Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway Review

Pretending to be a Nintendo franchise appears to be the marketing strategy for games with the Nickelodeon name attached. After two tyre-screeching Mario Kart-aping racing titles, with Nickelodeon Kart Racers one and two, as well as a Super Smash Bros-styled brawler dubbed Nickelodeon All-Stars Brawl, GameMill Entertainment have partnered with Bamtang games once again for Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway.

Hoping that imitation is less flattery and more a resemblance of its own merits, Slime Speedway has its work sliced up for itself and handed on a giant SpongeBob-sized plush. Is it third-time lucky for these pesky cartoon characters in their plucky little karts, or is the slime on this speedway irredeemably toxic?

Much akin to kart racers of yore, Slime Speedway features a host of single-player, co-operative, and online multiplayer options to keep the gas guzzling, making for an appealing and cheery time, particularly if you have little ones who crave an alternative to Mario Kart. This bevy of modes includes Slime Scramble, time attacks, a challenge mode, and a free race option. Slime Scramble and free race options are available in couch co-op and online multiplayer, so there’s no need to tear around circuits on your lonesome if you don’t want to.

Most of your time will likely be spent contending in the Slime Scramble- a series of championships hosted by one of Nickelodeon’s iconic characters. There are four races in each championship and once completed, you can witness the top 3 enjoy the spoils of success in a podium celebration, before moving onto the next Slime Scramble championship. You’re also rated out of 3 stars depending on the position you finish each race, though oddly you can win a championship and still be awarded 2 stars simply because you came second in one of the events.

There is no other way to cut it, Slime Scramble is bone dry thanks to its presentation and the repetition of races, which seem mindlessly plastered together without consideration or enthusiasm. You compete in 4 events in 3 lap races that only contain bare-bones racing, with no other variations to spice proceedings up, then you will enter another series and do the exact same thing. The monotony is overbearing and it’s easy to wilt in boredom because Slime Speedway lacks the va-va-voom of its contemporaries.

This issue is alleviated to a satisfactory degree thanks to the Challenge Mode. There are 48 challenges consisting of objectives such as reaching the finish line before the clock hits zero, collecting a set amount of slime tokens and winning the race, taking a shortcut and winning the race, and more objectives that include getting you to perform a task and then going on to win the race.

Yes, Challenge Mode doesn’t do much to add an injection of variety, but the pickup and play bursts of racing are welcoming, and you can unlock crew members and chiefs, giving you a decent incentive to play all that is on offer here.

Who are these crew members and chiefs? These are teammates who aid you by using their special abilities to temporarily bolster your advantage on-track. They can shield your vehicle, throw obstacles and distractions at your rivals, and generally prove to be useful allies you can rely on to make up positions and win. There are a handful of crew members to choose from, so you will be spoilt for choice if you happen to be particular about the specificities of your pre-race setup.

Jamming through a series of menus to pick which exhausts, team members, and kart bodies you want isn’t ideal, but along with all the unlockable characters and tracks, you really will feel spoilt for choice and Slime Speedway does a good job of keeping you busy and entertained.

On-track, the application of slime in Slime Speedway is empowering when you slick your kart tyres into this slippery substance. By collecting slime tokens, you can fill a meter that when activated, will initiate your crew member’s power-up and you can get a speed boost too. Unfortunately, slime is used as a superfluous addition to the other power-ups, rather than a properly implemented feature in the game – so it isn’t used to its full potential as it should be.

Worst yet are the slimy shortcuts you will find on each circuit, whereupon taking the deviating path, you’re zoomed into a funnel of purple slime, making your kart soar forward, often making you speed way too fast to register inputs on time so you can avoid traps that’ll spin you loopy unless you tap the left trigger to trick over them on time. The camera angles prove a hindrance during these brief slaloms, twisting and obscuring your concentration-make sure you don’t need to reach for your dizziness meds afterwards! 

