Oh, Mario. He really started something when the original Super Mario Kart was released back in 1992. The battle karts sub-genre was born, and it gained a lot of popularity. Over the years, there have been plenty of battle kart titles featuring some of entertainment’s biggest IPs. This new battle karting title on the market, Hot Rod Mayhem comes from developer and publisher, Casual Brothers.

“Race against tiny troublemakers across dozens of crazy courses and take on unique and thrilling trials! Ride on single tracks, unleash powerful items against your rivals, or face off in exhilarating challenges to compete for the championships!”

Hot Rod Mayhem offers you a very standard battle kart experience. There’s nothing here that is going to redefine or reinvent the sub-genre and it is a typical as you can get. For your money, the gameplay modes are very slim pickings. You get a Race option and a Championship mode… that’s it. The Race option allows you to tear around any of the tracks in groups of four, six or eight races. Championship is exactly that, you take part in a series of championships, a standard for the battle kart sub-genre. Win races, earn points and try to top the podium. When you win the numerous championships, you’ll unlock customisation options for your driver and new cars.

Yeah, there’s character customisation. It’s nothing too in-depth, pick an outfit, a helmet and a face for you avatar. You can create some wacky and funny looking drivers though. There’s up to four-player, split-screen play, but only local – no online. I do like a game that offers some old-school multiplayer, but an online mode would’ve still been a nice option too. With only the two modes to play, Hot Rod Mayhem doesn’t provide you with a wealth of gameplay options and it does feel quite stingy overall.

However, the big selling point of Hot Rod Mayhem are the tracks themselves, which can all be raced forward, mirrored, reversed or twisted. The environments are brilliantly designed with a lot going on, fun animations and even the odd racetrack invasion. You’ll be racing around a garden barbecue. Neon lit streets. A spooky highway. A dinosaur-themed theme park and so much more. The tracks are the real stars here and they provide so much fun and feature great little touches. They strike the right balance between being grounded, and just that little bit wacky – and all without feeling overbearingly obnoxious. Of course, this being a battle kart title means there are weapons. There’s nothing here that you haven’t seen done dozens of times before. The weapons are all variations on the standard ones you see featured in this sub-genre. I have to admit to feeling a little bit disappointed by this. What with the tracks feeling quite refreshing, I was hoping that the weapon selection would do the same. They’re not bad, they just pretty standard stuff.

Then there is most important part of any racing game, the cars and how they handle. The racing itself is fine. The cars feel great and all, but (like the weapons) it’s all very standard stuff. There’s a drift button to help you slide and build a boost meter… and that’s about it. I would’ve liked to have seen a bit more variety with the driving. Being able to pull of tricks in the air, the ability to ram opponents (could even be tied to the boost meter), etc. The driving is solid, it just feels lesser when compared to the really great tracks.

Before you can take part in a championship, you have to do a special trial. These are loads of fun and quite varied. There’s a basic time trial thing where you just have to finish a lap under a set time, but then there are more quirky ones. Drive around dodging cones, burst balloons, shoot targets and more. The thing is that you can only paly these if you do a championship. It would’ve been great to be able to play them as and when you wanted once you unlocked them.

Overall, Hot Rod Mayhem get a lot of things right, but it could’ve been so much better with more game modes and driving options to add to the excitement. This is a solid battle kart racer where the races themselves are the main star. Everything else is very “typical” of the genre and none of it takes as many fun chances as the really fun tracks. A good game that, with some tweaks and additions, could’ve been a great one.