I don’t like it.

It’s just too hard and I don’t understand what the golden apples are for and turning off “shake to jump” just seems to stop you being able to jump at all and I just can’t get my head round it. If the game had eased me in, with helpful prompts and an easy level that’s actually easy, then I’m sure I’d be able to into it, but I just can’t. It feels like it’s testing me, to see if I deserve the game, and it looks like I don’t.

It’s a real shame, as I’m sure there’s a good game here somewhere, but I can’t find it.

I settled on Cocoto Kart online, because it’s the cheapest cart racer out there – 59p! – and because the kids over on the Touch Arcade forums seem to like it.

Played several races last night and I’m not sold on it yet, but I’m not yet ready to delete it.

Good Things

It’s fast. No starting out at walking pace and gradually working your way up to reasonable speeds. It’s no Wipeout or anything, but it’s good and speedy.

The tracks seem to have some nice shortcuts and I’ve seen more than I can work out how to get to.

The online works fine. I tried out a quick race over the Internet and didn’t have any issues, though I was soundly beaten.

Bad Things

It’s far too hard in single player. Even the first “easy” races are completely unforgiving and coming in anything other than last is an achievement worthy of a post on Twitter, at least.

There doesn’t seem to be any in-game help or advice, as far as I can see. I may be blind, but I did go looking. You boot the game up, it asks you to choose a character without telling you what the differences between them are. You have to work out the power-ups and the controls for yourself. Of course, it’s mostly pretty obvious, but some guidance would be lovely.

Most importantly, I’m not sold on any of the control schemes yet. The tilt controls seem like they work, until I find myself unable to get round corners. The d-pad controls I tried for half a race but liked even less. I think the controls might actually be fine, but just require a lot more skill than I’ve got right now. More breaking, turning into corners at the right time, that sort of thing. I just can’t really tell right now.

Some help pages and an easier single player would help a lot. Right now, you’re left with what seems to be a very hardcore cart racer. That may sound like a contradiction in terms, but it feels like a game for and by people who have played Mario Kart far too much and want a stiffer challenge.

The reception many people have given it suggest that there’s not a bad game in there, but it’s going to take some more digging to find it.