The Hunt Continues… In Karts
HIGH Offers a great mix of Bloodborne and Mario Kart.
LOW Battle mode is a major weak spot. No online multi is a missed opportunity.
WTF Why is this game not getting more attention?
When I first saw an Instagram reel with footage of what was then called Bloodborne Kart, I couldn’t believe it. I thought to myself, “Is this real? Who came up with this and how are they getting away with it?”
Having beaten Bloodborne within the last year, I could not have been more ready to enjoy the similarities, like the ubiquitous “YOU DIED” message (in FromSoftware’s signature Adobe Garamond Bold font) and bigger things like the obvious nods in the courses, the weapons, karts and campaign. This included many characters who acted as stand-ins for the real things — Father Gregory (a motorcycle-riding Father Gascoigne) and Nicholas (a sillier and even more irritating Micolash with a birdcage on his head in place of a Mensis Cage).
Following their incredibly faithful PSX demake of Bloodborne (which is still available for download on itch.io) the devs got ready to venture beyond the website with what was then called Bloodborne Kart — but they had the foresight to avoid legal trouble by changing the name to Nightmare Kart before releasing it on Steam.
LWMedia could have easily cashed in by making a shallow, uninspired kart racer with a Bloodborne skin and sold it for $10 or more, but they chose to not only make it free, but also very replayable and deeply infused with the spirit of Bloodborne by way of late ’90s/early 2000s racing games.
Most of the time, there are twelve competitors in each race, each with items that are unique to them. The game offers familiar-looking drivers like the Hoonter, Onnete, Herman, and Dream Watchers at the start. However, to unlock certain characters like Father Gregory or Nicholas, the player first needs to defeat them either in a race or a battle — more on this later.
The courses are often challenging, dynamic and engaging, just as the best Mario Kart courses are. Pocket Dream Course was one of my biggest highlights from the campaign due to its dreamy cloudscape, multi-dimensional level design, a soft pastel color palette and jaunty score, courtesy of Evelyn Lark, AKA The Noble Demon.
The weapon power-ups are all satisfying and often gruesome – there’s a gatling gun that tears into other karts, but the chipper chain wheels were especially satisfying as they allow the player to slash other racers by running into them with a visceral camera close-up to show blood and gore.
There were other power ups that made Nightmare Kart stand out from other racers, such as transfusers that allow players to regain health from being attacked, blood droplets that increase players’ speed, and aether vials that allow speed boosts by skidding on turns and performing stunts on jumps–just as Mario Kart players have been doing in every installment since Mario Kart Wii.
Apart from the Bloodborne motif, the other half of the experience are the retro elements. I noticed from the start how committed Nightmare Kart was to evoking Y2K-era video game aesthetics, from wobbly horizontal lines on the screen down to the “memory card” save files. Between the 64-bit music and the PSX graphics, the whole experience felt like winding the clock back to when I lived for staying over at a friend’s house to play PS1 games back in the day.
Another throwback of sorts is the inclusion of splitscreen multiplayer. It’s such a rarity now, as few titles offer local multiplayer of any sort. As I did back then, I found that I still enjoyed the experience of sitting on the couch and periodically peeking over to see where my friend was on the map and what he was up to, even if I had to take eyes off of my own character for a moment.
While Nightmare Kart nails both Bloodborne and oldschool karting, I did have some qualms with a few aspects. For example, I noticed that many of the courses were so dark that it could be difficult to see what was ahead, and this tough visibility made timely turning a challenge.
In some courses, I was annoyed by the amount of creatures that would get in my way during races, forcing me to come to a full stop or take damage, such as the many beasts of Miralodia (a stand-in for Yharnam.) However, my main source of frustration was the battle mode.
Similar to Mario Kart‘s Balloon Battles in which racers eliminate other racers’ balloons by hitting each other with shells or items, Nightmare Kart has a battle mode in which players must drive around a small arena, and whoever kills the most racers before time runs out wins. Unlike the race courses, Nightmare Kart‘s battle arenas were generally much jankier and harder to navigate, to the point it felt like a chore to finish any of the battles — and these comprise about a third of the campaign!
While there are some rough edges for sure, for the majority of the time I found myself smiling like an idiot and admiring the developers for their nods to fans who remember Bloodborne’s story enough to appreciate it. I loved how respectful Nightmare Kart was of the source material but at the same time, it didn’t take itself too seriously, acting as both a parody and a love letter.
Even after rolling credits, I still feel the same incredulousness that I felt when I first saw Nightmare Kart video on Instagram, only now my question is “How did we possibly deserve such a treat?”
Rating: 8 out of 10
Disclosures: This game was developed and published by LWMedia. It is currently available on PC. It was downloaded for free from Steam and reviewed for PC. Approximately 4 hours were devoted to the campaign mode. The game was finished. Multiplayer is available for up to four players, but can only be played locally on splitscreen.
Parents: This game is not rated by the ESRB but contains Violence and Blood and Gore. Players will attack and be attacked by other kart racers, with not only guns and explosives but also brutal weapons such as crescent axes (hunter axes) and beast razors (saw cleavers) which cause those who are hit to gush blood, but the gore is not especially visceral. If I were to give it a rating, I would give it T.
Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. Often, players will be attacked without any warning besides an audio cue. The game therefore is not fully accessible.
Remappable controls: The controls can be remapped.
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