Kart Racing 101

[LancashireLad87]

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Disclaimer: Ever since Mario Kart released back in 1992 there have been a myriad of kart racing games that have tried to challenge Mario Kart for the crown of being the best game of the genre. There are quite a lot of kart racers on modern systems but as far as I’m aware nobody has created a genuine tier list for people who want to get into the genre. Since I consider Kart Racing one of my strongest genres, I thought I’d make my own.

 

Please note I will only be listing games that can be fully completed at the time of posting therefore games like Little Big Planet Karting and ModNation Racers will be omitted from my list. Furthermore, games that lack a platinum trophy will not be considered. The list is based on my personal experience, observations and the general consensus on games I'm not familiar with. If I missed any games, please let me know. 

 

A lot of trophy guides misrepresent the genre when it comes to ranking each game in terms of the platinum trophy. As an avid fan of the genre with many years of experience, I thought I would create my own list to portray an accurate representation of the genre as a whole and hopefully motivate more people into the world of kart racing. Each game will be placed within the same tier system I used for my fighting genre 101 tier list which can be found here Fighting Genre 101 (Comprehensive Guide) - Off Topic - PSNProfiles 

 

 

 

Tier 1: Gateway (Beginner Friendly) - These are the easiest games to complete for a beginner who I’d classify as someone who has little to no experience within the genre.

 

Crazy Chicken Kart 2 (PS4)

(PSNP Game owners 365/Metacritic N/A)  

 

 

 

Without question this is a meme platinum, having looked at the trophy list there’s literally nothing remotely difficult about this game. Hence why the average trophy percentage on PSNProfiles is sitting at 91%. For some reason I couldn't find Crazy Chicken Kart 1, nevertheless this game can be completed in a couple of hours so it's really not worth your time and money unless you're a trophy whore.

 

Coffin Dodgers (PS4)

(PSNP Game owners 18,783/Metacritic 36)  

 

 

You only have to look at the name of the game to realise that this is another meme kart racer. Like Crazy Chicken Kart 2, Coffin Dodgers offers little to no challenge. The average trophy percentage on PSNProfiles is 78% which is very high to say the least. If you struggle with these games, then you should give up entirely. Coffin Dodgers is another kart racer that shouldn't take you more than 3-4 hours to complete. Given the choice I'd rather play Coffin Dodgers over Crazy Chicken Kart 2 just because it's funny seeing senior citizens kart racing.

 

 

Race With Ryan (PS4)

(PSNP Game owners 1,239/Metacritic N/A)   

 

 

Judging from the picture above this game screams casual! It was developed specifically for young children, not adults. Once again there’s literally nothing that will prevent you from earning the platinum trophy in this game. Average trophy percentage for this one is 50% which I’m very surprised about. I thought it would be much higher than that. The platinum trophy shouldn't take more than a weekend to complete, playing for a couple of hours each day.

 

 

Paw Patrol Grand Prix (PS4) 

(PSNP Game owners 43/Metacritic N/A)  

 

 

 

I personally haven’t experienced Paw Patrol Grand Prix; I’m judging the difficulty based on the trophy list and some gameplay footage I watched online. It seems there’s only 1 platinum blocker which is having to play a 4-player local race with 4 different accounts. So, unless you have 4 PS4 controllers and 4 different users on your system you can kiss the platinum goodbye. As far as the trophies are concerned it really shouldn't take an average player very long to complete the game.

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Tier 2: Step up from Gateway - This tier will consist of games that are a step up in difficulty and should be well within reach of most players. 

 

Madagascar Kartz (PS3)

(PSNP Game owners 13,905/Metacritic N/A)

 

 

Considering its age Madagascar Kartz is actually not a bad kart racer in my opinion. There’s not a huge amount of content on offer but you can forgive that when the game is 13 years old. As far as trophies are concerned the platinum decider is completing the 200 CC championships. Not only is 200 CC the games fastest setting but all the tracks are mirrored, and the AI is no joke. The average trophy percentage on PSNProfiles is 50% which is lower than I thought. I’d recommend picking the game up as long as it's reasonably priced. Some people have complained about the time trials but they're really not that bad as long as you're competent at the game's mechanics. It shouldn't take you more than 6 hours to earn all the trophies.

 

 

Dreamworks Super Star Kartz (PS3)

(PSNP Game owners 6,417/Metacritic N/A)  

 

 

(Will update later)

 

 

Ben 10 Galactic Racing (PS3)

(PSNP Game owners 5,525/Metacritic N/A)  

 

 

(Will update later)

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Tier 3: Moderate - Average in terms of difficulty.

