Nightmare Kart, the Bloodborne-inspired PSX-styled racing game, is out now

I haven’t played Bloodborne and so references to its world or characters mean little to me. Kart racers, meanwhile? There I’m in my element due to a lifetime of Mario Kart, Diddy Kong Racing and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. It’s those games that make me interested in Nightmare Kart, a PSX-aesthetic racing game which was formerly known as Bloodborne Kart, and which is out now.

Here’s the launch trailer:

The free game includes 21 racers, 13 karts, 15 tracks and split screen multiplayer. More unusually, it also has a full campaign mode “with boss fights”.

At the time of writing, you can download Nightmare Kart from Itch.io by naming your own price. It’ll also be available via Steam “once the game is out of build review jail.”

Nightmare Kart is from the makers of Bloodborne PSX, a similarly styled demake that maintains the third-person action of its inspiration. Its kart racing spin-off began life as an April Fool’s joke during development. Sort of. ‘Bloodborne Kart’ is also a long-running joke within the Bloodborne community more generally.

The change to “Nightmare Kart”, and the removal of other more direct references to the FromSoft game, was the result of the developers being contacted by Sony’s lawyers. Will I miss those references? As mentioned above, I wouldn’t recognise them whether they were there or not, but I’m glad I still get the opportunity to speed around some gothic horror race tracks.