LifeisXbox’s Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway review | When I saw this game popping up in our list of games to review. I was like, let’s give this a try. I never played a game like this except Mario Party on my cousin’s Switch. So, I was intrigued to play this game from Nickelodeon developed by Bamtang Games. Of course, I also grew up with Nickelodeon like most of us. I was happy to reunite with some classic characters from “Avatar”, “Danny Phantom”, “Ren and Stimpy”, “All Grown Up” and many more. Ren and Stimpy are one of my guilty pleasures as a cartoon.
The game actually surprised me in a pleasant way. I’ll tell you more about it below.
ℹ️ Reviewed on Xbox Series X | Review code provided by PR/publisher, this review is the personal opinion of the writer.
What we Liked!
- Graphics | The racer is really smooth and visually stunning to watch. There is so much going on while you are racing around the different tracks. You really need to learn the tracks. You have a little mini-map because it’s so busy on screen and you are trying to win, you might miss the shortcuts before you know it. Don’t get me wrong, this is a good thing. This means you are really trying to win. The characters are really well-made. They are exactly like you remembered on screen.
- Gameplay | You have a couple of game modes that will make you happy. First off, you have the normal single racers in the ‘Slime Scramble’. This is just another name for trophies of cups. They are nice, but it gets boring after a while if you play this solo. You can also do ‘Challenges’. They are really fun and varied. I had more fun doing those, than riding the different Cups. They added ‘Time Trails’, but I wish they would improve it. There is no leaderboard where you can see the time of other players or even your friends. You can race against a ghost, but I think it is a computer-generated one. Also, there is ‘Free Race’, but that needs no explanation. What does is ‘Arena’. If you ever played a demolition Derby-style game you will know this. You have to try and eliminate as many other racers as possible to win in a closed arena. This can also be played in Multiplayer and Online. Secondly, you can play in Multiplayer and Split Screen. For the ‘Online ‘I wasn’t able to find a lobby with players, maybe due to the fact this is still a rather new game. I did play together with a friend and we had a blast. I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time. We could all select the track we wanted to ride, and for the rest, the game adds tracks to complete a 3-round race. The best of 3 is the winner. But you knew that of course. You can play 4 player split screen. This is nice if you want to have a party with your friend or family.
- The tracks | There are a lot of tracks in this game. I’m still under the impression that I didn’t ride all of them. And I have already driven a lot of them. Sometimes, some shortcuts will be closed off or open. I still haven’t figured out, if I need to do something to open them. The variation of tracks is great and you will discover something new every time you race them again. I think there are around 30 tracks. Which in my book is a lot. The only remark is for some tracks, it is so bonkers that I found it hard to race on them. A small example, on the Ninja Turtle sewer track, you could drive halfway on the walls and drive on a higher level, but it is so hard to control your vehicle just to get on it.
- Power-ups and special abilities | I think I saw some of the craziest power-ups in a game ever. Team abilities: You need to accumulate as much as slime as possible to activate your ability. This can be done in multiple ways, find a shortcut and fill slime in your slime meter or pick up slime coins or have a support use his skills to steal them or fill it while driving under a slime drain. Yes, your crew can be chosen and modified at will before each race. I used boost because speeeed… . You have a speed boost, defense, recover, steal or offense skills at your disposal. It all depends on how you set up your team. I haven’t found the best combination yet. Powerups: Well, there are a lot of different types of powerups. You might want to take the ultimate power-up or just a normal one. But all of them are annoying as hell, except the ultra-boost one. The worst one is the one where a hand just blocks your view. If you are at a safe part of the track, it’s fine, but when on a curvy track, oooh no!! Most of the powerups are random, but you can find specially defined ones for boost, attack or defense. You have your typical shoot the rocket to the other player, but in this case, it is a kids’ friendly game, so you throw balls at each other or an exploding football. You also have different shielding options. Also, the powerups don’t stack up. I understand why, but the option would be nice, to create more mayhem.
Mixed Feelings
- End of races | The only thing I found really annoying was that you couldn’t skip the end of the race. I understand it for the online part, but in the solo play. If you are finishing a race and go directly to the other, well you can’t. You will have to wait for the current race leaderboard and then the new points board and then not be able to skip the podium. Just let me press A to continue. Maybe they will update it later?
- The controls | I really don’t know if it’s the controller or just how they programmed the game. Sometimes it’s really sensitive or it is just me who can’t drive. I have a feeling that I’m doing something wrong to go even faster. Maybe drifting in this game is the meta or jumping? Who knows. If you do, let me know in the comments.
What we Disliked
- I didn’t dislike anything that much to list it here. I wrote my issues with it above even on the positive side
How long to beat the story |
How long to achieve 1000G |
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