Context, I played OG KR as a child and I've been playing KRD for about two weeks. Really liking the game so far, but instead of talking about the usual content/speed/ping gripes I wanted to talk about a worry I developed while playing with a friend:

TL;DR: Kartrider: Drift is still too difficult to get into, and I fear it will fail to attract a large playerbase.

A Casual Friend's Tale

From the presentation, streamlined UI, international release, cross-platform play, to the monetization targeting a mass of users rather than a few whales - Kartrider: Drift to me seems like it wants to have mass appeal and bring in casual players.

But drifting properly, the bread and butter of Kartrider, is genuinely hard to learn. I showed this game to my friend who plays Mario Kart and Forza casually, and seeing him fight the controls and physics really made me think about the new player experience.

He faceplanted into walls, DNF'd a couple times, and before he quit he did one thing: He drifted less. Why risk colliding with a wall and coming to a halt? Just drive around it and settle with 5th place.

Now, this may produce a chuckle in some of us, but truth be told, I can't fault him for it. Drifting in Kartrider is extremely finnicky and that letting go of shift does not correlate to ending a drift while pressing it for 1/10th of a second too long will make you oversteer is not very intuitive - it's a relic from 2004.

And that's a problem, because Kartrider without proper drifting is a mediocre and slow kart racer.

Modern Times

I'm playing this today because of nostalgia. And almost two decades ago, I put in the time and effort to learn the mechanics because it was the only game I could play as a kid with a crap PC and no money. But now as an adult? If nostalgia and muscle memory weren't factors, I probably would've dropped it after a few rounds.

In 2023, we have less free time coupled with more distractions than ever, and if faced with unrewarding gameplay until you get good, most of us just go play a different game.

Kartrider without boosters is slow, especially at this default speed. To get more nitro, you first need to drift well consistently, which is actually hard.

Kartrider's drifting is seriously punishing. Drift improperly and it actually slows you down. Touch a wall and you get stuck, rammed and more, risking a DNF. If you're a beginner, this sucks. In no other casual racing/kart game is basic drifting this difficult.

Then you'll need to use the following techniques eventually:

- Short-Full Drifting
- Snaking
- Cutting
- New Cutting
- Cut Charging
- Tap-Drifting (Maybe)

As someone who uses all these, I have to honestly say that other than cut charging, none of these mechanics are intuitive. I'm not really drifting better than a beginner, I'm drifting differently from a beginner. Like you have to go out of your way to learn them to get better.

This leads to an even bigger skill gap between beginners and pros, and all of the above inconveniences are worse on mobile/gamepad, where it's actually uncomfortable to attempt. (Give it a shot!)

And this is where I really, really feel Nexon and Nitro Studio shot themselves in the foot making Drift a reboot of the original rather than branching out with new driving mechanics to make the game more accessible. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Don't get me wrong, I love Kartrider. But Kartrider's original 2004 jank controls do not have mass appeal. The skill floor is too damn high. You need to be good at the game to reach that sense of speed where the game becomes fun. You cannot expect new players to "git gud" to have fun. They will simply play another game where they get to have fun before they "git gud".

OG Kartrider had the perennial problem of high-level players consistently, and absolutely demolishing new and intermediate players in speed mode, to the point where Nexon repeatedly removed advanced techiques through patches. We're still facing the same situation in Drift.

But now you're also going up against people who've played this for almost two decades, making this skill gap issue a problem from day 1.

Different Tastes

My main point is this: I think the default controls make for a poor casual experience. It's way too late to overhaul them. What do?

I think the game would benefit from a variety of karts that handle differently, even more than the original or Rush+. As it stands, either you like the exact way Kartrider plays, or you don't. Instead, different kart bodies could have differing handling characteristics with the default kart being less rigid and more forgiving with drifts, or upgrades allowing players to make builds that are easier to handle rather than just providing flat stat upgrades. Kart tires could have different grip profiles, etc.

