It was published by GameMill Entertainment (the publishers of the Nickelodeon Kart Racers games), and was released on November 3rd, 2023 for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and on Windows via Steam.
It is one of the two DreamWorks games being published by GameMill, the first one being Trolls Remix Rescue.
The roster consists of the following movies (italics indicate that the character is DLC):
- Shrek: Shrek, Donkey, Fiona, Lord Farquaad
- Shrek 2: Puss in Boots
- Puss in Boots (2011): Kitty Softpaws
- Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: Wolf
- How to Train Your Dragon: Hiccup, Astrid
- Kung Fu Panda: Po, Tigress, Master Shifu, Grand Master Oogway
- Madagascar: Alex, King Julien
- Megamind: Megamind
- Trolls: Bridget, King Gristle
- The Boss Baby: Theodore Templeton/Boss Baby
- The Boss Baby: Family Business: Tina Templeton
- The Bad Guys (2022): Mr. Wolf, Diane Foxington
The game provides examples of:
- Alternate Company Equivalent: Galactic Sky is this game's equivalent of Rainbow Road from the Mario Kart series, being a starlight/space-themed track that is also one of the final tracks in the game.
- Bubblegloop Swamp: Shrek's Swamp is a swampy course with muddy areas that slow the racers down and giant slugs to bounce on.
- Character Customization: You can customise your character's vehicle chassis, engine, tires, and spoiler, each of which affects your character's overall stats.
- Defeat Means Playable: Tina Templeton, Diane Foxington, King Julien, King Gristle, Megamind, and Lord Farquaad must all be defeated in their respective boss challenges before they can be played as.
- Early-Bird Cameo: One of the trolls that has a chance of appearing on a racer's kart if they collect enough musical notes is Viva from Trolls Band Together. As the movie wouldn't be released in America until November 17th, 2023, roughly two weeks after the game came out, this marks her first official appearance.
- Home Stage: Each character has a track associated with them. Most of the cast get tracks from their home movie, with the exceptions of Lord Farquaad (who gets Arctic Ocean), Megamind (who gets Galactic Sky) and both Wolf and Oogway (who are DLC characters without corresponding tracks).
- Go-Karting with Bowser: DreamWorks villains Lord Farquaad and the Wolf are playable racers alongside their respective heroes.
- Justified Tutorial: The tutorial is presented as Shrek teaching Donkey how to drive.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler:
- Several of Diane Foxington's dialogue lines mention that she's the Crimson Paw, a fairly late twist reveal in her original movie.
- Defied with the Wolf, as he is never referred to by his actual name (Death) at any point. The closest he gets are his usual Double Meanings that allude to his true identity without outright spelling it out.
- Lethal Lava Land: Dragon's Keep takes place in a castle surrounded by lava. Dragon shoots fireballs all around the course that racers have to avoid.
- Logo Joke:
- Every playable racer has access to a set of tires designed to represent the famous DreamWorks logo, with the Moon Child on the rims. Wolf and Master Oogway go further in that they have an entire set of parts based off the blue sky and clouds featured in the logo.
- One of the final tracks in the game, Galactic Sky, is based on the modern, stylised DreamWorks logo sequence introduced in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.
- Mascot Racer: This game features various characters from DreamWorks Animation and has them race against each other.
- Mythology Gag: All over the place. About half the character dialogue in the game is a quote from the movies, and practically every kart customization is based on an item or element from the movies in some way.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. The game features both Mr. Wolf and Wolf as playable racers, and the other racers refer to both of them interchangeably as "Wolf".
- Sidelined Protagonist Crossover:
- Trolls: Due to their small size, the titular trolls are relegated to voiceless assist characters. Instead, the Bergens, Bridget, and King Gristle are the playable series reps.
- The Boss Baby: The titular Boss Baby and Tim's daughter Tina are playable, but Tim himself is nowhere to be found.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Arctic Ocean takes place in Antarctica, with icy, mountainous roads and one section that involves driving underwater.
- Spotlight-Stealing Crossover:
- Being one DreamWorks' main franchises, the Shrek movies unsurprisingly get a lot of representation, with five playable characters from the main movies (Shrek, Donkey, Fiona, Lord Farquaad, and Puss) plus two characters from the Puss in Boots sub-franchise (Kitty Softpaws and Wolf). Each character (barring Lord Farquaad and Wolf) has a Home Stage from the movies corresponding to them, and the tutorial has the player controlling Donkey as Shrek teaches him how to drive.
- The Kung Fu Panda series also gets a lot of representation, with four playable drivers (Po, Shifu, Tigress, and Oogway) and three tracks when most of the movies represented only get two characters and tracks each.
- Variable Mix:
- The background music for each track has elements from a different musical genre depending on which Troll is hosting: pop for Poppy, country for Delta Dawn, classical for Trollzart, funk for King Quincy, techno for King Trollex, and rock for Barb. Depending on what position you're in and how many musical notes you have, it affects how prominent the genre is in the track.
- The Dark Forest track starts with a calm, peaceful tune as you start in the titular forest. Once you enter the Cave of Lost Souls, the music becomes much more ominous and mystical, which continues as you land on the Wishing Star before calming down when you return to the forest.
- Arctic Ocean's music becomes muffled and distorted during the underwater section at the start and end of the track.
