Well, after two days of playing KartRider alonside MapleStory, I do have to say, this game will have you wanting to play over and over and over again. Right now, because gKR is in beta there’s not really much I can say in terms of content. I wish I could show you more screenshots than the one I posted here as well but, alas, I dunno if it’s the game’s problem or my computer but it decided to BSOD on any further screenshots.
But yes, in case you can’t see from the above shot, this game is really cutesy; as of right now there aren’t a whole lot of customization items since the beta is roughly 48 hours old. Hopefully we’ll see more options become available as time wears on and we get closer to open beta and the final product. (This explains why everyone looks fairly similar.)
This game is really simple to pick up and start playing; arrow keys are used for propulsion and steering, shift is used to drift and ctrl is used to use items that you pick up (in an item race) or boosts that you generate from drifting. (in a speed race) Getting boosts at the start, after a drift, and when recovering from being hit by an item is fairly simple as well; all it requires is to press up at the correct time. Drifting can be a bit difficult in terms of controlling and it takes a lot of practice in order to execute a nice, tight drift properly. This is, of course, a valuable part of a speed race so it’s absolutely required to learn. (Especially once you get to your license tests.)
In my opinion, the luck factor in items races is a bit too much; what’s going to happen in each race is completely random and you can’t anticipate what’s going to happen, especially when everyone’s saving water balloons for the home stretch. Sometimes you’ll have a well fought-out fight where everyone finishes close, and you’ll have races where only one person manages to finish as well.
Speed races are a lot more popular because it relies more on skill than it does with item races. Being able to drift well here is what’s going to make you or break you in this mode. More drifting = more boosts, more boosts = more speed, more speed = being able to beat all those Chinese snakers whom I have no idea why they’re playing a closed beta when they have a full version back in China. (Yes, you can snake in this game, and I’m sorry if I offended any Chinese out there; I’m just cheesed off about it.)
As I said, I can’t really judge this game just yet, but when you start off with your Rookie license, you have a very minimal selection of tracks to choose from; you have four and three of them are very square/oval like. Earning up to 20 racing points for a win, and needing almost 5500 to even get to the level where you can do your L3 license test (which isn’t out in our little beta) can make this a long and dubious task as well. I’m hoping that when the final version comes out that there’s more variety at the lower levels.
That’s all I have to really say about it now; content is only lacking mainly because it’s a beta, but even with what’s there it would be enough to keep even the most seasoned Mario Karters busy for a while. So… get out there and have some fun with this!
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