Imagine a kart that gains nitro a bit faster by just driving to compensate for someone snaking down a straight. Or a kart that slows down less when you collide with walls. Or a kart that is more controllabe during drifts. Anything to make the driving experience more forgiving, the physics less punishing, and players feel like they're going faster.

Rather than relying on drift assist and steering assists which take away the fun parts, give beginners a beginner kart that makes it easier for them to have fun themselves and feel fast. I'd never argue to remove the main controls, but I would argue to give new players an alternative to them.

For example, there's plenty of Rush+ players complaining about the handling in Drift - why not give them a kart that feels closer to Rush+? Why not make an easy to obtain kart that feels closer to a medium build in Mario Kart and start out players in that?

I really think equalizing all karts and not being P2W are two separate things - you can have unique characteristics as long as objectively better karts and parts are easily obtainable by all players and not locked behind a paywall.

There's countless posts about people hating how karts handle and drift, the very core of this game. As it stands, most of these people will quit because there is nothing else they can do.

Onboarding

Another point I'd like to highlight is the onboarding experience, which really has to improve.

Currently, you are greeted with a mandatory tutorial at the start. It teaches you how to accelerate, steer and drift and use items.

After this, you're on your own. Get destroyed in multiplayer or try your hand at licenses.

I think this is a really poor approach. Learning the game on empty, sectioned off training tracks isn't fun. Learning by racing is fun.

This is where a story mode where you get introduced to the different characters and maps while slowly improving your skills through dueling harder and harder opponents would be great. You had this in the original!

The licenses meanwhile could be repurposed to actually teach in-game techniques instead of reaching an arbitrary finish line by an arbitrary time limit, similar to Rush+. Like I mentioned before, advanced drifting techniques are not intuitive and cannot be learned naturally.

Speaking of licenses though, here's a couple suggestions:

- Cut bad licenses. There's a license course teaching you to slow down and drive around a U-Turn. What?
- Cut excess licenses. The difference between "Basics" and "Tests" is so abstract and can just be combined.
- Split item mode challenges and speed mode challenges. There's a risk of information overload and just plain tedium having all of them grouped together.
- Repeat: If Nitro Studio insists that the current drifting techniques are required to do well in speed mode, they have to explicitly teach them here. Casual players do not look up YouTube videos and practice in time attack. They get destroyed by someone using them and quit after saying "Screw that".

Beyond this, if Nitro Studio insists that the current skill gap must be this severe, they must improve matchmaking. If 2/3 of the lobby DNF's, there's a problem. If this happens repeatedly, you bleed players. I watched several beginners play this. Few things are more frustrating and demoralizing than not even getting to finish the race.

The beginner square and circle tracks are also really poor to introduce the game with. They're boring because they're slow, feature too many straights. and do not help players improve. I would advocate for them to be replaced by B2 tracks. They're considerably more interesting, feature different turn types to practice, while featuring less of those mean, tight corner sections that get you stuck and lead to a DNF.

The day 1 retention, beyond all the other parts, needs to be looked at. If new players are not having fun, get bored or get frustrated in the first hour of play, they will quit and never come back. And if the player count and award completion stats are anything to go by, Drift does an abysmal job at hooking players.

Punishment Design

I also want to take a moment to talk about a general design philosophy that concerns me. And that is punishment design.

As the name implies, this refers to mechanics that mainly exist to punish the player.

The fact that wall collision physics cripple your momentum and have the potential to completely wreck your race instead of gently bouncing you off or make you slide along like in any other casual kart racer does not reward good play. It punishes bad play.

The fact that you get DNF'd if you don't reach the finish line within 10 seconds of 1st place instead of a more generous time or placement limit does not reward good play. It punishes bad play.

The fact that you had drift assist forced on you because you collided with one too many walls in the tutorial and had to turn it off by clearing B1 did not reward good play. It punished bad play.

