Yet another licensed kart racer joins the wave of Mario Kart-inspired racers: this time it’s a massive crossover of Dreamworks characters who’ll be duking it out on track to the sound of boosts, drifts and power-ups. It’s DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing, reviewed on Xbox Series X!
Shrek is love, Shrek is life
There don’t seem to be a couple months that go by without someone hopping on the Mario Kart train, self-inserting an IP or multiple of them into a powered-up kart racer in the vein of Nintendo’s timeless classic. Sonic The Hedgehog, characters by Rare, Crash Bandicoot, or more recently IPs by Nickelodeon, The Smurfs, Garfield and so on – and now, it’s DreamWorks’ time, putting the likes of Kung Fu Panda, Shrek, Puss In Boots, Dragon Trainer, Trolls and plenty more under the same roof. Some may remember this not even being the animation studio’s first attempt in the genre: with not only Shrek Smash n’ Crash and Madagascar Kartz tackling their individual IPs in kart racers, but also a full-blown crossover in the form of DreamWorks Super Star Kartz, released back in 2011 on Xbox 360 among others. DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing takes inspiration from the same places, but is by all means a brand new project.
So, let’s say you somehow never touched a Mario Kart game before and you don’t have a Nintendo Switch to play what is arguably the pinnacle of the genre, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Kart racers such as these offer fast-paced, highly acrobatic tracks with wide turns, shortcuts, turbo pads on the ground, ramps to clear and a lot more. Skilled players are able to maximize performance by using all these elements to their advantage, and by drifting the hell out of every single turn and sometimes even on straights. This couldn’t be any easier to pull off, with a single button to press a semi-automated sliding process that lasts until it’s no longer held or until we touch a wall, with a notable turbo boost rewarded for longer drifts. That is the basic driving itself, but each race is also severely impacted by the many collectible random power-ups: these range from turbos, homing attacks forward, traps left backwards, protections against other power-ups and plenty more. Naturally, these power-ups are heavily inspired by Dreamworks’ properties, with the likes of Shrek’s throwable onions being the most notable example.
Hey now, you’re an all-star
The game follows the Mario Kart formula a bit too closely at times, all the way down to the cup structure (4 races to clear, with a star system in place as well), the UI elements, the camera angles and animations after winning a race, the boost start by timing the accelerator right and so on. One track straight-up copies the quirk of the rotating track parts from the Tick-Tock Clock race from Mario Kart DS! That doesn’t mean the game has absolutely no unique features whatsoever though, as there’s a couple rather smart changes to the evergreen formula. First, my favourite, is how every track has one or more paths that open up via collecting a Magic Lyre, which then materializes for a couple seconds in the forms of a short piece of flying road, which is then extended via collecting further lyres on it. Missing one means either falling off this path or straight-up out of boundaries, so there’s quite a risk in taking them, but it usually brings in power-ups and perhaps a faster route. Regular shortcuts exist, too.
Part of the power-up management is also rather unique to this game, and it connects to one of the franchises in this game: Trolls. Whether we start a solo race or a cup, a race host is selected, who then adds special power-ups to the event – called a Troll Surprise. These are then activated either by collecting music notes scattered across the track (to keep the Mario Kart comparisons, like the coins found in Nintendo’s games), or by drifting in specifically placed paths to drift on and fill up the note bar which then can be used for the host’s special power. Boosts, special auras ad so on. It’s a cool little mechanic that adds a little more depth and variety to the events.
To make something special you just have to believe it’s special
Unfortunately, at its core, the game isn’t just that polished or fun – not just compared to Mario Kart, but also to many recent “clones”. The handling is competent enough, but the readability of a lot of power-ups is hit or miss, many tracks have bizarre invisible barriers, sometimes the roads seem to glitch out a bit, and so on. But perhaps more damningly, the game’s difficulty balance is a bit all over the place as well, because often a power-up hitting in the wrong place can mean that the player fails a long shortcut sequence, which sets them back by like one third of a lap, making it virtually impossible to come back to the lead again. There’s also not enough power-ups to bother the leader, so if you manage to get away you likely will stay in front.
The game’s presentation is generally solid. Colourful locales from the DreamWorks movies, with both characters and areas showing decent polish and assets. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t seem to support HDR even on Xbox Series X, which makes the colours appear more muted than they could be. Lastly, the game presents the sort of variety one could expect from such a title: free races, challenges, time trials, online races (which we couldn’t really test, as usual, due to a lack of players online), on top of a vast customization of karts that’s pretty much lifted from Mario Kart as well, all the way to the icons of the various elements like tyres and engines. There’s enough to come back to here, for those who enjoy this kart racing bonanza.
Aim for failure, and you’ll always succeed
Ultimately, DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing gets the job done without excessive amount of effort. There’s more than enough content, but the quality of the racing and its general balance is just not on par with most of the better Mario Kart clones out there, let alone the last episodes of the Nintendo franchise. A handful of cool ideas such as dynamic shortcuts and the Trolls characters giving special characters give the game a little bit of identity, amid the many design and visual elements that ape Mario Kart way too closely at times. But unless you absolutely need a kart racer with the likes of Shrek and Kung Fu Panda in its roster, this is a fun but ultimately not essential game.
DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing
Played on
Xbox Series X
PROS
- Plenty of DreamWorks content
- Cool dynamic shortcuts
CONS
- Not as balanced or polished as it may seem
- Way too imitative of Mario Kart
