TABLE TOP RACING: WORLD TOUR (PS4)
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Developer: Playrise Digital.
Released: May 2016. Genre: Racing. Other versions: XONE; PC. Posted 25th October 2016. By Alan Passingham © 2016 |
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My wife has finally allowed me to purchase a PlayStation 4. Yayyyyy! At long last, rather than looking longingly and forlornly at pretty pictures of the games I cannot play on the Interwebs and TwitFace, I now have the chance to enjoy the b*stards in my own living room with a cup of tea. Life is beautiful. Or is it? The tiny, easily-led piece of grey matter in my head has frequently been duped like this, especially where new-fangled things are concerned. Always the promise and expectation that the games available will be the puppies plums compared to what has gone before, yet forgetting that whilst everything may tend to look better, superior hardware is still f*cking ineffective against tedious gameplay and poor design. But this will be a different beast obviously. It’s a PlayStation 4 for crying out loud. Just look at the damn thing being all gorgeous. I’m creaming in my jeans.
Expectations for Table Top Racing: World Tour was, therefore, running pretty high. Some fast-paced racing via a mash-up of Micro Machines themed course design (basically you’re racing toy cars on your Dad’s D.I.Y. workbench) alongside a Super Mario Kart third-person perspective is enough to get old gits with nostalgia hard-ons salivating. As a bonus, the dull gameplay of Micro Machines has been ditched in favour of something more streetwise and modern. Borrowing heavily from the rather magnificent MotorStorm RC, there are a variety of different races on offer. Straight-forward racing for the purists, time-trials, pursuits, drift contests and last-car out for those who like a bit more variety.
Glue is never your friend in miniature racing
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One Way signs: ignore them and hope for the best
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So, you’ve brought into the concept and prepare for the first race, which involves the miniature racers bombing around a garage work-bench with hammers, circular saws and an abundance of other tools left lying around in a health and safety horror show. The timer counts down, thumb carefully placed over the accelerator in tantalising anticipation… and pfft, pfft… you pull away from the start-line like a gnat’s fart. Not to worry, the A.I. controlled racers are going equally slowly. Maybe an impressive sense of speed will prevail near the end game, particularly once all those flashy looking sports cars from the home-screen have been purchased. Well, it kind of does (naturally), but the advertised high-octane racing is never really delivered. There is a distinct lack of zip. At times, especially compared to the sheer insanity of MotorStorm RC, Table Top Racing is more like Driving Miss Daisy.
This lack of pace is compounded further by the aesthetically pleasing yet fairly uninspiring tracks. There are five of them to contend with, each with at least four variations that increase the length of a standard lap and whilst functional as opposed to devious, they add very little to substantiate a robust challenge. The sedate pace kind of minimises any difficulty even where the circuits do begin to become slightly more sophisticated. Pick-ups such as homing missiles and oil-slicks provide some variation in the otherwise straightforward racing, as does fitting ones racer with a choice of wheels that can generate an electro-static defence shield, but mostly these slim additions are fairly ‘meh’. Furthermore, the fact that the A.I. racers do not upskill their vehicles in the way players can upgrade their cars (making them faster and tougher) means the player is always one step ahead of the difficulty curve, which you can wave at nonchalantly in the rear view mirror.
This lack of pace is compounded further by the aesthetically pleasing yet fairly uninspiring tracks. There are five of them to contend with, each with at least four variations that increase the length of a standard lap and whilst functional as opposed to devious, they add very little to substantiate a robust challenge. The sedate pace kind of minimises any difficulty even where the circuits do begin to become slightly more sophisticated. Pick-ups such as homing missiles and oil-slicks provide some variation in the otherwise straightforward racing, as does fitting ones racer with a choice of wheels that can generate an electro-static defence shield, but mostly these slim additions are fairly ‘meh’. Furthermore, the fact that the A.I. racers do not upskill their vehicles in the way players can upgrade their cars (making them faster and tougher) means the player is always one step ahead of the difficulty curve, which you can wave at nonchalantly in the rear view mirror.
