A cute mascot racing game full of drifts, power-ups and cartoon tracks – that was the recipe with which Atari wanted to answer the Super Mario Kart phenomenon on its Jaguar console. Atari Karts is a cheerful kart-racing arcade game in which you take the wheel and set off into a colourful world full of bends, jumps and rivals trying to block your path to victory.
In terms of gameplay it is classic kart-racing fun. You pick a driver, ride through a series of circuits with various themed styling and collect power-ups that help you overtake the competition or, conversely, make life harder for them. The emphasis is on brisk handling, drifts through the bends and just the right dose of chaos that the genre calls for. The goal is to complete the tracks in the best possible time and beat the other drivers across the individual cups.
Atari Karts came out for the Atari Jaguar in the mid-1990s, a period when the console was trying to fill out its library with titles from popular genres. The game's mascot was Bentley the llama, a small nod towards the community around Atari. The game fits into the wave of kart racers that Nintendo's success kicked off across every platform, with each manufacturer eager to have its own representative of this beloved genre.
Culturally, Atari Karts is interesting mainly as part of the Jaguar story, a console that had grand ambitions but never managed to compete with the established players on the market. A kart game in the library was a kind of mandatory equipment for every console of the era, and through this route Atari tried to attract younger and family audiences who sought accessible, colourful entertainment.
Today Atari Karts belongs among the titles that collectors and fans of the platform know as part of the Jaguar's small but distinctive library. It is a reminder of a time when kart racers were proof that a console had „grown up“ and had something to offer beyond hardcore genres.
Why play it: For light-hearted, colourful kart-racing fun that brings accessible family racing to the Atari Jaguar and an interesting chapter from the console's history.
Game 9 of 14 for Atari Jaguar
