iPad Review: Shrek Kart HD

Love all things racing? Enjoyed playing Mario Kart? Then hop into the world of Shrek and race against characters from different fairy tales!

Shrek Kart is similar to Mario Kart, except that the former has been made for the iPod and iPad. Thus, you device is the steering wheel. You race in four different single player modes (single race, tournament, challenges, and arena) and you can also play multiplayer as long as you’re local (6 players Wi-Fi, 2 players Bluetooth). With 19 different Tournament Cups, 72 challenges, 10 unique karts (some of which have to be unlocked), 11 defensive and offensive power-ups, 15 tracks, and 10+ different characters, you’ll never tire of the racing game.

Steering isn’t all that easy. After all, there is no gas pedal for you to step on (oh, how I miss those arcade driving games). But if you’ve played Mario Kart, then you should have an inkling as to what to look out for. As my older brother told me, I looked quite stupid and silly while I was racing. Must be because I was holding the iPad too close to my face, heh.

I quite enjoyed the game, though I must say that I enjoyed the ‘novice’ mode the most. When I played on ‘easy mode’, I felt that there just wasn’t enough resistance against my steering wheel, making my kart a little hard to control. On ‘hard mode’, there was a bit too much resistance, which naturally, made me sad because it was hard to control as well. But with ‘novice’, it was just my cup of tea, though I did have trouble steering a little as well. In addition, you must place first to unlock new tracks and carts (I’ve either placed first or worse than Top 3), so win by all means and cost!

While other reviews show that there are bugs of some sort, I have yet to encounter any, which is good, but that may just vary from user to user. I should note that the actual game costs $4.99, but I managed to snag my copy during the week of Thanksgiving in which pretty much all of Gameloft’s games were on sale. I think that paying $4.99 for a racing game is a bit overkill - see if you can get it while it’s $0.99. Oh and the graphics aren’t too shabby, which is good because I like to be able to see the clarity of the game while I’m racing so I can see all the shortcuts (which are good in your endeavor).

Overall, get it while it’s on sale. It’s good when it’s $0.99, but if you have to fork over $4.99 to play the game, I don’t think it’s worth it. Come on, a simple racing game shouldn’t cost that much. Thankfully, there aren’t any in-store purchases because those suck as well.

Interested in wanting to know more or to purchase the game? Click here.