As you can expect from the kart-racing genre, there are weapon pick-ups you can sling at your opponents, yet they don’t feel particularly imaginative. There are beach balls you can hurl, a series of gnomes you can plant on the track for opposition to weave or crash into, and a power that will momentarily make drivers dizzier than contending with those derided slime slaloms. Then there’s the Hans hand, which is easily the most frustrating weapon if you happen to be on the receiving end of it because a big sailor’s hand covers the screen and obscures your view of the track in front of you.

The circuit designs are inspired and devilishly trap-laden, making the most out of the quirky charms of the cast. Highlights include the Turtles’ NYC Rooftops, a menacing building-hopping extravaganza-just beware of the ascending and descending pipes. The Hawaii track makes the most of the elements, with land, sand, water, and a volcano to marvel at and slice through. Then there’s The Most Haunted Tour that ensnares you with its Halloween vibes, forebodingly dangerous scythes, and creep mansion red carpets.

 Simply put, there are a pleasing variety of tracks to choose from, some of which include bodies of water you can zip through, offering some light terrain change that is welcoming despite feeling underdeveloped to play-though the rolling wave you can perform stunts off of is really cool.

Nickelodeon Kart Racers pops beautifully on the Series X. The toons look chunky and vibrant, almost as lavish and diverse as the track selections. Heaps of love must’ve been dedicated to the circuits, as all of them look lavish and thematically on-point. The soundtrack isn’t as impressive, but the themes and tones are conveyed admirably enough.

Conclusion

Despite the clear inspiration it has taken from Mario Kart and other kart-racing games, Nickelodeon: Slime Speedway is an energetic burst of kart-racing action you will find suitably engrossing. It’s not pushing any boundaries, nor does it always feel compelling to drive – but it will likely steal your evenings with the little ones, and there’s a cast of characters here that will delight those little ones who grew up in the 90s. All told this is a solid effort that will go down well like Garfield’s lasagne – just don’t expect it to get Squidward’s approval.

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This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.

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Good
  • Great and diverse cast of characters and tracks
  • A wealth of modes and options to keep you busy
  • Track themes are impressively realized
Bad
  • The constant reminders of Mario Kart
  • The camera during slime slaloms is irksome
  • Challenge Mode challenges repeat the same ideas too much
7.5
Good
Written by
Although the genesis of my videogame addiction began with a PS1 and an N64 in the mid-late 90s as a widdle boy, Xbox has managed to hook me in and consume most of my videogame time thanks to its hardcore multiplayer fanaticism and consistency. I tend to play anything from shooters and action adventures to genres I'm not so good at like sports, RTS and puzzle games.

1 Comment

  1. Its price people want value for money and there lies the problem people and the hype and then the ripp off no one nuys anymore those days of ques are gone microsoft made sure of that even when scarse another trick they tried peeps did not fall for it esp in the UK where people are realy skint because of a Government that has no backbone and has now billions of kids starvinf anyway i agree with what your review say and is but theres no way on this earth the prices that xbox charge in the UK are fair so we wont buy there is now a princle at stake other countries get 5 times cheaper again American Reviews are for Americans the UK just went to sleep on the xbox silly greed and there is the problem game pass spits out old garbage to keep xbox in a market they ruined go karts at 32 quid esp old game get a grip american xbox yeah very good its just not on is it that bad rep and rent an xbox game equals game pass is about to fall flat on its ..and no one cares just like spencer said we dont care if you buy and xbox what an American halfwit kind of a childish statement that spits the dummy because well ive said enough selling the same old games and hoping for a return is the sign of a desperate lunatic or an idiot on some sort of delusional power trip The UK says you would sell your a.s.s in america for a large fee even though its fat and worthless do you get the point its embarasing to say the least we have better things to do instead of buying things of old men with white glves on yeah major headache another parents nighmare enough ypur just not aware of the way the wind blows now so ggodbye

    Reply

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