Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway Review (PS5) - Being a Kid Is Fun

It goes without saying racing is fun, but on the other hand, not everybody is a connoisseur that loves to waste their time with complex settings and an impressive level of detail.

This is why games like Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway have so many fans.

It may sound weird hearing this from a grown-up, but Nick Kart 3 is a ridiculously intriguing title. If you’ve ever played Mario Kart, you may already be familiar with the concept.

You get behind the wheel of vehicles like karts and bikes and race on a series of tracks (if you’ve played Nick 2 you might already know most of them, by the way) that puts your skills up to the test. You need to collect power-ups and make use of special abilities just at the right time, all with the purpose of winning races.

As a licensed game, Nickelodeon Kart Racers comes with lots of famous characters, including those from iconic shows such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

On paper, everything sounds pretty cool, right? Right.

In reality, however, Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway has left me with mixed feelings.

As a father, Nickelodeon is something that’s been part of my life for several years already, so in some ways, this game helped me rediscover the kid in me. But on the other hand, from a pure gaming perspective, Nick Kart 3 feels unfinished. Or a game created in a rush, if you wish.

For example, while it’s fun to discover the Slime paths, they don’t seem to produce any major benefit. They’re not necessarily a shortcut but a, well, different way to finish a race.

The gameplay mechanics take some time to master, but eventually, you should be able to control the vehicle just right. The feedback on a DualSense controller isn’t necessarily impressive, so you’re not getting anything extra by playing the game on a new-gen console. Unfortunately, there’s no way to change the controls, so you’ll have to get used to the standard configuration.

The stunts and the airtime tricks aren’t exactly easy to perform either, but the more you try, the better you get. The boosts are obviously the part that will allow you to win races, so make sure you spend more time discovering this side of the game.

One of the best things about the game is the shop, as you should theoretically be able to unlock new characters, vehicles, and so on. Unfortunately, after playing the game for nearly a week, I could barely unlock one item, as everything in there appears to be ridiculously expensive. I’ll never understand the approach, as many people might eventually give up on playing the game altogether, given they have to invest many hours into unlocking their favorite characters.

There are plenty of glitches; there’s no doubt about it. For example, it happened on several occasions to simply fall through the floor, and the only way to get back was to restart the race. In the multiplayer mode, I occasionally encountered major lag, and even though I believed I was winning a race, I was actually well behind the leader.

CONCLUSION

Without a doubt, the fun in Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway is the gaming experience itself, as you just need to enjoy the stunts, the drifting, the power-ups, and the fluidity that you can sometimes put together in a single race.

The voice acting is impressive for the first minutes but becomes annoying rather fast, given your character just keeps talking.

But at the end of the day, if you enjoy some occasional racing where you don’t need to care about tires or car damage, Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway proves to be an excellent time waster to play on a rainy day, not only with grown-ups but with kids too.

RATING: 70/100