Review: Shrek Kart HD iPad Racing Game

May

2010

Robert Workman, iPadNewsDaily Contributor
04:30 PM ET

With "Shrek: The Final Chapter" set to grace theaters in a couple of weeks, we here at iPadNewsDaily thought it would be a great idea to check out Shrek’s debut on the iPad, the likable if unoriginal Shrek Kart HD.

It’s exactly as it sounds, a kart-racing game that Gameloft shapes around the lovable ogre’s world. You’ll get to choose from a variety of characters from the film series, including Shrek, Fiona, the Wolf dressed as Granny, the Gingerbread Man and more. Each character has a vehicle adapted to their personality, so naturally Shrek drives a big swamp-green colored buggy.

Once you hit one of the game’s 15 race courses, your job is to score the first place victory. Opponents try to stop you at every turn by activating a number of power-ups, including tornados (which trip up your ride), bees (which obscure your view) and pumpkin bombs (which stop your vehicle dead in its tracks).

You do have a swiping ability, however, so you can knock them away if your timing is right. You can also use any of these power-ups to your advantage, along with one specifically made for your character. We particularly love Shrek’s, since he uses natural gas power (farting) to get ahead.
"Shrek Kart HD" has a major advantage with multiplayer. You can take on another friend via Bluetooth, or hook up with five others over WiFi . This is a real enjoyable part of the game, especially once you enter Arena mode. Here, you’ll have nowhere to run, as you fight in enclosed battle stages for a first place win. The only catch? You’ll need to find other people who own both this game and an iPad. Happy hunting.

Visually, "Shrek Kart HD" is nicely upgraded from the previous iPhone version, with better high-resolution character animations and bright, colorful tracks. Unfortunately, the game is missing any kind of exclusive content for the iPad. Aside from the HD touch-ups, everything you found in the previous Shrek Kart is here, with no extras tacked on. That’s not entirely a bad thing, since that game is enjoyable. However, if you were expecting bigger rewards with the upgrade, they aren’t here.

Gameloft does do well with the game’s control set-up, though. You can choose to go with either tilt controls or manual. In this case, we’d go with the manual, since it’s easier to manipulate turns and power slides with button presses than tilting. You can also customize your controls however you choose, moving the joystick and buttons wherever you want on the screen. (Our advice is to stick with the corners, so they don’t obscure your view.)

Shrek Kart won’t win any awards in originality, due to its borrowing heavily from other kart racing games and the lack of new content specifically for the iPad version. That said, it’s still a worthwhile purchase for fans of the movie and avid racing fans alike. It’s fun, especially if you have friends that downloaded the game as well.

Price: $4.99

File Size: 96.4 MB

Developer: Gameloft

Platform: iPad (also available for iPhone)

iPadNewsDaily Rating (out of 4): ★★★