It’s been a while since I’ve downloaded a game on my monthly subscriptions and instantly given a game a go. Most of the time I forget I own games and end up purchasing them on another platform (cause I can be an idiot at times). But given how it’s been a lovely few weeks, and how I’ve managed to get caught up on a lot of work, I decided to jump into one of the games I downloaded for this months Playstation Plus (I’m writing this in May).
I didn’t have much criteria for what I was going to play other than it needing to be simple and laid back enough that I wouldn’t have to concentrate too hard. TTR fit that need perfectly. You see, like Super Toy Cars that I reviewed last year, the game takes place around miniature toy cars that are racing on table tops. The game has no story, and apart from the 238 stars to be collected, not much else. I thought this was all I was looking for in a game; how wrong I was.
TTR is entertaining, don’t get me wrong. It’s a perfectly capable arcade racer, with OK handling and cool powerups, but by god is it repetitive! It’s own description on the playstation stores says the following:
Race your tiny car around a world of table top race tracks, with over-sized obstacles and insane power-ups.
Which is absolute bullshit. The game has 4 levels, each of which get changed ever so slightly throughout the course of the games campaign/career mode. These tiny adjustments could by all means be called “a new race track”, but there is no way it ever feels that way. Considering it only takes 1-5 minutes to complete a track, you’ll be seeing a lot of the same tracks, along with the same assets time and time again.
The variety of race-modes on offer helps to alleviate the track medriocity somewhat, but only slightly. On offer are 7 different modes; elimination, normal race, time trial, best lap, no power ups, track down opponent (where you must race to find another racer and bash them) and finally the cup races. Each mode is unique, but short, and has you racing over the same tracks you’ve seen a million times before. It’s a shame, as I truly feel the lack of variety in track design slowly saps away at the enjoyment of the fun driving mechanics.
Regardless of the repetitiveness of the tracks themselves, between races you can also upgrade your vehicle (or even purchases a whole new one!). This is actually quite rudimentary, as races give you so many coins (without even finding the hidden ones) that you can easily upgrade a car to it’s maximum potential within no time what-so-ever. This makes the entirety of the game a lot easier, so much so that I can’t help but feel the developers at Playrise Digital didn’t spend much time balancing the game, ensuring there was a constant progression system to the game at large. By the time I had reached the final two cups (of 6 in total) I had already purchased every basic car, and only had 6 left to buy. It’s a shame as a meta-game like upgrading your vehicle can actually help to keep players interested in a game longer than the races take place.
For all that I’ve said of the mechanics and levels on display, I can’t complain too much at the presentation. TTR is a perfectly serviceable game, and looks polished on the PS4. Granted, it doesn’t look cutting edge, but what’s on display suffices and ensures the player doesn’t feel ripped off with the game they’re investing their time into.
So all in all was a free (yeah yeah I know I pay monthly for the service, but you get what I mean) price tag worth it? If you’re looking to kill a few hours of your time (it took me about 4 hours to complete the game from start to finish) then by all means give the game a download and play away. Just be warned of the repetitive nature of the game – it got on my nerves to the point I regretted playing the game.
2/5
