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Provided that he’s an web icon as of late and the star of numerous memes, it’s a little bit of a shock that it’s taken this lengthy – 12 full years, in truth – to discover a strategy to get Shrek into one other online game. The final title to characteristic the onion-layered ogre was DreamWorks Tremendous 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that he would return in one other DreamWorks karting sport, and equally becoming that it too feels two generations outdated.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 Video games, which was beforehand answerable for the Nickelodeon Kart Racers trilogy (which began weak on Swap, received higher with the second sport then misplaced its means once more with the ultimate entry). Sadly, whereas this DreamWorks-themed racer has various respectable concepts, the execution is as sloppy as a Bergin consuming a Troll.
![DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing Review - Screenshot 1 of](https://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/142343/900x.jpg)
The roster is respectable, 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 Child, Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar, Trolls and even Megamind.
Not each DreamWorks manufacturing is in there, probably both resulting from licensing causes or only a common lack of recognition, so in case 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 And in case you had been a fan of The Highway to El Dorado, you’re in all probability too outdated to be wasting your gaming time with this form of guff anyway.
There are some positives right here. There’s clearly been some effort made to make this an genuine DreamWorks karting sport, relatively than a generic racer that’s simply had the lion from Madagascar and the annoying child from Tips on how to Prepare Your Dragon dumped into it.
![DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing Review - Screenshot 1 of](https://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/142341/900x.jpg)
The tracks cowl a bunch of areas from the films, which 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 City. From the observe set contained in the Child Corp constructing to the one within the New York Metropolis Zoo, we admire the hassle that’s been made right here.
It’s only a disgrace that every little thing 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 would throw a stone on TikTok with out even trying and hit 30 folks doing Shrek impressions, it’s nearly inspiring how this sport managed to search out somebody who sounds so awful (and Shrek is the worst of a usually unhealthy bunch).
![DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing Review - Screenshot 1 of](https://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/142352/900x.jpg)
What’s much more disappointing is that the sport does really 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 is a good 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 seems like him, the opposite one.
Whereas the voice performing can not less than 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 typically on it. The sport’s drifting feels a bit of on the awkward aspect as it’s, however once you drift over one in every of 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 velocity 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 Management Stick in the other way it additionally ceaselessly ends in you wildly veering off the observe the second you hit the grime. Add to this the truth that the sport seems to be blurry and onerous to see at the very best of occasions, and that these grime patches can seem with out a lot warning in consequence, and it may be vastly annoying.
![DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing Review - Screenshot 1 of](https://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/142344/900x.jpg)
The facility-ups are additionally fairly underwhelming. Though there’s a Assist display on the principle menu which explains all 16 of them, even after just a few hours of play we stored 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’ll be able to 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 uninteresting 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 velocity settings, the sport can really feel painfully gradual once you aren’t hitting boosts, and whereas the body price makes an attempt to hit 30 frames per second, there’s an actual jankiness to issues which means it’s not often constant. We additionally often discovered annoying ‘damaged’ bits, comparable to a piece the place we hit a soar flawed and slowly floated all the way down to the bottom as a substitute whereas our opponents raced off into the space.
Finally, it’s tough to advocate 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 much better examples of karting video games already on Swap, you’d must be the form of one who repeatedly listens to the Trolls soundtrack on Spotify to correctly get pleasure from this one.
![DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing Review - Screenshot 1 of](https://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/142349/900x.jpg)
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 occasions. This sport, alternatively, has us trying type of dumb, with our finger and our thumb within the form of an ‘L’ on our brow.
Conclusion
Except you are one of many largest DreamWorks followers on the planet, you will 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, but it surely actually lets itself down on the observe with irritating design decisions, unstable efficiency, and a forgettable vary of power-ups.