When the Yogscast was just a few years old, and Minecraft was all the rage, two friends had the idea to tell a story using the game. And thus, Shadow of Israphel was born. What starts as just simple survival becomes an epic adventure through the land of Minecraftia, meeting various characters who helped and hindered them. A perfect setup to turn into a game, then.

Now, the obvious choice for a game would be an RPG, what with the adventure and combat focus. It would be the perfect combination, allowing for an accurate recreation of the world featured in the series. Allowing growth of the characters through activities of the game such as mining, crafting, and combat. But an RPG is the easy choice. What I’m going to do is adapt Shadow of Israphel into a kart racer.

One of the first things to say is that Shadow of Israphel is a roleplay, with Minecraft being the platform it played out on. An adaptation should not be restricted to the style of Minecraft in creating its visuals, nor should it try to adapt things that were part of the story owing to the platform it was told on. And there’s one large part that – no matter what genre of game it was being adapted to – needs to change.

Zombies and skeletons might be commonplace in media, but creepers (the sort that are living bombs, anyway) aren’t. But if creepers are being changed to fit an adaptation, why not the other enemies? The creeper’s new name would be a sulphurite, a living being infused with dark magic that would make them explode when emotionally charged. Their skin would be yellow, with black ‘scars’ scattered across their body.

Instead of zombies, the Nitestalkers would be a common enemy to face. These are a faction of bandits living in caves across Minecraftia, coming out at night to scavenge supplies and terrorise anyone who unwittingly travels in the dark. Skeletons are replaced by rogue hunters, people who work for themselves, taking everything they can (including the body of their targets) to sell to anyone who will take them.

Other non-named enemies would also be used where appropriate, such as desert demons, dark creations that come from The Sands, sentinel guardians, robots who protect the interiors of the Jade Sentinels, and the elemental orcs, who reside in the Skyhold to test prospective Skylords in the trials but can also be found elsewhere.

Now for how Shadow of Israphel becomes a kart racer. In the mode known as The Story, the adventure unfolds, showing Xephos and Honeydew being assigned by Ye Old Great Treasures (or YOG-Treasures) to head for Minecraftia and find the truth in the rumours of long-lost jewels known as the Jade… Something. Hey, there needs to be a reason for them to be here, and this setup ties into both the naming of the YogCave and the finale where they find the Jade Sentinels.

Using their karts to fly across to Minecraftia, the journey stresses those flight-critical parts just as they arrive. Failing to land correctly causes even more stress to those parts, meaning they have no more flight capability until they can get the karts fixed up. That becomes one part of the story, and ties into how items are used. Since these karts are multi-purpose marvels, having everything they need for gathering and crafting resources, those capabilities are improved as the story progresses. To start, only wood can be used.

At the starting location, which serves as a tutorial, the two build the starting shack from How to Survive the First Night. As a kart racer, you have the usual driving controls of accelerating and braking. Rather than a drift, you have a quick turn, which can be used whether in motion or stopped. Rather than a standard system for items, this concept takes inspiration from the platform the story was originally told.

As I say, this adaptation shouldn’t restrict itself to how Minecraft worked for its mechanics. But at least for the adventure mode, the resource aspect of Minecraft works well for a kart racer. When not in events, you have the ability to craft items from the resources you have gathered in the world, attaching three different items to the action buttons.

When in events, each item can be used freely, with a five-second delay before you can use another of the same type. But you only have what you crafted beforehand, so careful management of those items is necessary while you race or fight to win the event. Fortunately, a fourth action button has unlimited use, but carries a 20 second delay to stop abuse. This fourth ability is how resource gathering is done in the hub arenas.

As for what items you can craft, the tools of Minecraft make for great ones. Axes are thrown forward or backward. Swords swipe out in any direction. A hoe can bring wheat from the ground. Plus a number of others. While items made purely from wood are basic, combining wood with stone, iron, gold, diamond, or even obsidian brings greater effects. A sword will have a greater arc of attack. More wheat comes from the ground. The axe can bounce off surfaces.

Hub arenas are just one of the areas to drive around. These can see events happen at them, but are mostly where you’ll just freely drive around. Collecting, crafting, and checking in with NPCs who are here at this point in time. Most of these hub arenas are major locations, such as the starting area the YogCave gets built, Mistral City, and Skyhold.

