If you told me when Mario Kart first came out in 1992 that Dale Gribble from King of the Hill and the English baby from Family Guy would be doing something similar 30 years later, I wouldn’t say anything because I wasn’t alive yet. If I were alive I’d probably say, “Who is Dale Gribble?”, because King of the Hill didn’t air until 1997.
To shoot off from that pre-amble, Apple has announced some new additions to their Apple Arcade platform, including BadLand Party and Goat Simulator. However, the big one has to be Warped Kart Racers, which is 20th Century’s take on Mario Kart. The game is being developed by Electric Square, a studio that has previously worked on games such as Battlefield 2042 as well as the upcoming Sniper Elite 5 and Assassin’s Creed VR.
In Warped Kart Racers, players can choose from 20 different characters from Family Guy, American Dad, King of the Hill, and Solar Opposites to race against each other on 16 tracks based off areas from the shows. While there’s no indication that more characters owned by 20th Century will be added, it’s definitely a possibility in the future.
The game has many, many similarities to Mario Kart, such as customisation of karts, items, and item boxes. Unlike Mario Kart, the game has daily challenges to unlock new characters, skins, karts, and customisations, as well as options to customise the characters.
It is truly one of the most unexpected and interesting Mario Kart clones I’ve seen, and that’s saying a lot considering there are two Garfield Kart games. There’s something both hilarious and jarring about seeing Hank Hill sitting in a tractor go-kart and hurling a turtle shell at Peter Griffin, killing him instantly (not really). Also, I’ve never wanted to play a character in a go-karting game as much as I want to play Cupid Bobby.
While nothing really lives up to Mario Kart, the look and vibe of Warped Kart Racers is actually quite fascinating, and could be what draws people towards Apple Arcade. While many aren’t huge fans of the subscription service, it’s hard to deny that the platform has been getting some real bangers over time such as Gibbon: Beyond the Trees and Fantasian, which is making it more and more enticing.
Let’s face it, this game looking fucking stupid. But I think that’s why it also looks amazing.
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