Rumour: 2K Games Is Looking To Take On Mario Kart With 'LEGO 2K Drive'

I am always willing to try out new kart racers. There have only been two I have played that have come close to Mario Kart though and that is Crash Team Racing and Sonic and Sega AllStars.

At this point I don't think there is anything that could challange Mario Kart on Nintendo consoles.

I did enjoy the Lego add on in Forza though, so interested in what they come up with.

It would be more radical and interesting if someone made a racing game without open world elements at this point.

Certainly willing to give it a go. Mario Kart is the best by far but Ctash Team Racing is a good alternative...

This makes me nostalgic for PS3's Modnation Racers.

This could be another fun game for kids. I don't think I would be very interested in it myself though.

I admit I won't consider it unless it has retro tracks from the N64/PC1/PC Lego Racers game.

Seems Interesting. I Enjoy playing Lego Racers, Hopefully we can make our own cars (like Lego Racers) and tracks in this. I should consider getting the sequels that came out after Lego Racers while waiting for this.

Finally, a LEGO game without popular Western franchises / superheroes.
Please consider LEGO SPORTS with Boxing on it for next project.

Should've called it LEGO Racers 3

At least it's not with RPG elements. Good luck overselling Mariokart on Nintendo consoles though.

I’d happily try if it looks good. Maybe I should just buy forza and play the lego dlc tho lol

Another one tries to topple the emperor. So far the only kart game that got on par with Mario Kart is Crash Team Racing, but I like seeing every other one trying.

Having Chocobo racing is one of my unfulfilled dreams, so I more than welcomed Choco GP and nobody will convince me it's bad.

@Anti-Matter Lego is a popular western franchise

I hope Rocket Racer is a secret character or something. You know, when I was younger I would have loved official Lego sets with the Lego Racers characters

They should make it compatible with Labo, the vehicle kit was fun to both build and play. Nintendo seems to have forgotten they ever convinced people to fill up their homes with 1 trick cardboard models though.🤪

MK8 is 9 years old.
Bring on the would be challengers

Seems like any Lego video game for the most part ends up pretty good so I’m definitely intrigued

@Anti-Matter
We need a new Lego City game. I love most of the other Lego games, but Undercover just had something special to it.

2K Games Is Looking To Take On Mario Kart With 'LEGO 2K Drive'
Oh? Interesti-
Includes 'open-world' elements
ZZZZZZzzzz

Arcade style racers are all I'm interested in. No need to drive to the driving game so you can drive. Just let us play the game. My favorite racing games all agree: Burnout 3 Takedown, Kirby Air Ride, and MK8D.

Smurf Kart, Nickelodeon Kart, Sonic Racing, Garfield Racing, Crash Bandicoot Kart, Hello Kitty Cruisers Cholobo GP. There's more than enough competition.

@StAmbrosius 2K?!

Ugh... Any publishwr our there just want to port the old Lego Racer games? I'd pay 60 for that over... Whatever this will be. Can't trust 2K. They have a track record of guzzling memory and their physicals are essentially all mandatory downloads.

Some proof, for those who apparently need it;

NBA 2K for the new HD Twins have MASSIVE file size day 1 patches;
https://gamerant.com/nba-2k23-file-size/

WWE 2K games have done the same, as well. And with companies like Activision already doing just a few MBs on a cart for a game like Call of Duty, it's reasonable to expect 2K to start exercising that method entirely as well.

Links to that as well, for the same reason;
https://www.91mobiles.com/hub/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2-ps5-physical-disc-reportedly-has-only-70mb-of-data/

I know it is not enough for some for just 1 link each, but not going to spam links constantly.

"Mario Kart 8 Deluxe could certainly do with some solid competition, and we're sure Lego and 2K will be up to the challenge."

this libel about 2K will not stand 😆

Mario Kart 8: "Smell that? Smells like roadkill!"

Good been tired of mario kart for the last 25 years being mostly the same ol, mario kart 8 is great but so boring and we've had it for 2 generations

@Paraka i can't think of a single game thats on a physical disc that doesn't need a download... while i still buy some games physical on switch I all but stopped on playstation since the discs are just an inconvenience to check that I own the game, and on switch I sometimes struggle with what I want to play and game hop a bit and its when my physical games aren't nearby I want to play them haha

I read it wrong and thought they were gonna make a Lego Mario kart game. Anyways it sounds cool but I’m still probably gonna play MK8D

@ParadoxFawkes - I all but gave up on the PS family now knowing what I know now for their games.

