It’s been a great year for karting franchise games, with some of the biggest names in the genre all dropping new editions. While it would be easy to assume licensed games like this are rush jobs, the genre has a strong tradition. Here are our favorite karting franchises you may want to check out this holiday season.
Wacky Wheels
Many of the series that saw Mario Kart games and thought “that looks like a good idea” did so with some of the later releases on 3D-capable consoles and with franchises that could bring their own stars to the table. And then there was Wacky Wheels, a game in the mold of SNES karting, primarily distributed as shareware, either individually or in collections, which allowed you to sample the game while offering the option to purchase a full version direct from the developer.
Despite lacking some of the big branding of other games on this list, however, Wacky Wheels did have well-executed gameplay, so it still earned its place as a beloved game for many gamers of a certain age. There are no fancy gaming mascots to be found here, with regular farm animals racing on “lawn mowers” for extra copyright plausible deniability, but there is a great karting game nonetheless, particularly for something more likely to wind up on your PC for free than not.
Crash Team Racing
At the turn of the new millennium, the console battle was beginning to shape up as one between Nintendo and Sony, and with the success of karting games on the Nintendo 64, it should be no surprise that Sony was looking for something of their own. For that, they turned to a console-exclusive mascot in the form of Naughty Dog’s Crash Bandicoot series. Like Super Mario Brothers, the series doesn’t have any direct reasons to tie it into racing, but it did have popular characters to use.
Released on the PlayStation, Crash Team Racing had its own mix of characters, perks, and power-ups appropriate to the franchise, all thrown on top of some familiar karting action. The series was popular enough for a follow-up a few years later and a third entry in 2019 on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and the Switch.
Diddy Kong Racing
Not every good franchise racing game received a series of releases, as for Rare and Diddy Kong Racing, it was a one-and-done situation of getting in, making a great game, and getting out. Released for the Nintendo 64, Diddy Kong Racing is both the most obvious and most successful game to have a look at Mario Kart 64 and decide that it looks like fun. Although a planned GameCube follow-up never came to pass, the game still left its mark in the field.
Like Mario Kart 64, Diddy Kong Racing put players in control of characters from a beloved Nintendo-based franchise in some racing and battling. The biggest innovation the game brought was the different types of vehicles. While Mario Kart kept you in karts for every race, Diddy Kong Racing added hovercraft and, more dynamically, airplanes into the rotation for some truly unique carting fun.
Kirby Air Riders
It’s been a year for new releases in big franchise racing series, and Kirby Air Riders is the latest to join the club, with its latest game arriving earlier in November. Taking a page out of Diddy Kong Racing’s book, adding some flight-based considerations into the mix. The latest game also used some open-world elements, allowing players to customize their machines before taking on the big challenges.
Like any game in the genre, there are obvious influences of Mario Kart to be found in Kirby Air Riders, while also providing a racing experience that feels unique and its own. The latest edition did not arrive completely free of any criticism but has been met with mostly positive response and has earned its place on the list of karting games worth looking at.
Team Sonic Racing
All you need for a good karting franchise is an iconic main character and a fun supporting cast, so when you have just that, and his defining trait is a need to go fast, a racing series feels inevitable. While SEGA has taken advantage of Sonic’s natural speed in its Olympic games crossovers, it also has the Team Sonic Racing series for fans looking for motorsport fun.
Sonic Racing: Crossworlds released to Overwhelmingly Positive scores on Steam. The game does not rest on its laurels of a big-name license, delivering enthralling and challenging racing action that has been a big hit with gamers around the world. Team Sonic Racing does not have as many entries as what is yet to come, but it still remains a stellar example of what a karting racing series can be and a demonstration of how to deliver a game that is good enough on its own to justify the high-value franchise it makes use of.
Mario Kart
There was only ever going to be one franchise at the top of this list. Mario Kart is not just the OG that is responsible for the whole genre’s popularity; it remains a series that delivers for fans over and over. While other sports franchises rely on annual releases, Mario Kart instead has relied on nailing the process of transporting its karting fun onto each new console. This reached its apex with Mario Kart 8, a game so popular on a console so not that the Wii U game stayed on in port form as the Mario Kart entry for the Switch.
The latest entry in the series dropped this year with Mario Kart World, incorporating an open world element into the franchise while maintaining the same karting fun fans expect. There will always be room for more franchises to release high-quality games, but it will likely be a while before anyone threatens Mario Kart’s claim to the throne.
