While at the beginning of the year I was impatiently waiting for some of the stronger first party Switch titles, this game flew into my inbox. It is advertised as an open world kart racer, so I said, to kill time, let's try it.
Without much story or introduction, you are thrown into the role of Lachlan, a Scottish mountain bull. Your dream is to become a Go Kart champion, but the evil Mayor tries to prevent you from doing so, so that, in addition to taking all the money you have earned so far under the pretext that you have to pay taxes, he also sets before you a seemingly impossible task: you have to collect 1000 coins to participate in the Great Race.
Luckily, Go Kart Island is full of friendly animals in need who need your help and hate the Mayor, so they're willing to pay for your services and help you reach your goal.
The principle is as follows: you are free to move around the island and look for quests, and collect coins (100 coins in total), gems (20) and you have to tear down 30 election posters, because, as I mentioned, everyone hates the Mayor. In addition, you can find and thus unlock vehicles in different colors.
In Story Mode, each of the 32 animals you meet will have a request, so for example you will drive a mouse who is late to his own wedding, catch bank robbers or help a child start his own taxi service, all through races.
There are several standard types of races at your disposal: Time Trials, Collect, Chase, Deliver, Death. If you fail to complete a mission after several attempts, it gives you the option of automatically completing it, so you don't have to fear that your child will get stuck on a task.
By completing each of the tasks, you unlock the possibility of replaying the same races in Challenge mode, and using the avatar of the animal 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 will shoot your opponents with slices of pizza, chocolate biscuits, place obstacles and puddles of oil, and flatten them with a spatula.
An arrow will show you which direction your next mission is in, and you'll be able to toggle collectable markers on the map on and off. 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 is that you are missing.
Graphically, the game is nice, but nothing spectacular. It resembles a light version of Micro Machines. The characters are cutely drawn, the controls are responsive, the drifting works great and I didn't find any fault in the gameplay.
There are also some puns in the game, like the situation when you drive the pig Mrs Ham to a comedy night at S.Laughterhouse (Slaughterhouse).
The background music is generic but not obtrusive at all, so most of the time you'll forget there's anything playing at all. Voice casting is non-existent, everyone produces incomprehensible sounds like in, for example, Paper Mario. Which is a shame, I'd really like to hear what Lachlan, the Highland cattle from the Scottish mountains, sounds like.
Multiplayer unfortunately does not exist, which is incredible, because it would add additional value to the game and the possibility to play with your youngest family members. Because after all, this game is meant for them.
The game is currently discounted to €7.19, and will provide your little ones with several hours of harmless fun. And if you were going to buy it for yourself, feel free to skip it.
A copy of the Switch version of this game has been provided by the publisher Ant Workshop.
I’m all about traveling and Nintendo, not necessarily in that order.
