As I eagerly awaited one of the stronger first-party Switch titles at the beginning of the year, this game landed in my inbox. It advertises itself as an open-world kart racer, so I thought, to kill some time, let's give it a try.
Without much story and introduction, you are thrown into the role of Lachlan, a Scottish mountain bull. Your dream is to become the Go Kart champion, but the evil Mayor is trying to stop you by not only taking all the money you've earned so far under the pretext that you have to pay taxes but also by presenting you with a seemingly impossible task: you must collect 1000 coins to participate in the Great Race.
Fortunately, Go Kart Island is full of friendly animals in trouble who need your help and, on top of that, hate the Mayor, so they are willing to pay for your services and help you achieve your goal.
The principle is as follows: you freely roam the island looking for tasks, collecting coins (a total of 100 coins), gems (20), and you must destroy 30 campaign posters because, as I mentioned, everyone hates the Mayor. Additionally, you can find and unlock vehicles in different colors.
In Story Mode, each of the 32 animals you encounter will have some request, so for example, you'll be driving a mouse who is late for its own wedding, catching bank robbers, or helping a child start its own taxi service, all taking place through races.
You have several standard types of races available: Time Trials, Collect, Chase, Deliver, Death. If you fail to complete a mission after several attempts, it gives you the option for automatic completion, so you don't have to worry about your child getting stuck on a task.
By completing each task, you unlock the ability to replay those races in Challenge mode, as well as use the animal avatar whose task you completed.
As is typical for such races, you have an arsenal of weapons at your disposal. However, the game has a PEGI rating of 3, so don't expect explosions and blood. You'll be hitting opponents with pizza slices, chocolate cookies, setting up obstacles and puddles of oil, and flattening them with a spatula.
The arrow will show you the direction of your next mission, and you will be able to turn the collectables markers on and off on the map. Unfortunately, it is impossible to display the entire map, so you will often find yourself in a situation where you cannot orient yourself in which direction to go and where that one coin or poster you are missing is.
Graphically, the game is nice, but nothing spectacular. It resembles a light version of Micro Machines. The characters are charmingly drawn, the controls are responsive, drifting works great, and I found no complaints in the gameplay.
In the game, there are also some puns, like the situation when you drive the pig Mrs. Ham to a comedy night at S.Laughterhouse.
The background music is generic, but not at all intrusive, so you will mostly forget that something is even playing. The voice casting is nonexistent, as everyone produces unintelligible sounds like in, for example, Paper Mario. Which is a bit of a shame, as I would really like to hear what Lachlan, the rugged beef from the Scottish mountains, sounds like.
Unfortunately, there is no multiplayer, which is incredible, as it would add extra value to the game and the possibility to play with your youngest family members. Because ultimately, this game is intended for them.
The game is currently discounted to €7.19, and it will provide your little ones with a few hours of harmless fun. And if you were planning to buy it for yourself, feel free to skip it.
A copy of the Switch version of this game was provided by the publisher **Ant Workshop.**
