Table Top Racing Review

Originally released as a mobile title for IOS and Android devices, this game has found its way onto Sony’s handheld a whole year and a half later. Styling itself as a mixture of both Micro Machines and Mario Kart, this is a vibrant and simplistic racer that has you racing small toy vehicles across a series of quirky indoor environments. While the game does well to entertain for short bursts, it ultimately lacks in new ideas and a lasting appeal in the long-run, forcing the player to become bored with it fairly quickly.

In keeping with its influences, the tracks in this game are set across fun environments such as restaurants, kitchens, and workshops. It’s a very cute aesthetic that has been beautifully replicated in this game, with bright colours and well modelled iconography filling each track accordingly. Each different environment has its own flavour, contributing further to the overall look and feel. The game looks especially great playing from the top-down camera, allowing your eyes to revel at the whole environment and appreciate the delicious artwork to its fullest. Unfortunately, this is the only aspect of this game that matches the standards of its kart game predecessors, with everything else failing to offer the same quality found in other games.

The track designs are perhaps the worst offenders to be found here, with no real effort being put into them to accommodate for creative use of the themed areas and objects. Each track adopts a basic circuit style with wide lanes running throughout, resulting in a basic gameplay offering. There are no jumps to go up, holes to avoid, thin passages to carefully manoeuvre, and any complex track elements for that matter. There also aren’t that many tracks either, and even when the game reverses them, they don’t feel fresh. Even when you are thrown into a new track, they all feel so similar that you get the feeling you’ve already played them before. It really is all very basic, and it removes the tracks themselves of any challenge. Of course you can fall off the track and crash into the objects on the side of it, but this only happens at the fault of the player, and it’s never an intention of the track itself. Games like Micro Machines pride themselves on creative designs and dangerous tracks that require skill and precision to master, so it’s a real shame that Table Top Racing offers no more than unremarkable circuits placed within fun-looking environments.

The gameplay found here is very basic, with the player only being able to accelerate, brake, reverse, and use power-ups during events. There’s no power slide, there’s no vehicle hopping, and there’s no other arcade mechanic to be found here. In a way this is a good thing and helps to focus the gameplay, but on the other hand it means that there’s less depth to the whole experience. The simplicity of it all won’t bother the player at first, but the longer they play it, the more it dulls, leaving the gameplay feeling stale and somewhat less challenging. Thankfully however, the controls found here are spot-on, and the precise nature of the Vita’s thumbsticks allows for some great driving. Unfortunately however, having to hold-down on the ‘X’ button to accelerate becomes uncomfortable during races, and you’ll often wish this function was mapped to one of the shoulder buttons instead.

Power-ups/Weapons take up a rather large presence in this game, but unfortunately they aren’t much fun to use. The variety here is lacking, offering only a handful of uninspired weapons that while effective, don’t offer a lasting appeal. There is a speed boost, a bomb, a missile, and an EMP blast, and visually none of them are particularly fitting with the theme of the game. These power-ups are all singular uses, and collecting a box off the track rewards you with any one of them. The whole idea of randomisation doesn’t work too effectively in the context of this game however, thanks to the limited amount of power-ups. Perhaps having specific pickups for each different power-up might have resulted in a better experience, allowing the players to go after specific ones and encouraging the use of tactics.

The game modes provided here aren’t anything particularly special, and contain things that you’ve probably played a multiple times over. The bulk of the game takes the form of Championships, separate events that contain multiple different challenges and races. The variety on offer here is admirable, but lacking, with some game modes feeling weaker than others. There are pure races, combat races and speed trials, and then there are challenges such as elimination, hot lap, and pursuit. They all offer a nice sense of variety, but some of the modes tire out quickly, and can become a chore to complete. The constant repetition of the same tracks also doesn’t help, and each tournament will provide you with a sense of Déjà vu.

Also on offer are a hefty series of special events, each categorised within multiple difficulties. These contain the same kinds of modes found in the championships, but all with unique circumstances. For example, there are some combat races that might limit you to only using a specific weapon. To be fair, this element of the game is the best, and offers enough variety for you to not get bored so easily. If there’s a part that is worth sinking your teeth into it, it’s this. The game also offers a weak series of drift events, but these don’t hold any appeal, and are actually rather difficult to pass, let alone master. Lastly, this game also includes a multiplayer component that allows you to play locally or online with friends or strangers, but you will often struggle to find any races/events to join.

Each event found in the game is graded out of 3-stars, with players encouraged to achieve a full 3-star rating for each. The higher the grade achieved the more money and respect that you gain. While the respect contributes towards your player level, the money can actually be used to purchase new vehicles, vehicle stat upgrades, paint jobs, and wheels. Players will need to purchase new vehicles and upgrades as they progress to match the increasing difficulty of their opponents, further encouraging players to keep retrying events in hope of achieving a full rating. The purchasing of wheels is an interesting mechanic, granting that specific vehicle with new abilities such as providing the player with a 5 second shield after every lap, and allowing the player to gain additional coins per race from skidding. It’s a nice idea for sure, and helps to spice things up a little bit when things become boring.

Verdict

What is a great game for mobile, Table Top Racing fails to translate well across to the PlayStation Vita and to the handheld market. While the far superior controls allow for much more precise driving, the game itself doesn’t fulfil the expectations of a handheld game, lacking any real meat, or that much variety in content. While short instances of play are likely to entertain, longer stints of gaming are met with boredom and frustration at the lack of tracks, creative track design, game modes and power-ups. Unless you want something that will fill a small gap every now and then, Table Top Racing is difficult to recommend.

Positives:

• Fantastic art-style
• Precise controls
• Wheels mechanic is kind of interesting
• Good sense of reward.

Negatives:

• Track designs are boring
• Lack of tracks
• Simplistic gameplay starts to grate after a while
• Lack of power-ups on offer
• Some game modes are weaker than others
• The game modes become boring after a while
• Doesn’t fulfil the expectations of a proper handheld game

Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.