Review (2025 August)

Old Story

KartRider (as "KD" afterwards) is an online kart racing game developed by Nexon back in 2004. I met the Chinese version of KD – TianCity PopKart – towards the end of 2008, which was the end of PRO era and the SR era was almost there to begin. Indeed, as most players still remember these days, that period was the peak of KD in China. I heard about KD because of its popularity and I started playing because I thought it was fun.

Comparing to what it is like now, KD was way more casual back then. With only a very small portion of hardcore players and mostly casual, KD was easy to play and those licence levels were just enough to help beginners to grow up. You did not really need any advanced skills to win, as more players were playing the Item Mode than the Speed Mode.

The Item Mode is like Mario Kart, with more randomness and everyone can have fun. Because of that, the pay-to-win feature is mild in the Item Mode. On the other side, the Speed Mode was designed as a competitive one for those hardcore players. You do have to learn some advanced skills and train them to some degree to have fun in the Speed Mode. And obviously, the difference between karts and parts was way bigger in the Speed Mode, where the default kart was absolutely no match when comparing to some great wallet ones.

Back then I played both modes and enjoyed both. To get a good place in the Speed Mode as a kid, I did attempt to learn some of the advanced skills that purely casual players never cared. As a result, I amazed some adults in their 20s back then. How could a little kid perform those skills? Honestly, I believe that I only seemed good because there were not many serious hardcore players back then, but I am no where near a gifted one.

Gradually leaning towards the Speed Mode, I also attempted the Time Trial. With a pretty unique kart (or bike actually) that is easier to maneuver, I once set a No.5 record in Fairy Snail Pass (Fairy), which was no where near a popular track back then. As an impatient kid, one failed run meant one punch to my laptop. By the time the successful run was completed, my laptop was covered with “wounds”. The very beginning of my hardcore playing? Probably yes.

Well, a young student's primary task was to study. As my spare time for games were decreasing, I had no choice but to let KD gradually drop out of my life – neither because I thought that I had completed KD nor I found it was too bad to continue.

Dream

After I left KD, interestingly, it appeared in my dreams again and again. Every time when I woke up from my dreams, I started to consider returning to KD. But it would not take long until I realised that era was over for me. For example, without a habit of noting down my usernames and passwords, all of my accounts were probably deactivated already and I was unwilling to make a new one to restart the whole journey.

2020

As time went on, my memories with KD did not fade away. I actually returned to KD for once in 2020, a time that I had some spare time to waste. I created a new account and got shocked by how much the game had changed. Already being tired of playing with others, I started with the licence levels and of course these were updated as well. As someone who could claim a L1 licence as a young kid, I was frustrated that it took the adult me almost an hour to reach L3! Looked like the same game, but with a very different system. Some of the old skills were still applicable, but only to some extent and others had become absolutely useless.

You can still find my L3 video on my YouTube channel, but only one of 2020. I did try the L2 ones afterwards, but the performance was too bad and I chose to delete them all without uploading to my channel. An old player who once passes L1 was not ready for L2 in 2020, a great evidence that the game had changed a lot, in a harder way.

To get better and continue with the remaining licence levels, I would need to learn the new skills. I could but decided not to at that time, the end of short return to KD in 2020.

2025

Singleplayer versions? Yes, they did exist for KD – the moment my real and serious return was settled. No accounts required, just open one and play. After some research, I got myself a version from 2010, one from 2023 and a few newest ones in 2025.

The 2010 version was old but very familiar, the exact period when I started to leave KD because of studying. It did not take long for me to retrieve my old skills, by completing all the licence levels up to L1. I even played with the hardest L1 levels with a few extra restrictions, to make them even harder to pass – that was fun!

Now the main dishes, the updated licence levels. With some memories from 2020, the real challenges started from L2. I had to force myself to get familiar with the new game system, by practising the required tracks again and again. Personally, I do think the L2 licence in 2020s is already harder than the L1 licence around 2010, by a small but clear margin. Fortunately, I learned everything in relatively quickly, so the L2 levels did not take long. Unfortunately, when I thought everything would be smoother, I did not realise how large the gap between L2 and L1 is. Among the 6 L1 levels, 4 were managable, but the remaining 2 – Galaxy Express (Northeu) and Secret Basement (Castle) – were beyond something.

Old players should be familiar with Galaxy Express (Northeu), which also appeared as a L1 licence level back then. The default kart had become much stronger, indeed, but the required time was also way more insane by being reduced from 2:36.00 to 2:01.25! Not an easy task of describing its exact difficulty. But after lots of practices in the Time Trial, I passed Galaxy Express (Northeu) with around 0.3 seconds left, which meant that great run was within 2:01.00! While my personal best with the default V1 kart in The Time Trial was only 2:01.32.

