Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway Review (Xbox One)

STAFF REVIEW of Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway (Xbox One)

Friday, October 14, 2022.
by Chad Goodmurphy

Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway Box art

In the years since Mario Kart first established the kart racer genre, many other attempts have been made at stealing its crown, or – in better words – taking its place atop the proverbial podium. Some have failed miserably, while others have proven themselves to be decent to downright great games in their own right, including Diddy Kong Racing (which I will always prefer) and Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing. Granted, this mascot driven genre was a lot more crowded in the past than it is now, though we have seen a resurgence of it in recent years.

I’ve always been someone who’s liked to play a wide variety of games, and who will give kids games a shot when a lot of other older gamers will not. Through this, I’ve discovered some underrated gems like Toy Story 3 and Cars 2. Another such hidden gem turned out to be the Nickelodeon Kart Racers series, which I borrowed from a library 30 minutes away on a whim and enjoyed a lot more than I’d ever expected to. While the first game will never challenge Mario Kart for its spot atop the podium, or even be in contention for a third place spot, it was a surprisingly solid and inventive take on the formula. Hell, I even thought that even as someone who didn’t grow up watching much Nickelodeon at all due to never having cable, so it wasn’t just nostalgia.

Four years have passed since BamTang Games, GameMill Entertainment and Maximum Games partnered with Nickelodeon to release the first game in what has now become a series. Since then, we’ve received two sequels, including 2020’s much improved Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix and now Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway. The success of this series has admittedly surprised me a bit, but pleasantly. I was happy to get my hands on the second game - which ended up being shockingly solid and very, very competent – then jumped at the opportunity to review this third one, although I hadn’t known it was in the works.

Slime Speedway doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but has still managed to add quite a bit to it, for better or worse. The relatively traditional kart racing is back, but they’ve been joined by bikes and boats. You can choose whether to use a bike or a kart from the get-go, but do not get to choose when you’ll transform into a watercraft. That happens organically during races, as some tracks have different sized water sections, many of which include waves to jump and do tricks off of. This is all good and neat and cool, but at this moment the water sections are one of the worst things about this game. In fact, they actually hold it back instead of pushing it forward and making it better. Why? Well, there’s something about the moving and reflective water that slows the frame rate down and makes everything hard on the eyes at the same time. Certain wave pools can be a bit of a sh**-show as a result.

The developers have also added slime slides into the mix, which speed things up a crazy amount and can provide you with an advantage if handled correctly. These are (at least mostly) optional shortcuts, which send you flying along a water slide filled with purple goo at what feels like warp speed. You’ll have to rely on your reflexes to jump out of the way of their barriers, of which there can be one or four. Crashing into one obviously slows you down, while doing a perfect run awards you the title of Slime Master or Slime Legend, the latter of which counts towards an achievement. It’s chaotic to say the least.

Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway is comprised of several different modes which use a menu system that hasn’t really changed. The familiar modes are all there, including Free Race, Cups, Split-screen Multiplayer and Time Trials. However, there are a few others that aren’t always included like Online Multiplayer, Battle Mode and Challenges. The multiplayer mode even lets you choose which game type you’d like to play, be it a Cup, an Arena Battle or a simple Race. Thus, there’s quite a bit to sink your teeth into should you decide to give this game a chance.

If you happened to play Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing, you’ll be familiar with the types of challenges found within this sequel. There are several different tiers, each with a boss race at the end. When you finish one tier of challenges, you unlock the next, and so forth. The types of challenges found within include shooting a certain number of targets with a certain special attack, winning a race while completing an objective (hit this many boost pads, complete this many special drifts, etc.), passing a select number of vehicles before time runs out and completing a race before the clock hits zero, all while collecting clocks to keep it going. There’s also one where you need to finish the race before being eliminated, which is the result of losing all of your limited health by crashing, getting hit, etc.

These challenges can be pretty devious and may leave you frustrated, so be warned. They’re necessary, though, if you wish to unlock absolutely everything and/or earn all achievements. The same is true of the 36 time trial ghosts, which can also be pretty devious. I don’t like how time trials are handled here, because they aren’t based on your best lap, and are instead a cumulative total of the time you spent completing all three laps.

Meanwhile, the arena pits several players against each other in kart-based warfare. You’re dropped into a small map and must do your best to outwit and out damage everyone else, using pick-ups that are scattered throughout the area. Then, the last one standing wins. This was always one of my favourite things about the early Mario Kart games, so I’m happy to see it return even if it’s not the best the mode’s ever been.

The Cup championships – which are a stalwart of the kart racing genre – exist under a different, slime-based name, but they’re the same as ever. You’re tasked with completing four different races and attempting to be atop the standings once everything has been said and done. These cups are themed, and each one has a mascot like Garfield, Invader Zim or Stimpy. That doesn’t mean that all of the tracks are based in their universes, but at least some are.

Instead of using CCs to delineate speed like Mario Kart always has, Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway uses a more basic system that essentially lets you choose between Slow, Medium, Fast and another (locked) difficulty after that. I spent most of my time playing on the Medium speed and, after seeing how fast and chaotic that all was, wondered how they could even up the ante. Even on its mid-level speed setting, this game is chaotic. It’s fast, frenetic and sometimes a blur that is hard on the eyes, which is even more noticeable when the frame rate drops during certain segments of specific tracks. This also seems to happen at random, or when there’s a lot going on on-screen, so I hope they’ll address it via a patch.

