Summary
In case you missed it,Nightmare Kart, theBloodborneinspired kart racing video game, is now officially available. It was previously known as Bloodborne Kart,though Sony intervened late in development and forced a rebranding free of any ties to its IP. That rebranding doesn’t seem to have hurt the projectas it officially crossed 200,000 downloads on Thursday, according to its creator Lilith Walther.
And for the uninitiated, Nightmare Kart is aPlayStation 1style kart racer in the vein of titles like Crash Team Racing and Toy Story Racer, complete with low res sprites and polygons. Speaking of CTR,a fan made mod added online racing and other features to the game. As for Nightmare Kart,the official synopsis is as follows:
You are a beast hunter, conscripted against your will to participate in a most peculiar local custom: a tournament where participants race atop mysterious vehicles comprised of copper and steam.
Race through blood-soaked gothic streets atop one of 12 unique vehicles as you seek answers behind the origin of this nightmare. Wield powerful weapons to reduce your opponents to scrap, slaughter beasts to raise your top speed, perform tricks and drifts to generate Æther to boost, and overcome challenging boss encounters to unlock the secrets behind this terrible dream.
Start your engines, the first race is about to begin.
Thegame’s creator notes that 21 racers are available to play with, and that there are 13 karts, compared to the synopsis’s 12. Additionally, 15 racks are available, as is a full campaign mode and split-screen multiplayer. It’s free to download viaItch.ioandSteam, whereit already has “overwhelmingly positive” reviews.
Asone user commented in their recommended review, “The Bloodborne PC port may just be the friends we made along the way at this point, but Nightmare Kart is the game to play with those friends now!“Another user praised the game’s depth, writing, “Genuinely amazing little racing game with enough depth to make it really interesting. Superb visual and sound design as well.”
And if the creator,Lilith Walther, sounds extremely familiar, then you’re right. They are also responsiblefor the Bloodborne PSX title, which wasa demake of the original FromSoftware title. That title also featured similar sprites, and, like Nightmare Kart, was a massive success,having reached 100,000 downloads on its first day alone.
Whilefans continue to wait for a Bloodborne remake, small titles like this show that interest is as high as ever. And maybe, just maybe, that’ll be enough to make some dreams come true. And if not, well,more retro kart racers are never a bad thing.
