LittleBigPlanet Karting could be as addictive as Mario Kart. We know what you’re thinking: That’s a ridiculously bold statement, right? Mario Kart is the undisputed king of kart racers with iconic tracks, great characters and genre-defining mechanics. We don’t dispute that, but LBP Karting is all set up to propel the karting genre to a whole new level.
We’re sure the story-driven, single-player campaign can’t possibly be as much fun as Mario Kart, but what are hands-on time at E3 did show us was that the basic mechanics are just as slick as you intuitively drift around corners, fire off homing missiles and pick up power-ups. What LBP Karting has though that Super Mario Kart doesn’t is a blank canvas for the community to paint, a toolset that opens up endless possibilities. With the ability to share and download other user-created tracks with a similar system to LBP, there should be hundreds of quality creations available.
During our time with LBP Karting this week, we also discovered that collecting bubbles is just as addictive as it was in LBP. During races, you pick up bubbles and unlock a huge selection of stickers, objects and tools that allow you to customise the karting experience. We’ve seen the customisation thing already with Modnation Racers of course, but LBP Karting takes that addictive action of collecting bubbles that we loved so much in LBP and throws it into the karting genre. It’s this combination of unlockable content, intuitive karting mechanics and high level of customisation that’s gets us very excited for its launch.
Weapons can be totally customised as well as karts, characters and maps, and LBP Karting will use the same sharing system as LBP so players can vote on their favourite user-created tracks. The development team will also choose their favourites which everyone can then download.
The success of LBP Karting will undoubtedly be in the hands of the community, but Sony will be giving players everything they need to make it a huge success. Here’s hoping, eh?