Crazy Chicken Kart 4 Review (PC)

Despite the continuous and, let’s face it, unstoppable flow of cascading karting entries that frequently bolt out of the homely exhaust of the racing scene, it is great to see one pensioner still plodding along—Crazy Chicken Kart, a series that has been turfing up asphalt for just shy of twenty-five years or so now. And that isn’t even taking the other titles under its belt into account, either; lest we forget that Crazy Chicken has also brought a dozen or more side-scrolling games, shooting galleries, and VR titles to a plethora of platforms, too. But in the here and now, it’s all about Crazy Chicken Kart 4, the soft reboot of the original series that shut its doors back in 2007.

It’s 2025, and so, realistically speaking, karting games are a dime a dozen, and the chances of finding one that doesn’t adopt the usual textbook trimmings is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. But there’s a silver lining to this: Crazy Chicken Kart, or just the IP, in general, already has an established reputation as a highly versatile platform, which means, while the latest installment in the karting-centric spin-off series does fall under the same umbrella as a lot of popular titles *cough* Mario Kart *cough*, the chances of it receiving criticism for being a shameless cash grab are slim to nonexistent. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s born to be successful. As with any series that spans multiple chapters, it’s unlikely that each and every segment will automatically amount to the same Cinderella ending as the previous iterations.

When I got behind the wheel earlier this week, I had two simple questions in mind: has anything changed since ‘07, and how is the coup still clucking after nigh-on thirty years?

The Coup Has Expanded

To put that lingering concern out to pasture — yes, Crazy Chicken Kart 4 is a step in the right direction for the series. It’s a step in the right direction mainly due to the fact that it doesn’t mindlessly copy and paste the same components into its infrastructure, but instead opts to take the soft reboot approach—a tactic that has effectively gone on to overhaul the core mechanics to make the gameplay easier to navigate, as well as to improve various QoL aspects of the game’s overall interface. Don’t get me wrong, eighteen years have come and gone and it’s still the same old thing, but with more tracks to shuffle through, characters to choose from, and an extended branch of kart parts, upgrades, and nifty tricks to unlock, it’s a lot better, to some degree. In other words, now’s the time to get behind the wheel.

The fourth mainline installment in the clucking series brings about a few new implementations, like twelve fresh courses to work through, eight farmyard characters to adopt and progress with, three modes to explore—a single-player Grand Prix, a four-player local split-screen mode, and an online eight-player mode—and a variation of kart modifications, custom parts, and a myriad of audiovisual improvements and general fixes. To put it simply, it isn’t just your bog-standard rehash of a former favorite; it’s a revitalized model with a few brand-spanking bells and whistles. And guess what? It’s still just as fun as it was back in its heyday — hallelujah.

More Bang for Your Buck, Buck, Buck?

There is one major improvement over the last game that released in the series, and that’s the driving. Suffice it to say, with the aid of a spruced-up engine and a rough eighteen-year learning experience to help soften the transition between generations, the newest controls are, at least to some extent, more authentic and less slippery than they were back in 2007. And it’s not just the mechanics that have been tweaked; Crazy Chicken Kart 4 also produces sharper visuals, better animations, and cleaner transitions between corners and obscured areas on the track. Add the fact that the game also includes a good amount of replay value and a surprising number of courses to enjoy both online and offline, and you’ve got yourself quite the ideal afternoon squasher.

Let it be said that, while I can quite easily praise a lot of the aforementioned things, I can’t bring myself to slot Crazy Chicken Kart 4 into the same pedigree as the likes of Mario Kart Deluxe or Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed  — but perhaps that boils down to a matter of personal taste. I’m not saying that it’s on par with the disastrously mediocre Racing With Ryan chapter, but it probably aligns with the middle of the ladder somewhere, between the apex and the bottom of the barrel. It’s definitely an entertaining little number with a huge amount of depth in its course design and playable roster, but an undisputed torchbearer for the genre it most certainly is not. And I mean that in the nicest way possible, truly.

Verdict

Crazy Chicken Kart 4 goes back to its roots in the best way possible, with the framework for the original still remaining intact, but with the added complexity of a mixture of well-orchestrated and, more importantly, modernized mechanics and a collection of captivating courses, characters, and a few extra tricks to help grease the wheels. It’s still the same capsule of circuit-based pandemonium that originally came to the track back in 2007, but with cleaner visuals, performance, and customizable features, it’s also a far greater representative for the saga. Granted, it isn’t anything that you would naturally define as “out of this world”, but it does bring a lot more to the table than a bit of nostalgia fodder and a few extra toppings.

There’s no denying the fact that Crazy Chicken Kart still has a lot of juice left in its tank. And yet, that isn’t to say that it’s perfectly capable of burning enough rubber to survive a journey with copious amounts of miles. In truth, as with a lot of racing games that employ various karting infusions, there’s a novelty factor to it that can eventually become awfully repetitive after too long of being under the influence and shadow of other adversaries’ checkered flags.

If you happened to miss out on the original Crazy Chicken Kart that launched way back when, then you ought to pour a few gallons into the tank to test the waters before embarking on a cross county tour in this latest episode. If, however, you’re a returning fan of the IP, then you’re far more likely to resonate with its in-house characters than the average apprentice.