After Sony knocked it off track, Bloodborne Kart is now "legally distinct" and finally set to launch for free in May

After a last-minute delay to "scrub the branding off," the PS1-style racer Bloodborne Kart is now known as Nightmare Kart, and it's finally set to launch in May.

Nightmare Kart is "releasing for free" on May 31, 2024 across Steam and Itch.io. The features list includes the previously promised 16 maps, versus battle option, and full campaign mode with boss fights, and the roster has been upgraded from a planned 12 racers to a full 20 selectable drivers. You can check out the trailer below to get a taste of what to expect.

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Developer Lilith 'Bunlith' Walther previously brought us the excellent Bloodborne PS1 demake, so there's quite some pedigree here when it comes to retro action. Even without the Bloodborne branding, Nightmare Kart looks absolutely rad, and it might just be one of my most-anticipated upcoming indie games for the year. Come on, a single-player kart racer campaign with boss fights? Never mind the Bloodborne connection, this might just be the Diddy Kong Racing successor we deserve.

Under its original title, the game had previously been set to release on January 31, but just days before launch the dev announced a delay after Sony got in contact to request the Bloodborne name be removed from the project. It looks like Nightmare Kart still has those grim Yharnam vibes, just with a little less in the way of actual Yharnam.

This looks to be an unusually happy ending for a fan game, since when the lawyer's come a-knockin', it's usually to request a total shutdown rather than a rebrand. Here's hoping Nightmare Kart ends up being as cool as it looks.

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Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.