Some of these locations will also have circuit tracks, such as the sky platforms of Mistral City and BBQ Bay’s upper level. All locations do have circuit tracks, but not all of them are used in the story mode. There are also marathon tracks as part of the game, usually taking place within large sections of caves or within the Jade Sentinels. Small arenas are where battles take place.

As an idea of how the story progresses, Xephos and Honeydew are brought to Terrorvale by Old Peculier. The two have already built the YogCave, the hellgate (of which they found the plans for in the temple), and had run-ins with Israphel, though the two just know him as a pale-faced, suited man. Terrorvale is a hub arena, where the first order of business is meeting Daisy Duke to get the karts upgraded.

With the karts upgraded, Daisy asks the two to collect some stone from the nearby cave to test the upgrades (the diamond upgrade not being for some time) to help with a project. With that done, the two go see Reverend John, who tasks them with ridding his home of the sulphurites who have made it their home and to recover the bible that for so long has been trapped there.

The House on the Hill is a small arena featuring the house as a top layer and the basement cave as the bottom. The task here is to hit all the sulphurites, who will explode after a single hit. Both Xephos and Honeydew have health, which also gets upgraded with every kart upgrade. If either one loses all their health (with the one you aren’t controlling being a CPU), the event restarts. A restart will return any used items to you, acting as if this were the first time you were doing it.

With all the sulphurites defeated, no bible is found. When the two return to Reverend John back at the Terrorvale hub arena (outside of the church), John reveals his true affiliation in attacking the two. This event in the hub arena sees the battle take place. Rather than this being Reverend John’s end, John escapes as Old Peculier arrives. Following him, Israphel’s tomb has been opened, revealing a tunnel.

Before heading in, Old Peculier advises to stock up on items, as they have no idea what they will be facing. This is good advice, as this next part is a run of events with no hub arena between them. First marathon race The Tomb, where the heroes and Old Peculier face off against some rogue hunters who are working for Israphel. Then a battle at Israphel’s Castle against sulphurites and a fire orc to try to rescue Daisy Duke.

The final part of this run of events is another marathon race. Daisy Duke was the bait to draw in the three, but when it looks like the battle is being won, Israphel grabs her and flees through The Hidden Passage. More sulphurites appear, with the race being against them. The passage leads back to the hellgate that Xephos and Honeydew had built. The hellgate which had freed Israphel.

That’s all I’ll reveal of the story progression, but as a last, there’s one more thing to mention. To better integrate the Survival Island portion of the roleplay – which at first had no attachment to Shadow of Israphel, the story of it changes. At first, the two are just trying to survive on the island, but as they head deeper into the cave beneath the small island they find themselves on, a mage working for Israphel and her army of lost souls attacks them.

Outside of the story mode, the various races and battle events can be played in multiplayer or solo. Rather than an inventory full of items to swap between, each character has three specific ones. Either one diamond, one gold, and one stone, or one obsidian, one iron, and one wood. While I won’t reveal all three items that each character has, the signature weapon of that character would be their most powerful. For Israphel, that would be the bow, which as an obsidian bow would have three quick-fired arrows.

Yes, health is a thing outside of the story, too. It’s not a game over if it depletes to zero, however. Instead, the character will stop and eat food that fits them for a few seconds. Then they will be back on their way with a quick boost. Speaking of boost, quick turning will generate energy which fills a meter. Once the quick turn button is released, so will that energy. Since quick turning will slow you down, there’s no effectiveness in snaking like with Mario Kart DS.

With this concept, I hope I have shown how Shadow of Israphel can be adapted to a kart racer. If you’re a fan of the series and wondering about the finale, it’s an adaptation of a series where the finale was never finished. As such, as long as it doesn’t go against what has been set up, it should feel right at home. And I’m thinking that a battle against a risen Jade Sentinel, followed by a final battle with Israphel on its fallen body will do just fine.

Images Taken From:
Minecraft – “Shadow of Israphel” Part 5… | YOGSCAST Lewis & Simon
Minecraft – Part 2: Spending the Night in Simon’s Shack | YOGSCAST Lewis & Simon
Minecraft – “Shadow of Israphel” Part 2… | YOGSCAST Lewis & Simon
Minecraft – Part 26: The Tomb | YOGSCAST Lewis & Simon