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F1 Race Stars is a certainly a nice game, with lots of visual charm. You play as adorable caricatures of real-life drivers – the likenesses are strong, and they look as if they’ve been carved from colourful vinyl. The presentation is impossibly cute too. Drivers nod and wink to each other on the starting grid, and summon their misplaced helmets in a variety of mischievous ways before the race begins.

Similarly, levels are lovely to look at, but they’re not nearly as much fun to race through. Like the F1 season, tracks are set across the globe, from Japan to Italy, Brazil to the USA. Each one is a charming condensation of that country’s most iconic landmarks and symbols. In Japan, you’ll weave in and out of warring Sumo wrestlers, dodge bowing geishas serving noodles, and jockey for position on top of Shinkansen. Meanwhile, in Abu Dhabi, you’ll scale gigantic hotels which open up like rollercoasters, navigate building sites, before ending up in the desert. It’s all rendered in a quaint and quirky style, like everything has been constructed using pastels and plastic.

The F1 licence differentiates Race Stars from other kart racers in some important ways. The first thing you’ll notice is the lack of a drifting mechanic. After all, this is Formula 1 and you’ll have to learn how to take a corner by using your brakes, slipstreaming and finding the perfect racing line, not by sliding around it. It feels odd to brake so frequently in a kart racer, and even on the highest speed class (3000cc) races still feel a tad pedestrian, with cars lacking decent acceleration. This is where the KERS (kinetic energy recovery system) fitted to each car comes into play. Periodically, you’ll drive over section of track that allows you to fill up the KERS by repeatedly squeezing the right trigger. Do it three times and your tank will be brimming with energy, allowing you to zoom off with a satisfying F1 screech. But it never really confers that much of an advantage, since most racers will max out their tank. It requires less skill than artfully drifting around the corner while avoiding obstacles.

The differences between the F1 teams themselves are reflected by drivers having unique abilities. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and his teammate Felipe Massa, for instance, can fire a red bubble backwards, which is quite handy. McLaren’s Jensen Button and Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, can swap their power-up. But apart from these minor abilities, most drivers and teams feel the same.

The cutesy exterior belies F1 Race Star’s frustrating gameplay. Of course, like any decent kart racer, there should always be an element of levelling chance. Blessed with the right power-up and enough skill, coming back from last place with one lap to go should be well within your reach. But in F1 Race Stars it’s hard to turn things around. If you slip to the back of the pack, you can rarely claw your way back to the front. This wouldn’t be so frustrating if races didn’t drag on so much but tracks are long and a single race might take in excess of five or six minutes. In multiplayer, this frustration is diluted somewhat – you feel more in the mix but ultimately, the same problems persist – insipid power-ups and staid gameplay.

The game isn’t helped by the way it’s organised either. It feels a little empty; the career mode consists of tracks combined in a multitude of cynical ways – European tracks, Oceanian tracks and so on. There are some themed Championships, such as ‘Refuel Racket’ in which you constantly need to top up your fuel tank by collecting gas, but ultimately it’s token variety. It whiffs of padding and you’ll quickly feel like you’re playing the same tracks, over and over. And though they’re vibrant and nicely designed, it just starts to drag.

For a caricature to succeed it must capture the likeness of the original but exaggerate it in a way that raises a smile. But F1 Race Stars rarely achieves this. It’s a failed caricature, its cute and charming appearance totally undermined by its frustrating and frequently bland gameplay. Sometimes nice games finish in last place.