Like its most recent predecessor, Slime Speedway also features an overwhelming amount of customization options, which can sometimes be the difference between winning or losing. To start with, one must pick the character they prefer, the kart they’d like to use, the wheels they want to equip, the exhaust they feel is best and all of that. Each one offers different stats, which affect your speed, acceleration, weight, handling and boost. Then, once you’ve completed that, you get to choose the crew members you’d like to equip. I believe the most important one is your chief, then the other two are your mechanic and technician, or something to that extent. Either way, the goal is to pick the ones you want based on the perks they provide. The first one will be available when you fill your slime meter by driving through slime, boosting, doing a trick off of a jump or going through hidden kart washes, and can be used by pressing 'Y'. Meanwhile, the other two tend to occur organically based on what they provide.

The chief I preferred was a girl named Lynn, who would use her hockey stick to shoot me forward in a super boost. I usually complemented her by picking a mechanic that would give me occasional boosts, and a technician who would drop a gnome obstruction every time I picked up an item. I also tried some others in both cup and challenge play, including Rugrat twins who throw what looks like poo as fast as they can, Shredder’s claws which surrounded my vehicle as a barrier, and one that gave me a shield. It’s all designed in an attack and defense mentality, with some befitting each play style. If you want added (or better) weapon pick-ups, that’s an option. Meanwhile, if you would prefer shields and barriers you can go for that. The same is true of the boosts I mentioned.

The items you'll pick up also fall into these categories, which are represented by different coloured icons. You can go for something offensive, like a homing football or a hand that reaches out to grab the driver in front of you, or go for something defensive that may give you a shield. There are also boosts, super boosts that tell you not to crash and obstructions like Hans (a human hand that covers part of the screen and blocks others' view), bowling pins and giant gnomes that one must try not to hit.

As you play you’ll also pick-up and earn slime tokens, which are scattered along every track and awarded to the racers who got hit the most, used the most boost jumps, etc. If you’re going to invest yourself into this game, you’ll want to try to collect as many of these as possible. There’s a store where you can buy a number of different characters, many different vehicles (and parts) and a lot of crew members. None of it is cheap, either, so I believe it’ll take quite a while to unlock everything and earn that achievement. This is both good and bad, because it promotes replay value but is overwhelming and at times unfair. I wondered if some of my difficulties against time trial ghosts boiled down to not having the best equipment unlocked or equipped, but was never sure.

Last, but not least, are the tracks and characters.

As of writing this review, I must admit that I have not unlocked or used all of the characters, which I see as being quite time consuming. I have perused the list, though, as well as the game’s wiki page. Needless to say, there’s a lot of them, although some of the fan favourite Rugrats have been relegated to crew member status. Fans will appreciate, though, that there are alternate versions of certain characters, like Eastman & Laird Raphael, Purple Reptar and both Young SpongeBob and Young Patrick. They complement a list that is full of Nickelodeon icons and nostalgia, including the 1987 cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Rocko, CatDog, Chucky, SpongeBob SquarePants, Sandy Cheeks, Invader Zim, Ren, Aang, Garfield, Odie, Korra and JoJo Siwa. It promises over 40 characters and 90 support staff members.

All of the aforementioned characters have their own voices, (sometimes annoying) catchphrases and one liners, and vehicles. There’s a lot of freedom to which karts and bikes you can use, along with their parts and paint jobs, a lot of which are themed and will be familiar to fans. They also have their own tracks, around half of which felt like updated versions of ones found in previous games.

For the most part, the approximately 23 different baseline tracks are pretty good. Some are really fun to race around, while others are decent, but only a few are duds. They run the gamut of themes and types, and all have their own weather and road types. Unfortunately, some are just too chaotic for this uber fast game that is too often too fast for its own good. The technical problems and resulting eye strain also add to this and make it a lesser experience than it could’ve been had it been left in the oven for longer. I’ve been playing kart racers for almost three decades now and, while I’m not an expert by any means, I had trouble keeping control and keeping track of things at times. Hopefully a patch will be released soon.

I reviewed Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway using an Xbox Series S that we were sent by Microsoft. As a result, I can only truly speak about that version. However, this game is next-gen, and was made for the Series consoles along with Xbox One (and PS4, PS5, etc.), so it’s not like I was playing the Xbox One S version or anything. Outside of the framerate problems, which made it seem like the karts were going too fast for the tracks to keep up with, this game looked pretty good. It’s not the most next-gen looking game ever made, but it’s colourful and pretty nice to look at a lot of the time. Its tracks are varied, there’s lots of creativity to be found within them and their art design, and there’s a lot going on all the time. Too much, really.

I contemplated turning the sound off, but ended up leaving it on during my play through. It was fine at first, but Invader Zim’s one liners got to be a bit annoying after a while, as did some of the music. Some tunes were better than others, of course, and I didn’t mind them. Others were a bit grating. I almost always used Zim, though, because he seemed to be the most well rounded racer at my disposal, and I found it funny when he told his competitors that their eyes couldn’t keep up with him, because that was fitting for how I sometimes felt as I played this game.

Now that all of that has been said and detailed, there’s not much more that I can say. What I will note, however, is that Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway is a solid sequel to a really impressive licensed kart racer. It’s too fast (and chaotic) for its own good at times, and its technical problems currently hold it back from being as good as it could be, but it’s still pretty fun. I honestly prefer the last game, though.

**Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series S**

Overall: 6.9 / 10
Gameplay: 6.9 / 10
Visuals: 6.7 / 10
Sound: 6.5 / 10

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STAFF REVIEW of Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway (Xbox One)

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