Apple Arcade is adding a surprising new kart racing game this month called Warped Kart Racers. The title mashes up characters and locations from four 20th Television animated series: King of the Hill, Family Guy, American Dad, and Solar Opposites.
The new title is exclusive to Apple’s gaming service and can be played on iOS devices via touch controls or with a controller. It’s a standard kart racer taking heavy cues from the Mario Kart series. Players will race around tracks while tossing items at their opponents and drifting. Just replace Mario and Yoshi with Hank Hill and Stewie (it is just as surreal as it sounds).
The game features 20 characters at launch, with five pulled from each TV show. Only eight will be available to start when players begin the game (including Peter Griffin, naturally), but more are unlocked via the campaign. The developers say that unlocking every character should take around 10 hours as players complete three separate campaigns made up of 52 events.
Each character has its own individual progression tree, allowing players to unlock character-specific kart customization items and skins. For example, there’s a red, white, and blue set of wheels representing the American Dad series. The developers note that the game features over 7,500 lines of dialogue, all of which are sound bites pulled directly from the shows.
Naturally, the game’s eight tracks pull locations from the shows they’re based on. Players will race around the Arlen Suburbs, Langley Falls, and Quahog Town. Eagle-eyed fans will notice locations like the CIA Headquarters or the Drunken Clam as they race around. Like Mario Kart, tracks also contain shortcuts for players to take advantage of.
For those playing on a touch device, the game features simplified racing controls. Karts auto-accelerate, with players using their left thumb to turn. There are dedicated buttons on the right of the screen to activate drifts or throw items (clams appear to be the new turtle shell).
The developers say there is a long-term service plan for the game but stopped short of confirming that any more shows will be added. One can assume that franchises like The Simpsons and Bob’s Burgers would be a natural fit for the bizarre IP mash-up (that seems to be a popular trend nowadays).
Warped Kart Racers launches exclusively on Apple Arcade this May.
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