Essentially, it's a pseudo barricade to fight back against used games, and making a market of having older games ported more and more for prices that cannot be competed with.

I like playing games for generations, it's a reason I enjoy physical far more than digital.

kind of an entirely baselessly speculative headline. there's nothing to suggest this is anything like mario kart or intended to be a competitor.

not that it definitely won't be, but it's weird to make assumptions like that right in the headline

@Paraka i feel that works well for older generations but ps4 and onward digital usually makes more sense, especially since I game on PC alot its all digital only and you don't see the same type of arguments only with consoles, but then again I have multiple storefronts to shop from not being limited like on console you get the eshop or the PlayStation store or worse of them all the Microsoft store... one per platform where competition is non existent and it's them pocketing all the money

This would pretty cool if you could actually do the whole Lego thing to your car and actually build it.

But it's Lego, so it'll be made for 8 year olds with just some licensed names on Lego cars. Meh.

@ParadoxFawkes - It applies to PC as well, the only reason they don't get as much blowback cause, simply, there isn't as much a transition from one platform to another. PC remains PC regardless of generation. But, we HAVE seen practices like this for Blizzard and Overwatch when moving to the sequel. Yes, it was "free," but that doesn't mean it always will be. And many games leaning into the "service" focus develooment doesn't help either.

And "its better to go digital PS4 onward," only works til the PS4 is also outdated. Then, if there is a PS4 game that has not received a port, well... Good luck finding a system with the game on it.

@Paraka
PS4 games do at least work on PS5 and iirc ps4 games are still purchasable on ps5 through the ps5 store at least

with the wii>wiiu jump it was an odd case, the wii lacked an account system and the wiiu didn't get one till much later so you had to do the whole "system transfer" thing, even then the wii and wiiu modes were completely seperate so you couldnt download your wii digital purchases (VC games, wiiware etc) from the wiiu eshop. though i am curious to see how the switch successor handles things, im really not a fan of the service based retro games since that feels like an even worse choice than digital when it comes to preserving games but i am at least hoping that the next system is fully backwards compatible and we can just log in with our accounts and redownload any switch games we bought.

i do feel like out of the big 3 console companies that microsoft handled things the best its not perfect but in the long run, at the very least i could in theory pick up a series X and redownload the digital version of Banjo Kazooie i picked up on the 360 over a decade ago, or play my old copy of Sonic unleashed at a much better framerate without even needing to rebuy it.

@theModestMouse
To be fair the old lego racers game was also made for a very young audience and had car building. plus building stuff does seem popular in games.

Though im curious to see if the environments themselves are lego (the screenshot at the link doesnt seem to show) since with quite a few lego games its more lego objects in a standard environment.

@ComfyAko They meant Star Wars, Indiana Jones, D.C./Marvel, those franchises

@StAmbrosius I'm guessing this isn't a karting game. There are plenty of those, but for people looking for a racing game that's not karts or racing sims, the field is a lot more open (apart from the "HEY, REMEMBER THE 90's?!" retro games).

The race parts of Lego games are the worst parts, so it seems unlikely this will be good.

@Mgalens - PS4 games have a caveat; The publisher of any particular game can choose not to have their game be supported by the PS5. Several PS4 games are not available on the PS5, many more will eventually come over, I am sure, but it's cross gen support is also up to the publisher.

As for the MS situation; While I do agree they handled things better, that doesn't mean it's still good. Cross gen digital is still, ultimately, in the hands of the publishers. For instance, if Square ever so decided that the FF7 ports of the original are hindering people from buying the remake, they can simply... Opt to no longer support it.

It's like keeping your video games in someone else's house. You cannot control when they finally decide to move and take the games with them.

