We visited in February 2025. This reveiew will mainly focus on that day but we did also visit in December 2023.
When we arrived we only had to wait until our scheduled time before going into the breifing room. In 2023 we were kept waiting for 45 minutes so clearly they’ve got more organised. To sign the waiver we scanned a QR code and filled in an online form (last time it was on paper and was much quicker).
In the breifing room a guy talked us through all the controls and the rules, and then proceeded to show a video which repeated the exact same things. This also happened in 2023 and it just feels like a waste of time to have the exact same rules repeated when either the video or the guy talking would have been fine. We then chose our kart colour and nickname.
When you go into the track area, the karts light up in your colour and your name is on the wheel’s screen so you know which kart to get into. You can then adjust the seat pretty easily via the lever on the left side so you can fit in the karts whatever height you are.
To start the first round (out of 6, each one is around 2 and a half minutes) you drive out of the pit lane (which is then closed after you leave) into the main course which is projected onto the floor. The speed is controlled centrally so that everyone starts at the same time. The aim of the game is to get the most points across the 6 rounds, not to be the fastest. To get these points you need to collect gems that are scattered accross the track (that dissapear for a few seconds after being picked up) or hit other players with powerups. To collect powerups you need to drive over Mario Kart item boxes that also disappear for a few seconds after driving over them. This gives you a random powerup inspired by Mario Kart (green shell glove, red shell glove, machine gun, bomb, boomerang hammer, EMP, banana egg, speed boost and sheild). The shells can be thrown behind or in front, the machine gun and boomerang can only be fired forwards and the bomb / egg can only be used on an enemy behind you. The bomb and egg are very similar; the egg persists on the ground until someone runs over it but the bomb blows up shortly after throwing it behind you. The EMP is pretty useless – in theory it’s one of the best items in the game as you stop all other karts, which allows you to collect gems and power ups. But in reality the racers are stopped in the centre of the track and you end up stuck behind them until the EMP wears off.
After the first round the pit lane opens for the rest of the races. This allows you to pick up extra gems and a powerup. It also gives you an easy shot to fire your weapons at other players as you exit the pit lane and rejoin the main circuit. There is an anti crash system so players on the main track are automatically slowed down so you can rejoin (you’d think the slowdown effect would be on the person rejoining).
As the rounds progress the karts get faster and the tracks get more complex as they change the projection. If you go off the track at any point (or even put 1cm of your wheel over the white line) your kart will come to a near stop. This is annoying during the races as you’re trying to let a faster kart (with a speed boost) go past you but you end up putting the wheel over the track by 1cm and this means you are almost blocking the track for other racers. The tracks get thinner and thinner as you progress though the rounds which makes it even harder to pass. This also affects you when the track changes at the end of each round – at the end of the penultimate round the track changed and I was left outside the track when the final race started so the kart was going incredibly slowly while I was trying to rejoin with much faster karts already going round.
This leads me onto the main critism of Chaos Karts: the slowdown effect. If you shoot someone then they slow down massively and you then have to avoid them. The gun is the worst out of all of them because if you get shot your kart comes to a complete stop momentarily which means there is a massive speed differential between you and other karts. The tracks are barely wide enough for a kart to pass so at some point someone will drive into the back of you at full speed. It’s really painful, it happened once in 2023 and once this year. In the briefing they tell you to only use your brake “in emergencies” but they should encourage a more liberal use of the pedal to avoid these types of collisions.
At the end of the rounds I came second with 81k points, with 1st place being 83k points. I also got the “slayer” award for most kills but that was probably because I would often go into the pit lane to pick up a weapon and fire indiscriminately into the other players on the main straight. The deadeye award had an accuracy of 118% which is impossible.
4/10 – I would only recommend this if you have 6 or more other people who you know have lightning fast reaction times and you trust them not to give you whiplash. It would easily be a 10 if they removed all slowdown effects (because they are too dangerous) while keeping the points system, black flag anyone who intentionally collides into another driver, and make the track wide enough so cars can pass.
Nick’s blog 