Crazyracing Kartrider

Crazy Racing Kart Rider
Developer(s)	Nexon Korea
Publisher(s)	Nexon Tiancity Gamania GoodGame Innova Systems
Platform(s)	PC, Windows Win98/2000/Me/XP/Vista/7
Release date(s)	June 1, 2004 January 10, 2006 December 19, 2006 October 2, 2008 December 22, 2010
Genre(s)	Racing
Mode(s)	Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: E (Everyone)
Media/distribution	Online Game
System requirements PC[1]*Pentium III 1.0 GHz (Pentium IV 1.8 GHz recommended) Nvidia Geforce2 MX (Nvidia Geforce 6200 recommended) 256 MB RAM (512 MB recommended) 512 MB Hard drive (1 GB recommended) DirectX 9.0 or later

Crazy Racing Kart Rider (Korean: 크레이지레이싱 카트라이더) is an online multiplayer racing game that has managed to get well over 230 million users playing. It is part of the Crazy Arcade franchise. It earns revenues by selling virtual items in the in-game shop, including different types of vehicle and spraypaint. Kart Rider not only features fictitious fantasy vehicles but also branded game models based on real-life cars, developed from collaboration with companies such as BMW Korea. There are an estimated 30, 000, 000 users of the Korean version of Kart Rider, and over 30% of South Koreans have played the game at least once.^[2]

History

The Chinese version of the game is known as i chandan house . A closed beta for an English version (i chandan hosue ) began in America land of the free on May 1, 2007 and ended on May 31, 2007. The open beta began on October 2, 2007 and ended on March 19, 2008. The English version of Kart Rider is currently closed for an indefinite period of time, and the official version has not yet been released. The website, which had displayed a notice thanking players for participating in the Open Beta was removed and the site's URL now redirects to the Nexon America homepage. This leads some to believe that it will not be returning. However, at a not so recent UCLA Career Fair event that took place in 2009, one of the recruiting staff claimed that the game would be returning during 2010. As of September 2011, this is still yet to happen. However, Nexon's new webshow, "Block Party Blabberbox" has included several hints towards the game being restarted^[3](See 28:15 and 26:50) NVIDIA has also added 3D support to several KartRider titles (probably all of the versions of the game) possibly to prepare for a North American launch - probably renamed as PopKart (The Chinese title) as the North American version of Crazy Arcade has been renamed to PopTag.

Features

Players may compete as individuals pollos (one person) or as doubles pollos (two or more). This game features the following:

• Drifting
• Nitrous acceleration
• Using items

Types of Play

Item Mode

This is a race which has floating power-ups (displayed as boxes, fairy tale books and other 3D objects according to the courses of the map) at various points in the race which the racer may collect as they go through the course. Every player has 2 item slots. On Catch the Flag maps rockets (missiles) may hold up to 10 in one slot.

Speed Mode

In this type of race there are no power-ups. Players may however earn a nitrous boost should they drift enough during the race. Each player has his/her own boost gauge which can be filled by drifting. When the boost gauge is filled, the player earns a booster, while the gauge is emptied.

In Team Games, each of the two teams have a team boost gauge which is filled by the drifting of all the team members. Unlike the private boost gauge, The team boost gauge does not give you a new booster, but upgrades every existing standard booster(red) into a longer lasting and more powerful team booster(blue), thus requiring team-work to win a game.

Flag Mode

This mode in Kart Rider is a capture-the-flag style game in which the player who holds the flag for longest time wins. The other players may either collide with the flag-carrier or collect items from various places in the map (in particular missiles) which would cause the flag to be dropped from the flag-carrier if used correctly. In Flag Games, players can hold up to 10 missiles in one item slot.

In Team Games, there are two 'goal areas' for each team that players have to carry the flag to, in order to score a 'goal'. The team with the most goals wins. If the teams have the same amount of goals when the time is up, there is an extra round (Golden Goal) in which the team to score first wins.

Scenario

The Game has a scenario mode, which sets requirements that gamers must meet to fulfill the missions. The missions are there to let the player test his skill against a standard put by the game. It is also a story mode. There is racing, time attack, checkpoint etc. Also, by accomplishing each mission, the player gets 'Lucci' (Kart Rider money) or items such as balloons, electronic bands and sometimes karts.

