I can't praise this game enough. Despite the controversies of the first game, the dev team did a complete 180° and are on their way to making one of the best Crash Team Racing-esque kart racers of all time.


The controls in this game are buttery smooth and feel amazing. The physics are very free-flowing and encourage players to drive off ramps and walls to find crazy shortcuts, but the game also using a checkpoint system to ensure players can't cheat the course by finding a shortcut that bypasses the whole track.

The music matches the clichés of the levels and starts weak, but sounds better as the song goes on. Nothing really stands out, except maybe 'Don't Look Downtown', 'Mythic Moonlight', 'Rooftop Rumble', and 'Twilight Grove'. Those are really good. The title screen music might get on your nerves after a while.

Like CTR, the game has expected modes like Race, Time Trial, Arena, but also features unique modes like Duo Time Trials where you can have multiple people do time trials with each other. I haven't touched it because I can't access it due to having no friends that play this with me. Elimination is just racing except players in last place will get eliminated each lap. Road Breaker is unique where all racers start in a layered arena, and parts of the arena will crumble as you drive over them. The last one to stay in the arena wins. My favorite is Quick Cut where the track is a curvy straight line, but you gather platforms that you drive into and use them to drive on top of pitfalls to make your own paths. Also, if you're looking to improve, the Time Trials mode also saves your best times so you look back on them to see where you can improve.

While mods act as a band-aid for this issue, I really hope they plan to add more characters, vehicles, and wheels to the roster. The game lacks a strong core identity besides being, "the really cool kart racer with every mod under the sun". There's only four characters right now, with half of the roster being token furry characters, and the other half being half-Rayman where they're just straight up missing arms. They also talk way too much and it detracts from the race. There's two other characters in the guide (Matt & Max; Zig, Zag, Zoom) that aren't playable. There's also a character from the first game, Laika, that currently isn't present in the sequel, so we can expect them to appear in the future. There's also only six vehicles and four wheel types, all with multiple palettes. Despite this, the characters currently have tons of unlockable costumes and they're very well designed.

If you're looking to compete, online is cool too. You can race people online and challenge time trial ghosts from around the world on vanilla and modded tracks. There's also Track of the Day (TOTD) that you can challenge and try to get the best time for the day. The Karters 2 discord is a great way to make friends and rematch people you enjoy being around.

Graphics wise, this looks incredibly polished compared to the first game. That said, I don't really care about graphics because games use pretty visuals and pre-rendered trailers to hide bad code and bad gameplay.


I personally have... Jesus 900+ mods. And that's without any Mario characters, vehicles, wheels, or tracks.

Think of anything and it's probably a mod. If not, it's not too difficult to make one yourself. I made a mod for Absa from Rivals of Aether II, and I will probably make more characters from Rivals of Aether because it only took a few hours to figure out how to get it in the game. The modding tool created by the community is incredibly robust and easily accessible so you can mod this game to your wildest dreams.

This will easily be a game I will clock 1,000+ hours into. Absolutely essential game for a kart racer's library.

Like with most of my reviews, I will always say wait for a sale. Never buy a game at full price. Especially since this is still early access and there is clearly tons of features still missing. It's not a complete experience and you shouldn't pay $30. Wait for a sale.

this is all i could ask for in a kart racer. fast, technical, and fun. speedrunning this game is crack

Travelin' so fast, is this the future or the past?
No stoppin' anyone (Watch me grab the golden rings now)
No stoppin' anyone (Zoomin' past 'em, I got wings wow)
Grab those golden rings, those things'll make your engine sing
Better than everyone (Watch me rise above the crowd now)
Better than everyone (This new gadget got 'em going wow)

Here we go, time to blow
Here we go, fast like, "Woah"
Here we go, out of control
Driving I gotta put in the work
I got my power up, goin' bеrserk
Racing, no pacing, I know my worth
I'm number one, that's for surе
Set your goals (Livin' out my destiny)
Steal their souls (Cross the world, goin' crazy, hey)

It's Sonic Racing all around the world
Faster than ever, that make the tires burn
Gold rings are treasure, it's chaos every turn
We're trail blazing
Sonic Racing

Gadgets everywhere
This race on land, or sea, or air
I’ll give myself a break (Break it down, boy, I’m doin’ what it takes)
If the T-rex escapes (Speed racin’, got the people sayin’)
With a stroke of luck, you might become a monster truck
So hit that power up (Monster truck say what’s up)
Don’t miss that power up (Then go get another one)

Adventure off into another land (Ah, ah, ah)
A world you don’t completely understand (Ah, ah, ah)
Where will the journey go? (Sonic knows)
And which way will the rivers flow? (Where do we go)
These are the questions of the open road
(Blue got me feeling wavy, cross the world, we go crazy, yeah)

It’s Sonic Racing, all around the world
Faster than ever, it’s chaos every turn
Gold rings are treasure, that make the tires burn
We’re trail blazing
Sonic Racing

Time to go
Cross the world, go
Time to go
Cross the world, go
Time to go (Oh, oh)
Cross the world, go (Oh, oh)
Time to go (Oh, oh)
Cross the world, go (Oh, oh)
Cross the world, go
It’s Sonic Racing, all around the world
Faster than ever, that make the tires burn
Gold rings are treasure
I’m dreamin’ for that driving to this crazy
Sonic Racing
It’s Sonic Racing, all around the world
Faster than ever, it’s chaos every turn
Gold rings are treasure, that make the tires burn
We’re trail blazing
Sonic Racing

(Yeah)
Time to go
Now we startin' up the show
Open the gate, Imma be great
Only see the gold roads
Hopping through dimensions, lookin' like the freshest
Can't tell me no, got 'em like whoa, cross the world, go
It’s Sonic Racing (Cross the world, go)