Now the last one – Secret Basement (Castle) with a required time of 2:08.79. I heard that this level was clearly harder than Galaxy Express (Northeu), when I already treated the latter as a crazy level. As expected, Secret Basement (Castle) took me longer, much longer to practice. My initial time for Galaxy Express (Northeu) was around 2:10.00, but for Secret Basement (Castle), it was almost 2:30.00 – an old track but I was totally unfamiliar with it. From 2:30.00 to 2:25.00, to 2:20.00, to 2:15.00 and then within 2:10.00. Sometimes, I got better so quickly that I did not even understand how. Other times, my progress just paused and I could not find out a way of getting further improved. Repeated like that, until I set a time of 2:09.05 with the default V1 kart in The Time Trial.

The real and final battle had begun and I knew I was closer and closer to the goal. In my penultimate video for Secret Basement (Castle), I remembered it was a Saturday and I was in a insanely good mood then. While my PB for the 1st lap was only 1:04.80 by the beginning of that video, I created 1:04.45, 1:04.56 and 1:04.59 in the next hour. You know 1:04.80 was already a crazy record with my strategies, breaking it 3 times with a 1:04.45 was unbelievable. Now, why penaltimate, since all those great 1st laps were wasted in the end. Imagine how frustrated I was after wasting that 1:04.45 run with pressure – the pain of hardcore playing.

The next day was a Sunday and finally I did it. Throughout that video, it was clear that I was not in a good mood as before. Not even once, had I set my 1st lap within 1:05.00! The final run only started with a 1st lap of 1:05.02, a run that I did not even think would do something – much less pressure. But somehow, that crappy run beat the evil time of 2:08.79 – by a tiny margin within 0.10 seconds lol. I believe a win is a win, right? Two things to take here:

• Not about how you begin, but how you finish.

• You never know what is going to happen.

After completing L1, all my planned challenges done. There was actually a higher licence called PRO, but that was obviously out of my margin, so I chose to stop at L1 and thank you. I could then have fun with some unfamiliar tracks and the famous Story Mode, for pure entertainment. You cannot play with other players for sure with those Singleplayer versions, probably the only drawback and a lethal one to some. Apart from that, ideal solutions.

Development

Obviously KD's era was over a long time ago. Indeed, most games will have their highs and lows. But for KD, there are some specific reasons for its falling.

First is KD's sales strategy. I would say everything was okay or at least acceptable until the upgrading system was invented. Before that, if you got a kart, you got it. After that, if you got a kart, you only got the base version. Upgrading parts were required to increase the base statistics of that kart, and of course, some parts were even harder to collect than the kart itself. Meanwhile, they were also crucial to get better results for those hardcore players playing in the Speed Mode. It was an extremely complicated and nasty system, all for profits and I was so surprised to see that when I returned in 2020. I only spent 3 minutes reading the basics of that system, as I did not want to waste my life with it. But I heard that the system was already simplified and only applied to some karts nowadays, I hope so.

Next is the balance between casual and hardcore players. As time went by, casuals who prefer the Item Mode joined and left, hardcores who prefer the Speed Mode continued to play and got better. In short, the group of hardcores was becoming the main population of KD, so as the Speed Mode, and that would make beginners harder to join in. For example, when I was a kid, I had a pretty good win rate in both modes. Now as an adult, I am afraid to play against the remaining players who are still actively playing. Maybe I have become better as well, but those are the pure beasts who are constantly waiting to hunt their preys! Unlike many other games (e.g., Monster Hunter) that are becoming much easier to suit the casual players, KD as a huge surprise, has chosen the opposite path – bashing the casuals and praising the hardcores by making the game even harder! As a hardcore player, I have my respect for KD, otherwise I would not have returned in a serious way after so many years. Meanwhile, that decision alone has stopped any potential development of KD. The small group of hardcores can still have fun themselves, but new blood will hardly join in any longer.

Last but not least, the systemic change of game market. In 2000s, there were not that many recreational options comparing to how many we have at the moment. During that era, a special game with good quality could be successful. After the rise of mobile games, every other platform was impacted and PC was definitely one of the most. How to adapt? Follow the trend and join the mobile game market. That was exactly what happened to KD – most servers already stopped a long time ago and modified mobile versions were coming out. Old players who were familiar with the PC version would probably not treat those mobile versions seriously as real KDs, but, so what? KD is in its sunset period anyway, enjoy the retirement.

Epilogue

It is a big surprise to see that the Chinese version of KD is still operating, as some big fans in China are continuously supporting it, while every other server have been closed for some time. If you want to bring back some old memories with others, go for the Multiplayer server while it still operates. Otherwise, the Singleplayer versions are more than enough to have fun. Thanks for being with me during my childhood, happy racing!