I'm Korean-American; I've been playing the original version in the Korean server in recent years (2005 - 2006, 2011 - 2013, 2016 - present).

I just learned that this game surfaced in America a long time ago, but racing genre is very tricky to please its audience, so it makes sense Kartrider's such drastically different approach didn't work out in America.

Korean audience is mesmerized with the new version launch, as it showcases stunning graphics in contrast to the unchanging, old game they've been playing for past 15 years, yet concerned that the new launch could imply the end of old era that they've been seeing for so long, or possibly worse, dividing the population between old and migrated gamers.

I am on the excited spectrum! The current game struggles with ping problems, and I am playing in Korean server from America, so I constantly get blamed from the users about my ping; if I could have a platform where I can geographically belong to, that would be a dream come true.

I have some screenshots from the current game I'm playing at the moment:

Chilling in MyRoom


Invading other people's MyRoom


Post-race, where I get heckled for my ping (chat at bottom left)




Racing with friends




They have what's called License System, where you pass several tests of increasing difficulty to earn the license appropriate for your level. Here is me happily picking up my final license after 10 hours of re-tries in the span of 4 days: