A new racing game featuring characters from a slew of Nickelodeon series has been announced. Titled “Nickelodeon Kart Racers’, the game would be published by GameMill Entertainment, the same people behind Cartoon Network: Battle Crashers, and developed by Bamtang.

Some of the characters announced for the game include SpongeBob, Patrick and Sandy from SpongeBob Square pants; Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; Arnold and Helga from Hey Arnold; and Tommy, Reptar and Angelica from Rugrats.

Nickelodeon Kart Racers will feature characters from over 12 iconic shows, and will include 24 race tracks inspired by Bikini Bottom, Tommy Picke’s house, The New York City sewers and other Nickelodeon locations.

Nickelodeon Kart Racers will include both team based co-op mode and local free-for-all multiplayer. The karts can be customized by players and can be retrofitted with a wide range of power ups that can be used on the tracks to perform special attacks.

Certain sections of each track will be covered in slime. When players drive over the slime, their kart will glide across the track effortlessly and transform into a jet ski. The developers have revealed only four of the 12 show that are included in the game. Other possibilities that could make into the show include The Fairly Oddparents, Avatar: The Last Airbender and Danny Phantom.

Nickelodeon Kart Racers will release for Xbox One, PS4 and Nintendo Switch on October 23.

The official price tag for the game is $40 and is bound to resonate perfectly with nostalgia prone players who will be looking forward to revisit their childhood characters with a different perspective.             

What does it mean for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe                             

The defacto leader of kart racing on the console is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and it can be safely assumed that Nickelodeon Kart Racers wouldn’t be making much of a dent there. This doesn’t mean that the game won’t be a whole lot of fun.

The weird thing that we couldn’t find was any mention of online play, and if that component is missing out of the final game, it probably wouldn’t bode well for the gamers.

A few pitfalls that the game should avoid

As fans of the kart racing series, we believe that Nintendo Kart Racers should avoid becoming just another copy of Mario Kart and bring something fresh to the table rather than just a fusion of Nintendo characters into the genre. Although there is no harm as long as the game is able to perfectly emulate Mario Kart, but what we fear is that they’ll take the tried and tested formula, only to butcher it.

It can be argued that Nintendo Kart Racers will be done due justice by GameMill Entertainment, who have published video games for many consoles and have given particular attention to third party casual games for Nintendo platforms.

Many fans and gamers alike are a little weary of the title because history has shown time and time again, those licensed games are usually a hit and miss. Here’s hoping that Nintendo Kart Racers will deliver a fun kart racing experience that fans would thoroughly enjoy.