clapped eyes on, but it does the job. The range of circuits is each different in style and there are some well-constructed tracks that are actually lengthy in size. Audio is what you’d expect of your typical game in the genre with nothing really standing out, again it ticks the boxes and nothing more.

In Conclusion

Starlit Kart Racing isn’t a bad entry to the genre by any means and offers a good few hours of fun for all age ranges. The majority of the game is free-to-play but some portions of the game are monetised. The 600cc races can’t be accessed unless you spend £4.99 and a few of the karts can only be unlocked by spending real cash. This isn’t the end of the world by any means, they need to make money somehow. After playing the majority of what I possibly could without dipping my hand in my pocket, I didn’t feel the need or want to invest anymore. But how they have structured the whole game is baffling, it would make more sense to charge for the game as a whole.

The developers have missed the boat here by not including online multiplayer because as a game it is actually pretty solid in terms of its mechanics and gameplay loop. Had you been able to race against real opponents rather than just AI, the longevity and replayability would be unlimited. Not only this the monetisation would have made much more sense. If you’re after something though that is harmless and casual racing fun for a couple of hours with some straightforward achievements to unlock, it’s worth a download