Russian development team ArtVostok announced recently via a post over on Medium.com that their Mario Kart-inspired racer, Meow Motors, will be launching in full during the middle of September next month. The game is currently in Early Access on Steam, and has been there since June 4th, 2018. Originally the team expected a December, 2018 launch but they managed to crank up the timetable and target a late summer release window.

The game actually looks surprisingly good. ArtVostok has been working on Meow Motors for last two years, adding in the characters, refining the racing, and improving on the playability so that everything is as smooth as possible and as fun as possible.

There are more than a dozen playable cats based on different breeds and aesthetics, as well as the traditional Mario Kart-style implementation of power-ups, drifts, and themed tracks to race across. You can check out the 40 second gameplay trailer below to see what the gameplay is like in Meow Motors.

One Angry Gamer’s own Sean Braganza covered Meow Motors back when it first entered into Early Access in June, and since then the developers have been hard at work on refining the gameplay mechanics and fleshing out the content so that there’s a full-on, fun-filled experience for single and multiple players to enjoy.

And yes, the game does feature local split-screen play for up to four players. There are 10 kittens to choose from, and 20 different tracks to race across. There are also different vehicles you can assign to the kittens, and 10 different power-ups you can acquire that will drastically change the way the race plays out.

And speaking of races, there are different race modes to play through as well, including circle races, drift racing, and strike mode.

If the gameplay is solid and the fun-factors are intact, this could easily be a game well worth the $19.99 price tag. The price will not change when it graduates from Early Access. If you don’t want to wait to buy the game after it does graduate, you can pick up a digital copy right now from the Steam store.