So today I finally found time to test out MoonKarts gameplay and I was pleasantly surprised.
The game feels really smooth and I see a pretty nice learning curve to the game. It really reminds me a lot of Trackmania.
WHAT IS MOONKARTS ?
MoonKarts is/will be the first game on a brand new upcoming platform called Arcade Colony on the Hive Blockchain, but in this post I will not talk about Arcade colony itself, only about MoonKarts.
MoonKarts is a Singleplayer/Multiplayer GO Kart racing game that runs on Unity game engine. The game is really fast paced and the Kart you're driving is pretty difficult to control through corners, which in my opinion is a really good thing, because it raises the skill ceiling for this game. The game also features multiple ways to modify your cart with various upgrades and power ups which can be used mid race against your opponents.
This game feels like nothing else currently available on the Hive Blockchain.
How can you play MoonKarts ?
Well, right now you can only access MoonKarts if you get the access link from Aggroed in the Arcade Colony Discord Server. But aggy only gives the link to people who promises not to share it, so I can't give it forwards to anyone who doesn't have it yet.
But even if you don't get to play the game just yet, MoonKarts should go into public release around 26th of February, so not long left to wait.
Gameplay Experience
Sadly in my time of testing the game, I couldn't find any Multiplayer matches (I guess it's because I'm so late to try out the game), so all I got to play was Singleplayer.
Anyways I want to share my Experience and thoughts about the gameplay in 3 segments.
- Interface
- Items
- Mechanics
1. Interface
When opening up the game for the first time, the Unity loading screen took about 1-2 minutes to load. Not sure if it's meant to be that slow or it was just my computer/connection being slow.
Once you load in, you are presented with the Main Menu/Lobby screen which you already saw at the top of this post.
In the middle is your Driver who is always actively stretching while he/she waits for you to make your mind up on what you want to do next xD
Everything looks really pretty and refined, all of the buttons work well and nothing seems out of place. 10/10 for looks.
There is some chill main menu music playing and it doesn't even make me want to mute the website upon opening the game.
Also every button you click makes a "beep" sound so you know you have made a successful click.
Now onto the buttons . . .
LEFT SIDE PROVIDES YOU WITH
- Your avatar profile
Here you can see your XP Progress towards the next level and your multiplier race stats - My Packs
Here you can see and open your packs - My Cards
Here you can see your cards - Presets
Brings you to the garage (Honestly I think this button is kind of useless, as it does the exact same thing as the Garage button on the right) - Auto Vault
Here it seems like you can stake your cards in order to earn fuel. - Shop
For purchasing in-game items (Currently the shop offers Alpha packs for sale, but these are not connected to the blockchain yet, so don't worry, you are not missing out).
RIGHT SIDE PROVIDES YOU WITH
- Your Balances
Currently showing DEC, MoonKart Coins & SPS (Bound to change) - Settings
Adjust Volume and Graphics - Merge
Here you can combine NFT's in order to level them up - Garage
Brings you to your garage where you can modify your vehicle and change the driver - Rank
Shows leaderboards - Info
Currently says "Stay tuned for updates" - Multiplayer
For searching multiplayer races - Single player
For going into single player race
2. Items
There are 4 rarities of items Common / Rare / Epic / Legendary and 2 foils Base & Gold. So exactly the same as we have in Splinterlands.
There are 19 different types of cards. But they can be put into 6 Categories
Drivers / Vehicles / Accessories / Tech Cards / Power Ups / Fuel
Each card can be merged together to level up for extra stat boosts.
All of these cards and extra levels on these cards will help you gain more stats towards your Moon Kart.
3. Mechanics
The inputs in this game feel instant and very sensitive.
Aggy also said in the discord that right now custom keys are not available, but they will be in the future.
To Turn and accelerate or Break you need to use WASD
With SPACEBAR you can drift through corners and gains a small speed boost if you drift for long enough
Keys to use powerups at the moment are I / O / P / J
You can also use R to reset if you get stuck
I noticed that at the start of the race you get a really huge boost of speed, so no slow starts in this game :D
First thing in my mind was to try to go the opposite way of the track and the game actually has a failsafe for that already, it will tell you "WRONG WAY!" and if you still keep going it will just teleport turn you around the correct way.
After doing a couple single player races I discovered that there are 3 different maps I believe available for now and they all seem to be about the same lenght. I got really similar times no matter the map.
Since I was playing Single player only, I couldn't test how the abilities worked, but I saw my missiles fly, so the buttons definitely worked.
Anyways the best I could get on one of these maps was 37.8 seconds
Thanks for reading my post and make sure you join the Arcade Colony Discord Server