First hands-on play with Shrek Kart

By Nigel Wood, UK
for www.touchgen.com

Published: September 3, 2009

First hands-on play with Shrek Kart thumbnail

We got hands-on with Gameloft’s answer to Mario Kart featuring everyone’s favourite flatulent Ogre.

You may have already read my review of Konami’s Krazy kart, and in it I asked whether Gameloft’s game will be able to knock it off it’s perch of best Karting game on the iPhone & iPod Touch. Well, from what I’ve played so far it’s certainly a worthy contender.

I booted up a quick race in the Far Far Away track and chose the three ‘camp as christmas’ pigs. Standard controls are auto accelerate and tilt to turn. There are also two fire butons, one to activate your character specific power, in this case the pigs build a wall but others include Shrek’s fart boost, and the other button activates power-ups that you pick up on the tracks. These range from turning racers into pumpkins, dropping cows on heads, and speed boosts. Boost pads are also available along the route to give you a welcome boost into the lead…. a good thing too because these pigs seemed a little weighty.

We tried Shrek, as well as Donkey, and all feature different abilities and weights… Donkey was a little lighter on his wheels than the pigs. Other modes include a Mario Kart style balloon popping battle mode, as well as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi multi-player. Online multi-player won’t be available on release, but Gameloft tell me that both EDGE and 3G races will be available in a free update.

Another online feature that will be available in the update is the ability to upload replays to youtube, a feature made popular in Firemint’s real racing. So you’ll be able to share your humiliation when you get beaten by your friends.

Shrek Kart 1-ups Konami’s offering in the visuals department, while Krazy Kart was crisp and clean with a smooth framerate, Shrek’s textures and models are more detailed with characters and tracks all matching their movie counterparts… although this detail does take a tiny hit on framerate, but nothing that can’t be ironed out before release.

Shrek Kart is on track for Q4 release. No word yet on a price point, but expect something in the region of $4.99 - $6.99

Review disclosure: Any games reviewed on this page may have been provided to us by the developer for the purposes of this review. Note: the resulting review score is never impeded by this fact, all opinions are that of the TouchGen reviewer and not the developer. This is in keeping with our O.A.T.S oath. Read more about O.A.T.S here

5 Comments on "First hands-on play with Shrek Kart"

Auster on Fri, 4th Sep 2009 1:09 pm

the position indicator is the same than the used with asphalt

Capone on Fri, 4th Sep 2009 8:25 pm

So Gameloft really told you that online multiplayer will be available in a future update?
That would be the first time for a Gameloft game, I think. I don’t play Let’s golf! or Real Football anymore, because they lack an optioh to play against friends online.
If Shrek Kart really gets online multiplayer, I will probably buy it, because I think Gameloft is able to do a better job than Konami with Krazy Kart.

Nigel Wood, UK on Sat, 5th Sep 2009 12:14 am

Yep they sure, did… and for Asphalt 5 too!

Capone on Sat, 5th Sep 2009 7:58 am

Thank you for this great answer, Nigel.

I recently heard the name “Gameloft Live” somewhere. Maybe they are planning something like Plus+ or OpenFeint for their games That would be great.

MUSICISAMONSTER.COM on Sat, 10th Oct 2009 4:57 am

Why isn’t anyone talking about Cocoto Racer, this game came out of nowhere, I mean I never saw anything about it online, except after its release. Its got great characters, tracks, game play, (touch) controls, Mario Kart style racing, as well as battles! and ONLINE MULTIPLAYER THROUGH WIFI AND 3G! WHAT’S NOT TO LIKE!!! It will probably beat Shrek Kart in the features and gameplay department when it comes out, sure a little updates may change that, but by the time that happens the developers of Cocoto Racing would have probably released their own updates.

First hands-on play with Shrek Kart

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