 

 

Sonic SEGA All-Stars Racing (PS3)

(PSNP Game owners 63,162/Metacritic 77)  

 

 

The original Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing is in my opinion a solid kart racer, sure it's not as polished as other titles but the gameplay and its mechanics are solid. When it comes to trophies the hardest trophy in the game is without question is completing every challenge with a triple A rank. There are over 40 of them in total and let me tell you some of them are annoying. Off the top of my head from the ones I remember are the Bonanza Bros challenge, the robot one where you have to destroy Dr Robotnik and the one with Big Cat where you have to navigate through part of a track which is literally covered with breakable pots, if you touch a single pot, it's a restart!

 

The platinum trophy will take an average player around 15 hours to complete but these games are very skill dependent. The game does have time trials however you're not required to beat any specific time, you simply have to set a PB on each track and the trophy is yours! 

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Tier 4: Challenging - These games would be very difficult for a newcomer to complete but are by no means impossible without practise, dedication and determination.

 

Team Sonic Racing (PS4)

(PSNP Game owners /Metacritic 72)

 

 

The trophy guide we have on PSNProfiles is very misleading when it comes to the game’s difficulty, the guide rates Team Sonic Racing a modest 4/10 which you’d assume would be a relatively painless experience for an average player, right? wrong! A friend and I played through the hardest events together in order to get through them. Bearing in mind, I’m far beyond trophy level in this genre. 

 

The main problem with TSR is the “team mechanic”, in a nutshell you have a few AI drivers in your team. If you place 1st on every race but your teammates get destroyed, your points are added up cumulatively across each event which is why this game isn’t a 4/10 because it doesn’t matter how good you drive there’s always an element of luck which is out of your control.

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Tier 5: Very Hard - These games would probably be the limit of most players because anything beyond this level is going to be insanely difficult.

 

Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed (PS3)

(PSNP Game owners /Metacritic 82)  

 

 

 

Not only is All-Stars Racing Transformed the best sonic kart racer to date but it’s also the most challenging kart racer to earn the platinum trophy for on the PS3. What separates transformed from the other sonic kart racers is the fact that your kart transforms from land to sea to air during each event/race. You can perform tricks and near misses to gain a speed boost to help you shave off valuable seconds on your lap times. When it comes to the trophy list the make-or-break trophies would be Yokozuna or earning the Triple Star License.  

 

The former requires you to defeat every expert ghost in time trial mode, no easy feat as the vast majority of players glitch the trophy by downgrading the game. However, to earn the Triple Star License you’ll need to beat the vast majority of Expert ghosts anyway. What transformed does better than CTR is if you beat a ghost in time trial on your very first lap the game awards you with the victory even if your time surpasses the expert ghost!

 

 

 

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (PS4)

(PSNP Game owners /Metacritic 83)  

 

 

 

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is a remake of the original game from 1999. The hardest trophy is defeating Nitrous Oxide on all of the original CTR and CNK tracks. The sad thing is, you have to set a fast enough time in time trial in order to race N.Tropy, even if you beat his time and Oxide’s you still have to beat him again because you didn’t race against his ghost. Therefore you have to do a minimum of 3 time trials per track which is excessive and pointless if you beat his time off the bat. Unlike Sonic and Mario Kart the way drifting works in CTR is drastically different. You can’t just hold drift as long as you want and then release it when you wish. 

 

You have to constantly drift and time your drift boosts which you can do up to 3 mini boosts per drift. Depending on your timing you can get either a perfect, good or failed drift boost. Naturally you’d want to get at least good/perfect because the game has a hidden reserve system that gets topped up every time you successfully land a good/perfect boost.

 

Then you have more advanced mechanics and shortcuts that can help you destroy Oxide’s time trial records. The vast majority of trophy hunters struggle with specific tracks, namely Dragon Mines, Sewer Speedway, Tiny Temple and Crash Cove. Naturally the game has far more depth and skill than simply earning the platinum trophy but very few trophy hunters venture that far, let alone succeed.

 

Nickelodeon Kart Racing 2 Grand Prix (PS4)

(PSNP Game owners /Metacritic 58)

 

 

 

Some of you may be wondering why I’ve placed this game so highly, well let me enlighten you! The hardest trophy in the game requires you to earn 3 stars in every Grand Prix on Expert difficulty. Each GP consists of 4 races, doesn’t sound too bad, right? Well first and foremost there’s no trophy guide for the game when I played through it, secondly there’s not a lot of resources visual or written to help you.

 

Finally, we have the most important reason why this game is placed where it is, to earn 3 stars you MUST win every race in order to 3 star the event if you lose a single race, no 3 stars for you so you're forced to restart the whole event. Yes, it’s possible to eliminate a few AI drivers to have an easier time if you have 4 PS4 controllers but when I did this I had 1. The AI is relentless, if you see the dreaded Jellyfish of doom power-up coming your way you can only evade it 2 ways, if an AI driver is close to you, let him overtake you so he gets hit instead of you or use the Avatar power-up to destroy it.  