@Paraka
I feel like the keeping video games at someone's house thing feels closer to service models than something like digital.

while not perfect you can at least still download most digital games even after they have been delisted, even in the most extreme cases like PT people were still able to play the games if they were on their console (again PT is an extreme case, most games still remain available for download after purchase even if delisted from the store)

With service based products then there is none of that, if a live service closes then your games are gone, no questions asked, its why i feel so critical about NSO, unlike the virtual console on wii where i can still play games long after the store is closed i wont be able to say the same about the NSO games once the service ends. (though on xbox and playstation you can still buy digital releases from quite a while back, i can still play the psone version of FFVII from back on psp let alone that version that came out around 2014 or so)

basically its not perfect but i feel digital is vastly preferable to service based or cloud.
For my favorite games nowadays i do preffer to go physical when possible.

And it will only cost $150 for the Complete Deluxe Edition.
With $20/month season pass and a premium store with limited timed skins.
Cmon! You know it's true. It's an E rated 2K game.

@Agent_P I know, but it fits the definition! Why hate some select western franchises when you can hate them all?

Or LEGO of your hatred and enjoy them

yesyesyesyeswantwantwantwantneedneedneedneedneed

Omgggg you guys have no idea how much I loved the old Lego games that didn't have some popular brand attached that I don't really care about. I was so excited to hear about the rumors in the first place and now they're solidifying in the form of a new Lego Racers?? 🥺 I'm still replaying that old game, man, it's some of my favorite gaming memories! I can not wait for this, this is great!

A Lego racing game?

Oh man, my kids will love this.

@Mgalens - The digital still applies to that metaphor, cause even though delisted, you can still get to that shelf in your neighbor's house. When a developer, or console, decides to close up shop. If you don't have the games downloaded, it's on you. It's fine if you value a game at 15 bucks if you personally believe the value is there, even if it's playing for just a week. Not going to get in the way of you spending your money. I just know if I wanted to, say, play Rolling Western a year from now, I better have it downloaded today, or find a 3DS with those games installed. I am a person who still plays N64 periodically, I know having physical is going to be a greater need than others.

Service based games are even more insidious cause your extent of playing any game is entirely dependant on what the developer wants it to be.

Cloud gaming is basically service games with extra steps. Which everyone should vehemently rally against.

@Paraka
yeah its the lack of any form of "safety net" which puts me off service and cloud.

as it is now its very rare for a developer to remove the ability to redownload a game, iirc the only time i can think of it happening was when konami tried to scrub PT off the internet and even in that extreme case people who had the game on their system were able to play the game. Even with nintendo who had absolutely no account system going in still lets people redownload the wii games they bought.

as mentioned theres still room for improvement and while physical is still ideal (outside of cases like disc rot or other degradation found in some older media) i have far more faith in digital than i do with any service or cloud based system.

i feel like the ideal thing going forward is hopefully the ability to better future proof media, and while nintendo have leaned into the service-only model im happy that other publishers and developers are taking it more seriously than back in the ps3/360>ps4/xbone era, its baby steps but hopefully things improve over time.

Not even Mario Kart will be able to compete with MK8D in the future, its the closest to perfection a racing game has ever come. Maybe not just racing game.

@JohnnyMind I got it like 2 months ago and everything is very easy to get, and even if it wasn't the game didn't deserve all that hatred

That one Lego Technic racing game on PC was amazing, although I can't remember the name.

@Bret I agree, but at the same time, I still really appreciate having a hub world/town to interact with between races/quests. A Splatoon-esque hub town to walk around in and interact with other players would be ideal!

In fact, this is how I imagine a new F-Zero game would work. The tone could be a mix of JoJo and Ace Attorney, and IMO I would also like it to incorporate a bunch of smaller Nintendo IP characters as DLC, like ARMS, Star Fox, etc.

@Ulysses I would get over a small hub world. If there was like, a garage hub where racers would stand next to their customized vehicles? That's cool. I really just don't want another game in the Burnout Paradise style, where you drive through the open world to reach objectives which ask you to drive through the open world.

Hub worlds can be prone to bloat too - Fire Emblem Three Houses is a fine example. It had to implement fast travel for navigation of the hub world, which is just silly in my opinion. I am sure some find that immersive, but I find it annoying. Splatoon's hub worlds are a good size, and it's really nice that for folks like me who'd rather just scroll through a menu than walk to the menu, that option is there.

@Kiz3000 Try ModNation if you get a chance.