It's important to keep cool under pressure
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When it comes to miniature racing, the more debris the better
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Unfortunately, the lack of challenge – other than the drift races which are inexplicably found at the other end of the difficulty spectrum – and the general absence of ludicrous speed take much of the fun out of Table Top Racing. The visuals are generally quirky and colourful, particularly the vehicle design (the ‘Braking’s Bad’ van raised a guffaw) and the audio is mundane enough not to distract from the task at hand. It’s a neat and tidy game in that respect. Online multiplayer is perhaps where the most fun can be had, for a short time at least, as variation in human capability makes for some fun and frantic racing (although the absence of an old-school, in-the-same-room two-player option once again sucks balls). Here at the very least the concept of racing exists! Yet, with only a small number of tracks available this joy soon wanes as the non-distinct gaming eventually leads one to look for something else to do. Like the washing-up, or taking part in your children’s upbringing.
Table Top Racing is, therefore, a close approximation of mediocre. Not terrible by any stretch, but very difficult to find anything massively positive to say. The occasional speed-boost almost generates a thrill, but you’re unlikely to let out a little bit of wee about it. Perhaps it was too much to expect anything beyond this from a game originally designed for iOS and Android, even if one of creators of the WipEout games is involved. Perfect for trophy hunters looking for easy trophies, particularly as getting all the necessary ‘difficulty’ stars and upgrading all vehicles is not much of an endurance test. Boy, I wish it really was though. One last thing, I have no f*cking idea why the title suggests this is a World Tour when the stages included barely get beyond the rooms of my house. Bloody liars…
Table Top Racing is, therefore, a close approximation of mediocre. Not terrible by any stretch, but very difficult to find anything massively positive to say. The occasional speed-boost almost generates a thrill, but you’re unlikely to let out a little bit of wee about it. Perhaps it was too much to expect anything beyond this from a game originally designed for iOS and Android, even if one of creators of the WipEout games is involved. Perfect for trophy hunters looking for easy trophies, particularly as getting all the necessary ‘difficulty’ stars and upgrading all vehicles is not much of an endurance test. Boy, I wish it really was though. One last thing, I have no f*cking idea why the title suggests this is a World Tour when the stages included barely get beyond the rooms of my house. Bloody liars…
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VERDICT
Visual: 7/10
Audio: 7/10 Gameplay: 6/10 Longevity: 4/10 OVERALL: 5/10 |
PIXEL SECONDS: TABLE TOP RACING: WORLD TOUR (PS4)
Reprising the theme of miniaturised cars in blown-up, domestic settings that was popularised by Micro Machines in the nineties, TTR proves a solid if unspectacular racer that feels slightly less than the sum of its parts. TTR offers a nice, simple mix of competitive formats, alternating its focus between that of pure racing and testing your wiles with Mario Kart-inspired weaponry. A well-structured one-player experience impresses thanks to its dozens of races across a plethora of disciplines, whilst the cute, humorously-named cars add further to the fun. It's got decent legs, as whilst beating the main championship shouldn't prove too much of a problem for seasoned racers, attaining golds in all of the special events will require weeks of practice and absolute mastery of the game. TTR is dynamically presented, and though there's only a relatively small handful of environments to appreciate, each offers a range of shortcuts and neat touches. Where it loses marks is in its responsive but bland handling, with overly simplistic physics and collisions meaning the driving feels curiously insubstantial. Collecting hidden coins for trophies feels unnecessary and tacked-on, whilst the lack of a local multiplayer option is also a disappointment, as though the online racers are okay, it's not the same as battling it out with your mates. [6] – Tom Clare © 2017
Reprising the theme of miniaturised cars in blown-up, domestic settings that was popularised by Micro Machines in the nineties, TTR proves a solid if unspectacular racer that feels slightly less than the sum of its parts. TTR offers a nice, simple mix of competitive formats, alternating its focus between that of pure racing and testing your wiles with Mario Kart-inspired weaponry. A well-structured one-player experience impresses thanks to its dozens of races across a plethora of disciplines, whilst the cute, humorously-named cars add further to the fun. It's got decent legs, as whilst beating the main championship shouldn't prove too much of a problem for seasoned racers, attaining golds in all of the special events will require weeks of practice and absolute mastery of the game. TTR is dynamically presented, and though there's only a relatively small handful of environments to appreciate, each offers a range of shortcuts and neat touches. Where it loses marks is in its responsive but bland handling, with overly simplistic physics and collisions meaning the driving feels curiously insubstantial. Collecting hidden coins for trophies feels unnecessary and tacked-on, whilst the lack of a local multiplayer option is also a disappointment, as though the online racers are okay, it's not the same as battling it out with your mates. [6] – Tom Clare © 2017