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Tier 6 - Extreme - The hardest thing in the genre!

 

Beyond Trophy Challenge

 

 

When it comes to kart racing there’s one challenge that surpasses them all in terms of difficulty. But what I speak of is a beyond trophy challenge that few trophy hunters won’t reach because you don’t get a shiny trophy for it. I speak of course of the “Ultimate Flex” in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled which consists of Dr N.Tropy with the Digital N.Tropy skin, Champion kart with Velo decal, Relic Platinum paint and the Master wheels.

 

Ultimate Flex Components

Unlockable Item: Dr Nefarious Tropy (Character Unlock)

Difficulty: 6th Hardest unlock

Tier: Novice

Requirement: To unlock N.Tropy as a playable character you need to defeat N.Tropy’s best times on all CTR and CNK tracks. This is a trophy requirement so the vast majority of players will have N.Tropy unlocked.

 

Unlockable Item: Digital Dr Nefarious Tropy (Legendary Skin)

Difficulty: 5th Hardest unlock

Tier: Trophy Competent

Requirement: Simply defeat Nitrous Oxide’s ghost on all CTR and CNK tracks, and this legendary skin is yours. This is the level of 99.99% of trophy hunters.

 

Unlockable Item: Champion Kart

Difficulty: 4th Hardest unlock

Tier: Adept

 

Requirement: To unlock the champion kart you need to defeat Oxide on all of the bonus tracks as well as the CTR and CNK tracks. The hardest Oxide time in the game to take down is for Gingerbread Joyride. When the champion kart was first released it was possible to obtain it by grinding nitro-points, since the developer Beenox, stopped supporting the game this is the only method available to unlock the champion set.

 

Unlockable Item: Relic Platinum Paint

Difficulty: 3rd Hardest unlock

Tier: Semi-Advanced

 

Requirement: Throughout the adventure mode you’ll be collecting relics in order to progress the story mode. However, in order to unlock the rarest paint job that CTR has to offer you will need to earn all 18 platinum relics. The difficulty you select on Adventure mode does have a bearing on how difficult it is to unlock relic platinum paint, if you play on anything harder than easy difficulty each relic platinum time is reduced by 2 seconds on the higher difficulties. The hardest platinum relic for most people to unlock is on NGin Labs.

 

Unlockable Item: Velo Champion Decal

Difficulty: 2nd Hardest unlock

Tier: Advanced

 

Requirement: Once you defeat Oxides time on any track, you’ll have the opportunity to race against Emperor Velo’s time which is significantly faster than Oxide. To unlock the decal, you must defeat Velo’s time on EVERY track. If you had to defeat Velo's time trial records on every track as a trophy requirement, then the platinum trophy would be around a 7.5/10 in my opinion. 

 

Unlockable Item: Master Wheels

Difficulty: Hardest unlock

Tier: Pro

 

Requirement: If you slay Emperor Velo’s time on any track, you’ll have the opportunity to race against a developer's time which is much faster than Velo. To unlock the legendary Master Wheels, you’ll need to slay EVERY developer time. If this was a trophy requirement it would make the platinum a 9/10 for seasoned kart racers, for average players it would be a 10/10. Very few trophy hunters have reached this level, however there's something to take into consideration even if you have the ultimate flex there are literally 5,000+ players on the PS4 alone who are better than you. Showing how insane the skill ceiling really is in CTR Nitro-Fueled!

 

 

Games left to rank 

 

El Chavo Kart

Animal Kart Racing

Nickelodeon 1, 3

Beach buggy Racing 1, 2

AllStar Fruit Racing

 

 

 

 

Edited November 18, 2022 by LancashireLad87

[EcoShifter]

I'm either going to edit this later or make a new post, as I wanna share my thoughts on some of these games listed, being a kart racing enthusiast myself. I'm saying this now because you'll probably beat me with your update if I wait.

 

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Tier 3: Moderate - Average in terms of difficulty.

 

Jak X Combat Racing (PS4)

(PSNP Game owners 25,198/Metacritic N/A)  

 

 

(Will update later)

 

Genre wise, this isn't a kart racer. It's an arcade racer with weapon-based gameplay, according to developer Naughty Dog. There are some dead giveaways that reading the interview isn't required imo, like controls, but yeah. Otherwise Grip and WipEout would have to be added as well.

 

Fantastic arcade racer though, with a misunderstood steep learning curve (see: speed-runs and strategy guide).

 

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Games left to rank 

 

El Chavo Kart

Animal Kart Racing

Nickelodeon 1, 3

Beach buggy Racing 1, 2

 

You can add All-Stars Fruit Racing too.

Edited November 26, 2022 by EcoShifter