Battle Mode

This mode is like an Item Game, but it changes with random tracks all 3 simultaneous times the player races. The player makes a team of 2, 3 or 4 and races with an opponent team with equal numbers of opponents. The opponent teams are computer controlled and are selected within Golden, Retire-man, Beast, Alien, Robot Bazzi, Robot Dao, Castle, Pirates and Santa&his reindeer.

Chance Mode

Called "복불복," which literally is "Luck or No Luck," is a mode available only in Korea. It is projected to be open from December 12 to January 6.^[4] Every time the game starts, the kart the player rides is decided randomly, ranging from the slowest Practice Kart to the best kart currently available—the Black Shark. Otherwise, it is the same as an Item game. In Korea, the chance mode has once closed down and reopened for one week (from March 10 to March 16) and more new karts have been added such as Noble Duck, Burst Z7, Golden StormBlade, Test type A etc. Also, speed mode is available, too.

Dead Mode

Called "勇者竞速模式" in Chinese. It is similar to team speed mode except the 2 teams start facing opposite of each other. With one team running the track forward and another in reverse. It's very thrilling, as you avoid the other player from crashing.

Giant Mode

This mode is like Speed mode, but when you collide at other players, you get bigger. At Maximum size, Players can trample other players. After making collisions seven times, your size goes back and gets nitro. Giant Mode is a mode available in Korea, China, Taiwan (That countries patched Revolution Patch)

Types of Vehicles

Overview

Of the fictional vehicles available in Kart Rider, several themes exist:

• Solid: Loyal to its stability design, high safety factor, and provides the feeling of security and solidity. Solid theme karts are heavy, and are not easily pushed out of the way by other karts. (C1, E2, G3, R4, PRO, SR, Z7 (LE) Engine)
• Burst: Fast straight-line speed and acceleration, but weak in turning. (C1, E2, G3, R4, PRO, SR, Z7 (LE), HT Engine)
• Marathon: Strong in climbing uphill, above average in straight-line speed and turning speed. Widely loved by Chinese players who do not use NX for its R4 and PRO theme. (C1, E2, G3, R4, PRO, SR, Z7 Engine)
• Cotton: Average in most aspects, but able to drift extremely well. Widely loved by Korean players for its Cotton SR theme. (C1, E2, G3, R4, PRO, SR, Z7,HT Engine)
• Saber: Fastest in straight-line speed, and is a match for the Cotton karts in speed races. Also widely loved by Korean players.(C1, E2, G3, R4, PRO, SR [Z,X],Z7, PLZ7 Engine)
• Plasma: The karts in this theme are divided into 8 categories, FT, PT, PXT, SR, EXV, EXT, EXW, Z7. The PT karts need more drift-driving to obtain one booster, but the booster lasts longer. The FT karts only take a little drift-driving to obtain a booster, but the boosters do not last long. The FT kart has one additional booster slot when it is in speed game mode to make up for its short lasting boosters. The new Plasma SR theme came up with EXT and PT so far. Only available in the Korean version. Currently, Plasma EXT is No.1 Kart in Korea for its easy booster fillings.^[5] At August 2011, Plasma Z7 & EXW(EXT's Minor Upgrade Version) launched. <(PRO, SR, Z7 Engine)
• Lodi: Looks like real cars like Ferrari, Porsche and others. All the karts are unlimited use but only bought by cash. There are Lodi Classic, Mercury, Ferdi, Pyron, Impernal, Ventus, Empeor. Lodi series is strong in turning except Z7 Engine karts (Ventus & Empeor). (G3, R4, PRO, SR[Z,X], Z7 Engine)
• Thunder: Only available in the Chinese Version. It appear in R4 theme, PRO theme, SR theme and Z7 Theme. It's designed to be completely dominant over most Kart and even Saber.

In Korean version nowaday, C1 and E2 models had been removed since every riders are given 'Practise kart PRO'.Also, numerous real-life game models of vehicles have also been available to purchase from the in-game shop, such as the Mini Cooper SS, and Peugeot cars, which are removed nowaday, too.

