Table Top Racing World Tour PS4 – Review

Do you remember playing with toy cars when you were a kid? Lying on the floor, making them zoom around the table legs, drive up the kitchen walls, and crash through barricades of used toilet rolls? That’s the kind of fun that Playrise Digital LTD are trying to capture in the port of their best selling mobile game, Table Top Racing: World Tour, which is now available on PS Plus this May.

 Following the formula of many other racing and karting games, TTR offers a selection of toy cars for players to choose from. You can then take them for a spin against online or offline opponents, across (as the name suggests), a variety of quirky tabletop racetracks. Whilst the simple act of racing provides some mild entertainment, TTR quickly reveals itself to be a game with a little bit of style, and even less substance.

A highlight was the sudden realisation that I was racing across the buffet table of a fancy yacht, moored at a sunny seaside resort

It’s the music that hits you first.  A thumping blend of electro, hip-hop and dubstep assaults your eardrums from the moment you first scroll through the car selection screen. There are twelve different vehicles available, ranging from sports cars to camper vans, their chunky, cartoony shapes reminiscent of my childhood “Hot Wheels” sets. Only a handful are available to start with, and to unlock more, you must earn in-game coins by completing challenges and races. Although this sounds simple enough, it took me several long minutes to navigate the confusing menus, flicking between “Championships”, and “Special Events”, not quite sure of the difference between them. A game with such a simple premise surely doesn’t need to be this complicated. The unlock system seems unnecessary, and is perhaps a hangover from the In-App purchases of its mobile predecessor. Just give me all the cars now! I want to drive!

Upon finally selecting a race against AI opponents, I was whisked away to begin the competition. The tabletop tracks are the real star of the show here, and definitely TTR’s unique selling point. Each one is set in a different location comprised of household obstacles, as seen from an ant’s eye view. Snaking between a tumbling tower of AA batteries, or swerving around a melting ice cube, really emphasises the tiny size of the cars. The game does a great job of establishing the scenery in the blink of an eye. A highlight was the sudden realisation that I was racing across the buffet table of a fancy yacht, moored at a sunny seaside resort. These interesting and well-designed locations add a bit of spice to an otherwise fairly bland kart racing game.  Without a clear way to drift on sharp bends, TTR devolves into screeching sluggishly around each corner until the checkered flag is flown. Mario Kart style powerups are dotted throughout each track, but most are uninspiring, offering generic abilities such as homing missiles, speed boosts, and stun blasts. Multiplayer adds little difficulty, and I had to check several times if I really was playing against human opponents.

Part of me really wants to like Table Top Racing. It tries so hard to be cool, with its funky electro soundtrack, amusingly designed maps, and its brightly hued garage of toy cars. Unfortunately, these things just can’t make up for the repetitive tracks, boring powerups, and conventional driving. It got old really fast, only after I completed (and lost) several races. I really wish that Playrise Digital had embraced the playful tone just a little bit more, and offered massive jumps, crazy loop the loops, and some wackier powerups. It’s a shame that what they made is merely a generic kart racer with an interesting art style, which offers little in the way of real challenge or excitement.