Nickelodeon Kart Racers

***Nickelodeon Kart Racers*** is a 2018 racing video game developed by Bamtang Games and published by GameMill Entertainment in North America and Maximum Games in Europe. The game features Nickelodeon characters in a crossover, including *SpongeBob SquarePants*, *Hey Arnold!*, *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles*, and *Rugrats*. The game was released in North America on October 23, 2018 and in Europe on October 26, 2018 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It was followed by Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix in 2020.

## Gameplay

*Nickelodeon Kart Racers* features a selection of twelve playable characters from *SpongeBob SquarePants*, *Hey Arnold!*, *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles*, and *Rugrats*. 24 courses and 8 arenas based on different locations from the shows are included in the game.

It also has a team-based co-op mode, where two players can use a hammer to stop every other team and get an advantage. The karts can be customized and power-ups can be picked up from the courses. Kart parts, including tires, engines, spoilers, jet skis, and paint jobs, can be purchased using coins collected from the courses. Courses that entirely consist of slime include slalom and elimination modes.

## Courses

 Escape From Dimension X

## Development

The game was announced on July 25, 2018. A trailer for the game was released on September 13, 2018.

## Reception

Nickelodeon Kart Racers received "generally unfavorable" reviews on all platforms according to review aggregator Metacritic.

Nintendo Life gave the game a 3/10, criticizing it for the roster size which only consists of two to four characters from four different shows while lacking characters from other popular Nickelodeon shows such as The Fairly OddParents, The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Invader Zim, and Avatar: The Last Airbender. They also criticized the game for the lack of voice acting. PlayStation LifeStyle gave the game a slightly higher score of 5.5/10, stating that "while [it] provides plenty of content and has smart references that integrate well with some very solid racing, the poor visuals and botched battle mode leave plenty to be desired. If you accept the game for what it is there’s definitely some fun to be had but its shortcomings are jarring enough to require some substantial blinders."

Chris Wray of Wccftech panned the PlayStation 4 version with a 2/10, stating that "with basic at best visuals, terrible audio design and quality, as well as just downright bland kart racing, this isn't the kart racer for you." Chris Compendio of DualShockers gave the Nintendo Switch version a similar score, calling it "a sin masquerading as a video game, and now we must all wish for forgiveness."

## Trivia

* This is the first Nickelodeon crossover console game to feature Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters, and the last one involving SpongeBob characters to be released during Stephen Hillenburg's lifetime.
* It was thought that characters from twelve different Nicktoons were to be in the game, but the press release was later corrected by Bamtang to say it was only going to have the twelve characters listed above.
* Bamtang said that they would release downloadable content after the game's release, including adding more characters. The DLC was never released, but a sequel to this game, which had over twice as many playable characters, was released in 2020.