Tuesday, October 06, 2020

Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix - Announce Trailer - PS4 - PlayStation

Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix - Announce Trailer | PlayStation


Nickelodeon Kart Racers is back and we’re kicking it into overdrive! In Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix, you can select from 30 playable racers and 70 team members to assemble your ultimate pit crew. Choose your favorites from Nickelodeon’s hall of fame, including JoJo Siwa, SpongeBob SquarePants, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the babies from Rugrats, the cool kids from Hey Arnold!, Ren and Stimpy, Lincoln Loud and his sisters, and more!

More Characters + More Karts + More Tracks = MORE FUN! First, speed your way across a variety of Slime-filled tracks in a fun series of races where you can win highly-coveted cups and over 80 upgrades for your Kart! Then, shift into the next gear and challenge your friends in online multiplayer or in local arena multiplayer to see who can cross the finish line first or handle the wild arena challenges! There’s no slowing down - on your marks, get set, Slime!

Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix will be released on October 6, 2020, and will carry a pricetag of $39.99. Click the following link for more info!: http://nickalive.blogspot.com/2020/06/nickelodeon-kart-racers-2-grand-prix.html

From PlayStation.Blog:

Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2 adds more customization, characters, and slime

The cartoony kart racer launches tomorrow on PS4.

Adam Johnston, Creative Director, Bamtang Games

I’m Adam Johnston, Creative Director at Bamtang games and I’m excited for everyone to start playing the sequel to Nickelodeon Kart Racers! We’ve made a lot of improvements and changes from the first game, and don’t worry – you don’t have to play the first game to understand what’s happening in part two.

The biggest, most obvious upgrade from the first game is the character roster. There are now 30 racers and the Pit Crew adds all kinds of familiar Nickelodeon cameos which creates all kinds of new options. You will be able to unlock 70 Pit Crew members that you can add to your team to customize your kart.  That means players can really find their sweet spot on the kart and Pit Crew load out to match their driving style. Also, we gave a lot of love to drifting so now it feels way more rewarding.


Here’s how the Pit Crew works, which represents a big change from the first game. The Crew Chief gives you a primary powerup that replaces the old turbo charge. It is charged by slime, and there is a wide variety of power-up effects to choose from.  The other Pit Crew members bring strategic buffs. They kick in automatically during the race and might leave a trap when picking up a power-up, or give a boost after getting hit, as just a few examples. There are a mountain of options. I don’t keep any single strategy for long, there’s always some other combination to try out.  When you change your loadout, you have to change your driving style too. If you want to adopt a more defensive loadout, then that means that you can be more aggressive.


Slime is back and we think it’s the thing that sets our kart racer apart, while also being a perfect representation of Nickelodeon. Slime is still your friend! Going for the Green, and filling the Slime bar is one of the best ways to get ahead in the game. The Slime was reworked visually, but otherwise, you’ll still find it splashed all around. The boating part of the first Nickelodeon Kart Racers has been given a rest in the sequel. This time we’ve added Slime Edges. They give the players air, and the chance to pull tricks to get bonus slime and boosts. These really help mix up the race line strategies, depending on the player’s skill (or courage).

When we thought about upgrading the Slime bar we realized that it would be awesome to give the player the option to choose how the Slime will impact the race. After that, we wanted the visual impact to be based on the Nickelodeon characters we love so much, and that’s how the Crew Chiefs were born. Some of the team favorites are Tenzin from The Legend of Korra who uses airbending for a big jump, releasing a shockwave when landing; or Powdered Toast Man from Ren and Stimpy who makes the kart drive backwards, with a turbo boost, and it explodes if it crashes! We had a lot of fun making this game which, coincidentally, extended to track creation.


Most of the original twelve tracks have been remastered with completely updated art, and Slime Rapids.  The new tracks complement the old ones, with wider diversity.  We think having so many tracks now, there’s more extreme situations.  Jumps, half-pipes, cannons, ramps, slime geysers, and other surprises add verticality, which leads to some pretty stressful situations.  In Fast mode, you really can’t relax and the Insane mode lives up to its name.

