With the first game becoming something halfway between a meme title and a legitimately appreciated niche little kart racer, it’s no surprise that a sequel eventually arrived. Grab yourself a mug of coffee and a plate of lasagna, because we’re reviewing Garfield Kart 2 on Xbox Series X!
It all goes back to…
In a sense, pretty much every mascot kart racer out there is incredibly derivative of Nintendo’s iconic Mario Kart series. After all, be it Sonic’s racers, the Nickelodeon ones, the Crash Team Racing spin-offs of the famous bandicoot and so forth, they all share a DNA that is deeply rooted in such a genre-defining IP. Rocket starts, drifts to gain boost, a variety of power-ups to use, wacky circuits with shortcuts and jumps, very arcade-y controls… it’s really not a secret that Mario Kart‘s at the time rather unique approach to racing games has effectively spawned a new genre.
However, in most cases, all these games tend to have their unique twists on the formula, their tweaks, their outstanding features. The recent DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing had some unique interactive paths forming in the skies and the Trolls-based events. The upcoming Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds will have transforming vehicles, a path selection at the end of a lap not unlike what you’d find in an Outrun game and more. The iconic Crash Team Racing has its unique drift and movement style, with some unique power-ups to boot as well. Garfield Kart 2 does not really have a distinguishing characteristic, unless you count pretty much copy-pasting the Nintendo Switch game, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, as a unique thing.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe at home
I had a dear friend of mine come over one of these days, and in terms of videogames, he’s a Nintendo fan through and through, with a long history of Mario Kart as well. When we decided to try Garfield Kart 2 together, after already going through a handful of races on my own, I handed him the Xbox controller, telling him I will explain the controls in only four words: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. He immediately understood the task at hand, and just like I did when I first tried the title, he was instantly feeling at home. As in, just about everything in Garfield Kart 2 is extremely derivative of Nintendo’s penultimate console Mario Kart release. That episode in particular – you’ll find virtually none of the changes or upgrades of the most recent title, Mario Kart World, nor the gimmicks of previous installments.
After a slightly different rocket start, you’re left with the exact same game design philosophy. The controls are the same as the aforementioned game. You can do mini-jumps with RB, which can then be chained into drifts that give boosts. Power-ups are collected via floating boxes, well, TVs, and a few of them are double-stacked. Power-up usage is on the LB button. The track features track obstacles, turbos, jumps an designs that very evidently evoke specific Mario Kart tracks, with a hint of Crash Team Racing here and there. Up to 10 coins to collect. Slipstreams work in an identical fashion. Three stars, I mean, paws to achieve when winning cups flawlessly. Even the power-ups are quite literally identical in their role, such as lasagna being the mushrooms, bars of soap being the bananas – all the way down to the coloured shells being substituted by dog food, so you get single green dog food straight-shooting rockets, three of them rotating around you, a red bowl which is a homing attack, and a blue one that attacks the leader. I mean, come on now.
But wait, there’s more!
It doesn’t quite end there. Every camera angle, every animation of our racers is quite identical to Nintendo’s ludicrously popular kart racer. When choosing your kart build, you can choose chassis elements, wheels, hats and more – that’s a bit more elaborate than Mario Kart‘s equivalent, though with less picks at hand, but there’s a rather funny catch: the game has basically the exact same UI elements, down to even featuring the same driving assists, such as the auto-accelerate or steering help. Even the cups come in various shapes and sizes – no 50cc speed somehow, but there’s 100cc, 150cc and mirrored. They didn’t even put in the effort to come up with some different names!
I like to say that I am not a fan of spending a review comparing the title at hand with its main inspirations, as I’d rather focus on its unique features. With Garfield Kart 2, that is legitimately difficult, because the game is essentially a carbon copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe‘s gameplay, just… not done quite as well. The controls and collisions are a little less smooth and the graphics quite underwhelming, though there’s the interesting addition of neon outlines for tracks that helps with the readability of the layouts at least. The AI is weak, frequently failing at more complex corners. There’s only 12 tracks, two less speed/difficulty options at hand, no secret cups to unlock, only 8 characters. At least, some of the sountrack is pretty good. There is local play up to 4 players and online races up to 8, with cross-play to boot. In terms of game modes, there ain’t no battle variants or anything fancy, just single races, cups and time trials. For a 29.99USD/29,99EUR price of the console version, it doesn’t quite pack a lot of content, and you can blast through anything the game has to offer in a few hours, unless you wanna challenge the time leaderboards or the fellow racers online.
What’s the point, then?
At the end of the day, this boils down to one question. Why would you play such a shameless knock-off of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, when that other title exists? I suppose if you’re a big Garfield fan and you want to race as him, Nermal or Jon, it could make sense – though the amount of fan service and Garfield-centric content is quite minimal, with even tracks taking generic themes like pirates or sci-fi. This game is also on various platforms, not just Nintendo consoles. But by removing everything that made the original Garfield Kart somewhat unique, we’re just left with a moderately competent, but ultimately unremarkable achievement. Garfield Kart 2 is a fun kart racer, in some ways better than its predecessor – but everything it does better is because it shamelessly copied another, much better game. With so many quality mascot kart racers out there, you can probably opt for something a little more remarkable.
Garfield Kart 2
Played on
Xbox Series X
PROS
- Plays well
- Solid local and online play options alike
- Kart customization is fairly deep
CONS
- Quite shameless in copying Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
- Loses what made the original Garfield Kart a little bit unique
- Short on content
Warum vergleichen Sie Garfield Kart 2 mit Mario Kart 8 / Switch / Switch 2 ? Mich interessiert weder Mario Kart und auch keine Nintendo Konsole . Ich zocke XBOX seit 2001 , keine andere Konsole , nicht aus Symphatie zu Microsoft , nein weil es zu teuer wäre und meine Spiele sind seit 4 Generationen XBOX Spiele . Andere Vergleiche existieren zu Garfield Kart 2 und das muss auch nicht Sonic Racing sein . Viel Ahnung scheinen Sie nicht zu haben . MfG , aus Deutschland .