Launching into early access at the end of November, Karting4Fun has a unique position in the sim racing world. It’s a kart racer that puts you inside real karts and realistic karting venues, but keeps the physics and racing action firmly in the chaotic arcade end of the sim racing spectrum. In many ways, it reminds me of Blur – the realistic-looking arcade racer that happily lets you smash into other cars and use Mario Kart weapons on each other. Karting4Fun doesn’t quite go to that arcade extreme, but it does add its own version of Wreckfest into the mix. WrecKartFest, anyone?
The content is quite light on the early access launch. There are three circuits, which can be run in forward and reverse, one kart type, and three times of day to race at. Up to 15 AI can join each race, with five difficulty levels to play with, but regardless of which you choose, be prepared for them to smash into you and each other as they battle for position. The opening few corners in every race are total pandemonium and not in a good way. Karts are upside down, some get stuck respawning, and others just drive into you as if you aren’t there.
Get beyond the first braking zones, and Karting4Fun settles down into a well-thought-out racer. AI drivers keep to the racing line most of the time, but that racing line may change depending on whether you’ve enabled obstacles on the track or not. If you have, then rows of wooden boxes will be ripe for smashing into if you get it wrong. These turn straights into slalom chicanes, but with only a short-term penalty for smashing into them. Combining the destructible boxes with the individual tyre barriers means you can smash through the former, then bounce into the latter, and tyres and wooden planks are exploding across the screen like a warzone. It’s joyous, and why Karting4Fun reminds me of Wreckfest. All of this runs silky smooth, too.
Karts handle responsively and have a ton of grip. Brakes are required, but only for the tightest of hairpins, or on corners after the rare long back straight on one of the outdoor tracks. Every other corner is either a gentle confidence lift or flat out. It forces you to focus on racing lines and being as efficient with your cornering as possible whilst maintaining corner speed. It is very satisfying when things go well, and the practice mode comes with online leaderboards and your personal ghost to race against. I’m not usually one for losing hours to hotlapping, but there is a zen-like quality to Karting4Fun that just works. Those leaderboards can become quite addictive if they scratch the right itch, and as racing the karts is so approachable, it’s easy to get lost in lap after lap of chasing that last tenth. The career mode also has a global leaderboard attached to it, but I found this implementation to be unusual and somewhat meaningless. Points are awarded for every race you run, with more for gaining positions, completing laps, and getting a fastest lap. These points are then fed into the online leaderboard, which then displays as the career leaderboard for all global players. In reality, this is tracking who is playing Karting4Fun the most, rather than who is fastest or the most skilled. As the opening corners are a total lottery, it loses meaning from a consistency perspective, too.
I have one other critique from what was an overwhelmingly fun driving experience. The tracks are too narrow. All three tracks have long sections of the track where you cannot fit two karts side-by-side cleanly, and it feels like the game is baiting you to dive bomb into the other racer, pushing them off into the tyre barriers. Whilst this is funny at times, and makes for some absurd replays, I feel like the groundwork in the controls and physics of the karts is here to allow for racing to be close, fun, and clean. I’d get more satisfaction from squeaking by on a clean overtake than a scrappy, bump-and-run. The tracks don’t need to be widened much, but enough to allow two karts and some minor wriggle room would be superb.
The unique mash-up of realistic, if outdated, looking karts and circuits with approachable handling and some destructive elements makes Karting4Fun a promising title for the future. Adding in more tracks and different kart classes, and smoothing out the banzai AI would be where I’d like to focus the future roadmap. The core mechanics here are sound, and that’s why I’m confident in scoring it up front. It is content and polish that I hope Karting4Fun brings during its early access period. I grabbed this on the same week as Project Motor Cars. I refunded Project Motor Cars and have happily kept Karting4Fun. Fingers crossed for more to come.
Oh… did I mention it runs 2-4 player local split screen without technical issues out of the box too? Sign me up!
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