10 Kart Racing Games You Won't Believe Exist
What alternatives are out there to Mario Kart and Crash Team Racing?
Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fuelled is out now and, by all accounts, it's a huge hit.
The remake of 1999's Crash Team Racing has captured the imagination of old and new fans of the game alike, combining nostalgia with the latest innovations in game design and mechanics.
The remaster of CTR has reawakened a lot of love for the kart racing genre, which was first popularised by a certain Italian plumber in 1992.
The formula of a kart racer hasn't changed much at all since then and it remains one of the easiest gaming structures to replicate. Whilst Mario Kart and Crash Team Racing remain the most popular and successful kart racers, there are plenty of other franchises that have had the karting treatment too.
The plumber and the bandicoot might be the cream of the crop, but there are plenty of alternatives so farfetched and ridiculous, you'd be forgiven for Googling them after reading this list to double check they actually exist.
So, fire up your engines and grab your appropriate power up, because we're diving head first into some of the most obscure and bizarre kart racing games ever made.
10. Mega Man: Battle & Chase
We start with a game so obscure, it didn't reach the US until almost a decade after it was first released.
Mega Man has been delighting gamers since the late 80s, and was one of the first mascots for both Capcom and Nintendo.
Alongside over a dozen games, Mega Man has appeared in TV shows, comic books, and is destined for the big screen some time very soon.
One of the blue hero's lesser-known spin-offs came in 1997 with the release of Mega Man: Battle & Chase. The game featured ten playable characters from the series and players could win special items and customisation options by defeating certain characters or winning certain races.
The game was only released in Japan and the PAL region originally, leaving out North America. This changed in 2006, when the title was included as part of the Mega Man X Collection. This was the first time American audiences could enjoy the racer but, if they'd read the reviews beforehand, they may not have even bothered to boot it up.
The game's reviews were mixed with many calling it a simple Mario Kart rip-off. So definitely worth that nine year wait, then?