
Ever since the original Super Mario Kart, it's been far to easy to throw a collection of loved characters together in a package where they race around tracks in karts throwing random weapons at one another.
Typically these games have been less than successful because a good racing game isn't that easy to produce. It needs balanced physics, well-designed tracks and thorough play testing in order to make sure that everyone's favourite character has half a chance of winning.
Against all odds Garfield Kart isn't that bad. In fact, it's quite enjoyable.
If you've ever played a kart racing game before, then Garfield Kart will be very familiar indeed. The game is broken up into a series of "cups," each with three difficulty levels (50cc, 100cc and 150cc), and each of those cups are made up of a few tracks. The more difficult cups have the more challenging track design, naturally.

Equally critical to offering a good range of interesting tracks, and character kart racing game needs a lot of personality in its racing. Gardfield fans will love what's on offer here. All the major characters from the comic are available here, and it's possible to customise their cars and costumes for a range of different beneficial effects - so for instance getting you on your feet quicker when hit by a specific kind of weapon.

Given that this is an iPad game, there's going to be the inevitable fear that the lack of buttons compromises the gameplay quality for some, but that's not really the case here. There's gyro controls for those that can handle those, and they work OK, but personally I enjoyed the virtual buttons, which is filtered down to just five - turn left, turn right, brake, powerslide and fire weapon. The game handles acceleration naturally.

What is disappointing is the way the game has worked some in-app purchasing into the formula. Most items need to be unlocked by spending "coins." These can be earned from grinding away at the tracks, but they come far too slowly there to unlock everything in a reasonable time frame. The answer? To buy some coins using real money, of course.
Now, Garfield Kart costs $0.99, a price that I consider to be entirely too low for what's on offer in the game. It's easily a low budget but greatly enjoyable kart racing. But I would have much rather the game be honest about how much it wants from players. Either way, I wholeheartedly recommend this game to fans of the ginger cat and his antics, but that pricing strategy does leave the only real sour note I can think of with the whole experience.
- Matt S
Editor-in-Chief
Find me on Twitter: @digitallydownld
Our Scoring Policy