You know who plays bad? Beginners. Why would you punish them and make them feel bad instead of blasting them with moments that make them feel good?

Remember losing XP or losing your save for dying in RPGs? Remember getting a bad end because you made one arbitrary dialog choice? Remember having to sit out the entire rest of the match if you got eliminated early?

Games moved away from this because it is an outdated practice. Players today no longer have the patience to put up with this. What worked in 2004 no longer works in 2023. I really, really hope NS modernizes their design approach.

At the end of the day, except for kart handling, none of these issues are dealbreakers for casual players on their own. But they're small frustrations, that when added up, result in a poor experience. And in the absence of rewarding moments, it sours opinions on the game.

Item Mode

I spent a lot of time talking about speed mode, because I think it's Kartrider's most unique aspect and I'd hate it to become the "hardcore" only mode again. But let's talk about item mode too.

It's fun for a few rounds, but frankly put, it needs improvement. The skill ceiling is much lower due to a stark lack of counterplay to many items outside of the shield. There is less room for strategizing item use, building and maintaining leads. Often, the results come down to which 2 items you hold on the last turn before the finish line.

In addition, it's just a frustrating experience when you come to a halt this frequently and exacerbates the problem of the game feeling slow. At this stage, it's an inferior version of Mario Kart which I think is primarily caused due to the frequency of item drops, the items themselves, and the roll chance of items based on the current position resulting in less agency for the player. The boring maps don't help either.

There's tons of design approaches to change this, but I wonder if NS actually wants to change it. According to the director, item mode is a mode that "can be enjoyed without any skills" and "victory can change with just one missile" and primarily aimed at foreigners/beginners. I really, really think this is an amateurish and misguided attempt at creating a casual-friendly mode while giving up on the other half of the game.

Casual-friendly does not mean the absence of skill expression, it's where the barrier to entry to have fun is very low. But it still needs to have depth and room to grow to it, otherwise it becomes a throwaway game mode where there is no point to play it repeatedly outside of a party setting. It's the difference between Gang Beasts and Smash Bros.

Item mode really has potential, but has to have something to stand on its own two feet other than the fact that Mario Kart does not exist on PC/PS4/XBox yet.

Closing Thoughts

I love this game and this franchise, and I'd like nothing more than seeing Kartrider: Drift succeed.

If NS wanted to make me and most other hardcore players happy, they'd increase the speed/nitro gain/boost duration, restore old techniques, improve ping issues, add a ranked mode, add global chat, remove the daily currency cap, add more things to grind for, add more maps and call it a day. Basically make it Kartrider 2 and accept it will be a niche game. (Rip AirRider)

But they did not and will not just accommodate hardcore fans, because it wants Kartrider to be casual-friendly this time and appeal to a wide audience and be enjoyed by anyone, anywhere, anytime.

And yet, Kartrider, at this stage, does not fall in that category. Its mechanics are too punishing, the onboarding is poor, the skill floor is too high, social and solo content is lacking. Who exactly is this for? Who is supposed to get excited at this?

I am really disappointed that this is the state it's about to global launch in. They had almost two decades of successes and failures to look back on. This game has been in development for a long time. It has done open testing for a long time. They had a clean slate to make a more accessible experience, or be laser-focused on making a 100% hardcore competitive sequel with esports and ranked in mind only.

But it seems like they mostly reskinned the original and are hoping it succeeds in ways the original did not just because it's cross-platform, and I fear it will end up exactly like the original: Casual players being driven away until a only small group of elite players remain. But you can't monetize a handful of players with a season pass, and I think we know where that'll go.

I remain cautiously optimistic, but there has to be a conscious effort to recognize the situation and a conscious drive in any one direction from the developers. If you try to please everyone with what you currently have, you will please no one.

Fingers crossed, Nitro Studio!

(Originally wrote and posted this in Korean after watching Reverse's 3 part series which is really on point. In any case, sentence structure may be a bit off.)