Nightmare Kart is an interesting proposition: it is a Kart Racing game inspired by Bloodborne. There are plenty of Soulslike games out there, with games like Another Crab’s Treasure showing how fun it can be to experiment with the formula, while others like Lies of P arguably up the punishment even more. Outside of the fun memes, however, it’s hard to imagine how a Kart Racer could work in the Soulslike formula. In fact, Nightmare Kart‘s chief inspiration for the Kart Racing element is Mario Kart 64, which some may see as a major headscratcher. A Soulslike Kart Racer inspired by Mario Kart 64 is probably not on anyone’s bingo card.
Recently, Game Rant sat down with Lilith Walther, the creative mind behind Nightmare Kart, to talk about the upcoming free game (May 31 via Steam and Itchio). Among other things, we discussed how the bosses in Nightmare Kart work and how they fit into the inherent difficulty of the Soulslike genre.
How Nightmare Kart’s Soulslike Bosses Work
Nightmare Kart features a campaign mode, which is exactly what anyone would expect it to be. Players do some races, do some battles, and see a very simple story play out. Of course, as this originated as a Bloodborne fan game, it needed to have boss fights. Walther revealed that there is a total of 3-4 bosses in the game, depending on how someone classifies the boss fight. Each boss fight is multi-staged, featuring a big health bar at the bottom of the screen. Players will chase these bosses, trap them in an arena, do a fight, and then some gimmick happens where they transform. Once players defeat this version of the boss, they can move on to the next campaign mission. Walther would explain that a lot of development was “making sure the boss fights lived up to Souls expectations.”
Of course, the caveat here is that Nightmare Kart is a Kart Racer first and foremost, and there’s only so much Soulslike design that could mesh well with Kart Racing design. When asked how Nightmare Kart‘s bosses compare to Bloodborne or other Soulslike game bosses, Walther explained,
“Oh yeah, they’re easier–it is a Kart Racer, right? I do want it to be Soulsy, as Soulsy as a Kart Racer can be, but at the end of the day, this is a Kart Racer and not a Soulslike game. There are design sensibilities I wanted to stick to.”
One Kart Racer design included in Nightmare Kart, that would never happen in a Soulslike game, is mid-boss checkpoints. Because each boss fight is multi-phased and it’s not as simple as hitting them until they die, players will have checkpoints in the boss fights. Walther explained that forcing a player to do the chase all over again just didn’t make sense
Nightmare Kart’s Final Boss is the Exception to the Rule
However, there is an exception to that rule of mid-boss checkpoints. Nightmare Kart’s final boss must be dealt with all in one go. Without delving into spoilers, this boss requires players to collect Moon Shards to unlock, and while the other bosses might generally be easier than a Soulslike game, Walther promises that the final boss here will be a challenge. She explained, regarding its difficulty,
That one is definitely up there in Souls boss difficulty. Maybe not like Final Souls boss, but definitely a difficult one. I watched some playtesters spend an hour grinding through it again, and that felt like getting super invested in a Souls boss.
It’ll be interesting to see how the community reacts to the bosses of Nightmare Kart, and luckily the wait is not long.
Nightmare Kart releases May 31 for free on Steam and Itchio.
