KartRider is the newest game from Nexon, the same company who has brought you Maplestory. This game can best be described as an almost exact clone of the classic MarioKart series of games from Nintendo. Basically, you pick a driver out of a male or female one (though there should be more available from their cash shop) and jump right into their tutorial missions.
These tutorial missions are missions that take maybe 2 minutes each if you read all the text on the screen that they give you to teach you how to pull off various maneuvers. While they are not terribly difficult, the intent is to learn how to play not to toss you into the frying pan. Once these missions are done you are allowed to jump right in game and start playing.
There are a variety of tracks with assorted degrees of difficulty to choose from. Each track has their own obstacles that do their best to prevent you from finishing the race. Once you are actually racing, if you are not first to finish, you are given 10 seconds to make it to the finish line or you are marked as “did not finish” which means you earn less experience points and no money instead of a smaller amount from finishing outside of first place.
The gameplay of KartRider is such that by racing you earn experience. This experience is used to help you get licenses to go to more advanced game lobbies to race against those similar in experience to yourself. Since only the rookie and novice lobbies were open during the beta test, I am unable to tell you if this really works or not.
One thing I liked was the old school graphics that are looking like they are from 32/64 bit era of console gaming. For some games I know that I want a truly lifelike experience which requires a 7.1 surround sound system and computer specs that only the truly elite have. Other times though, like when I was playing KartRider, I just wanted to reclaim a small piece of my childhood with a modern twist. With some minor exceptions, I felt like I was sitting down around my TV with a console and playing one of my favorite games of all time.
I wish I had a release date to share with you all, but Nexon is keeping tight lipped about the launch of the game. Keep your eyes peeled on the front page of Onrpg.com for the announcement as soon as we can get confirmation from Nexon!
