Playtonic Games Brings a Fighting Edge to Racing with Super Yooka-Laylee Kart

“I know that people are kind of expecting Diddy Kong Racing, like a copy & paste,” muses Playtonic Games studio head Gavin Price in an exclusive interview with Den of Geek. “I’m sure that a lot of people would be happy with that. But we have enough developer integrity to say ‘no’ and that we’ve got to advance and move things on. When I look at the potential to create our own flavor of a single-player game and really take advantage of our studio humor and Yooka-Layleeness. That needs to come through otherwise it’s a wasted opportunity.”

After developing two platforming games starring the fan-favorite duo Yooka and Laylee, Playtonic has taken the adventurous pair and their supporting cast into the realm of kart racing with the upcoming title Super Yooka-Laylee Kart. Formally announced as part of Summer Game Fest 2026’s Day of the Devs presentation, the game has players take on opponents in tightly competitive races with a pixelated art style reminiscent of Super Mario Kart. While many of the Playtonic team had previously been with Rare, the studio that developed the landmark kart racing game Diddy Kong Racing for the Nintendo 64, the developers aren’t interested in reheating leftovers but instead looking to push the genre forward.

Just looking at Super Yooka-Laylee Kart in action and it’s clear that Playtonic is subverting expectations and doing something new and exciting for kart racers. Yes, the experience is still very much a high-octane racing game, but there are visible fighting game influences to the gameplay too, with each racer having special moves and rage meter that builds up as they endure the setbacks that come from each intensely competitive race. More than just heightening the action and unpredictability in a given race, the volatile fighting game sensibilities add to the overall strategy that Playtonic has incorporated into the gameplay. To reflect those influences and engaging spectacle, the studio has ensured that even the game’s sound design reflects the bombastic action.

“We’re a karting game with a fighting game vibe,” explains Price. “When you close your eyes, this should sound as much like a fighter as a karting game. We have really nice and full bangs and crashes. I always say that the sound that gets me excited is when you press start in Super Punch-Out and the punch lands. That punch sound effect is so juicy and fantastic. That’s the bar for this.”

That sense of strategy extends to everything from coins that players pick up to improve their baseline speed to the way they can position something as seemingly innocuous as speed boosts on the stage. Coins can also be banked to buy upgrades between races during a grand prix or thrown at opponents as projectile weapons while boosts can be used to send unprepared opponents rocketing off the track or placed backwards to work as a sort of reverse-bumper. Even the act of approaching boosts on the track is strategic, with players getting a bigger boost if they jump directly on the strip but run the risk of accidentally jumping over it as part of Playtonic’s emphasis on rewarding raw talent.

“I’m from the age of Super Mario Kart where skill reigns supreme,” Price observes. “The best player won every single time and you earned every victory. Party games are more inclusive and you can play with your kids, where it’s more about luck. We’re definitely aiming more towards a skill-based experience. We think that this is going to be seriously competitive online.”

At the same time, Playtonic knows how to bring in the unabashed fun to the experience rather than providing nothing but cutthroat competitive racing, with plenty of options to make the races even wackier. The game allows for eight-person local multiplayer along with online multiplayer modes available to players to make the party even bigger. This comes in addition to the game’s tournaments, story mode campaign, time trials, and challenges that make this one of the most feature-rich racing games to come along in recent memory.

“There’s all this customization in the game so you can change speed, physics, bounciness, collisions, events occurring, what the surfaces are on each race track,” notes Price. “You can make everyone play invisible or shrunk down. There is tons of stuff so you can make a fun karting hang-out game for your friends, when you do need a respite from being competitive.”

Playtonic Games is currently taking requests from fans to participate in the game’s second playtest through its Steam page as the team continues to finetune the experience ahead of its eventual release. With each successive playtest and alpha and beta session, the creators are paying close attention to see how fans are responding as they set out to develop the ultimate kart racing experience. After years of perceived stagnation from the genre, Playtonic is ready to leave its own mark on kart racers and take things to the next level.

“We’ve got almost 35 years of bubbled-up ideas and frustration pouring out,” Price remarks. “We have to keep showing what’s going to be the next great thing about the game and build the hype trajectory up. This is such a big passion project for everyone on the team.”

Developed by Playtonic Games and published by Playtonic Friends, Super Yooka-Laylee Kart is coming soon with the studio taking requests to participate in its second playtest on the game’s Steam page.