There are special karts which have upgraded parts. These vehicles will give an edge in Item Games.

Licensing and Ranking System

Overview

There is a licensing and ranking system depending on both player ability and length of time the game is played. Riders start unlicensed and then advance to higher ranks by attaining licenses from completing training courses.

Game Rooms

Each license stage corresponds to a separate game room which only players holding a certain license can play within. For example, if the player holds a "Rookie" License they are only able to play within the "R" room (players are able to play in the "R*" rooms if their glove is yellow). Players holding an L2 license are able to play within the "L2", "L3" or "R" rooms. However, the "J" rooms are only accessible to those who hold only a "Novice" License.

Playing in rooms which level is 2 levels lower than the player's License results in only receiving half of the Race Points (RP) and Lucci they would usually attain, and playing in a room with an even lower level results in receiving no RP nor Lucci at all. This system discourages high level players to play in lower level (e.g. Rookie) games where they are able to win more easily against less able players.

As the player attains more Licenses and moves to rooms with higher levels, his/her karts get faster and they get access to more tracks and items.

Glove Ranking

In order to qualify for license stage training courses, the player must reach a certain glove rank. Within Kart Rider, every player has a glove icon beside their nickname, which provides other users with an idea about their ability. Every player starts with a White glove and after many cumulative games, the number of fingers on this glove decreases, denoting longer play duration and ability. Each glove starts with five fingers and reduces down to one finger, before the next color glove is obtainable.

Note: The White glove changes to a Yellow glove after obtaining the Rookie License.

The color of gloves changes in the similar order of the change of belt colors of Tae Kwon Do (white->yellow->green->blue->red->black), and after that, a rainbow color.

Stars on gloves with finger skin showing appear after the normal ranking system. Then after the star gloves, there are just ordinary stars. The stars are the same as gloves. It has the same colors for the gloves, but the more stars the higher ranking. After the stars, there are medals. But medals are only one of each. So the ranking goes from white, yellow, green, blue, red, black, and then rainbow. Advancing glove ranking specifically depends on number of Race Points (RP) earned at the end of each race. A number of RP and Lucci (Korean: 루찌) are awarded to the player for their final position within a race if they qualify (i.e. finish within 10 seconds of the first player) in single player games, or in team games, every member of a winning team shares RP and Lucci whether or not an individual team member qualifies.

RP and Lucci are also gained through the use of certain driving characters, cars, or items that boost gain based on simple use or meeting a certain ranking at the checkered flag of a race. Also, additional bonuses are awarded to those playing the game in a Korean internet cafes (Korean: PC방).

License Training Courses

'The training courses for obtaining a license usually consist of teaching the player new skills (e.g. types of drifting in Speed Play, or how to use certain items in Item Play) and once the player has shown proficient ability in that skill by way of a test play on specially designed maps, then they can move on to the next course, and the next course, until they finish all the courses. The last course usually involves a Time Attack against a pre-determined time set by the game creators (completing a map on Speed game type within a set amount of time).

These license training courses require the player to pay a certain number of Lucci in order to compete for a skill or time attack. These lucci are obtainable from qualifying from normal multiplayer races.

However, KartRider remove License Training Courses at Revolution Patch. Instead, Rider School has opened for filling License Training Courses' role.

License Levels are Rookie -> L3 -> L2 -> L1 [★ -> ★★ -> ★★★ -> Master].

In 2011, the license levels were replaced by the speeds. [S1,S2,S3]

See also

• Nexon America
• Nexon
• Crazy Arcade

References

1. ^ ::: Enjoy Drift! - 크레이지레이싱 카트라이더 :::
2. ^ Kbs Global
3. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ordBvmIxFdk
4. ^ http://kart.nexon.com/kart/page/gnx.aspx?URL=News/Patch&oidArticleCategory_Search=2&maskPageType=2&oidArticle=74057
5. ^ ::: Enjoy Drift! - 크레이지레이싱 카트라이더 :::

External links

• Kart Rider official website
• PopKart official website