This is a game designed to be fun for all ages, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t strategies that can be employed by more practiced racers. Drifting is still a helpful boost factor, but dominating drifting mechanics or knowing the raceline will only get you so far. Some of the levels were designed to make the player focus on a specific mechanic like drifting or jumping, but there’s no sure way to win every race. We think it’s best to choose a crew that supports your driving style. For example, I would definitely recommend choosing Pearl from SpongeBob SquarePants to anyone that loves performing big jumps and riding the half pipes.  She gives you a much stronger turbo boosts after a jump.


It’s not all just straightforward racing, of course. In Arena mode, you battle all of the other players in an open arena.  Since SpongeBob is so popular with the fans, we added the Golden Spatula mode. In this mode you have to find the Golden Spatula and keep it long enough to earn a point. The other players will be looking to make you drop it. The first player who gets three points takes all the glory.

This sequel also adds up to 8 player online multiplayer modes. Either in quick races, or in championship cup races. It’s kind of weird, but we finished this game during the pandemic, so almost all of the testing has been online. Back in the unhygienic old days, we used to play each other sitting next to each other on the couch, split screen. Now we had to set up online sessions to play each other, so online play is probably the core experience now.

One of the most fun parts of creating this game, and the excitement of getting into the hands of players, is seeing how everyone reacts differently to the roster. There are the nostalgic players, like me, who like seeing and playing as the classics, but there is a whole new generation of Nickelodeon fans who gravitate towards different racers. Having Ren and Stimpy in Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2 is fantastic, but most of the young’uns have never heard of them. 


I’m embarrassed to say that I am so old that I had never heard of Jojo Siwa, but she is maybe one of the most popular racers with younger players. There is also a game mode (spoiler alert!) where the players have to complete challenges with specific characters and they were inspired by the things those characters usually do in their series. If the players know who those characters are, they will understand why they have to do those challenges. Only the true fans will know that there’s no coincidence in asking you to play as Squidward and win a race full of Squidwards. We really had a ton of fun by making these challenges, and the rest of the game, and we’re looking forward to playing online with everyone on October 6!

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Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2 Adds JoJo Siwa and More

Bamtang Games and Nickelodeon get together to create Kart Racers 2, which appeals to grown-ups' nostalgia as well as kids' favorites.

The wide world of racing just got a little bit bigger, with 70 Nickelodeon characters now appearing in Kart Racers 2, including rising star Jojo Siwa, as seen in the top left of the lineup below.

Most of the characters will come into play through the new Pit Crew mechanic. Whoever is selected as the racer's Pit Crew Chief will provide a unique primary power-up effect during the race, which is recharged by driving through slime. Other pit crew members will provide passive buffs which can be equally advantageous. With 70 Nickelodeon characters from fan-favorite series, the range of combinations encourage the racer to experiment and tailor both car and team to their particular style.

Creative Director of Bamtang Games Adam Johnston was keen to get into detail about slime, which is without a doubt the racing game's core feature. In order to win, racers will have to spend slime wisely to make the most out of their Pit Crew Chief's particular power. By driving through slime and executing daring tricks, drivers can refill their slime bar quicker, a clear advantage.

The lineup for Kart Racers 2 has 30 Nickelodeon characters, including Jojo Siwa.

Besides Jojo, so far there are 30 confirmed characters on the Kart Racers 2 website from 11 different series, from grown-up favorites Ren & Stimpy to Spongebob Squarepants himself. The full 70-character roster is not available at this time, so eager fans will have to wait until tomorrow and find out in-game.

Critics of Kart Racers 2 previously tended to make the comparison between it and MarioKart, saying Bamtang Games' cartoony racing game was blandly similar to Nintendo's racing titles. The new emphasis on the pit crew mechanic and slime may be enough to set this title apart from other kart racing games, but that will ultimately be up to the players to decide.

Without a doubt, the main appeal of Nickelodeon's Kart Racers 2 is the nostalgia factor for parents and the slime factor for the kids.

Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix will be available for Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One on October 6th, 2020.

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Originally published: Tuesday, September 22, 2020.

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