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Table Top Racing: World Tour (2016, Playstation 4) Review


NOBODY'S FAVORITE TOYS ARE BACK


Also for: Nintendo Switch, Windows, Xbox One


I could easily conclude this review in a couple of paragraphs, because this is one of those conventional racers that seems afraid that it'd anger the racing mob if it tried something new. Table Top Racing: World Tour is an arcade combat racer by Playrise Digital. It's a technically adept one, with a flawless sense of speed, polish and a constantly high framerate on the PS4. This altogether makes it a good game for diehard racing-nuts, but for the rest of us, the lack of a real hook quickly makes it tread water.

I mean, there's hardly any sense of progression at all. The tracks repeat from beginning to end, with slight alterations to the winning conditions. The "toy car"-angle brings nothing to the table - pun intended - and makes me wonder: What's the point of driving tiny cars when they look and behave like real ones? Sure, real cars usually can't fire rockets or drop bombs, but neither can toys. Oh, so there's a teacup placed behind a curve on the restaurant stage, and a dust filter on the workbench? Bold move, people.


A classic toy racer like Micro Machines at least added cartoon characters with some personality to the concept, and gave you the appropriate top-down perspective any child would have when playing with their toys. It could be argued that Table Top Racing's third person-perspective attempts to show the race from the viewpoint of a child's imagination, as the cars zoom across the tables, but the basic, realistic visuals somehow collide with that fantasy.

The game follows a linear, mobile-game progression of three divisions - from easieset to hardest: cult classics, street cars and supercars  - each with two different cups to master. With about a dozen levels to each cup, it takes a fair amount of time to get through the "campaign", where you need to win at least one star, out of three, on each track to proceed. After finishing them all, you can go on to the even tougher challenge modes. If you crave more fun on the treadmill, you can compete in eight-player online mayhem.


The lowest two campaign divisions are hardly challenging, at least not after you purchase the best car and maximize its stats. The only levels that I failed to get a good grasp on were the drifting courses, introduced midway through the second cup. These hit-or-miss tracks require you to slide at high velocities to earn points. For me, they stick out like a sore thumb among the other, more enjoyable modes where speed is the factor.

My favorites are the standard combat races - the so-called "heart and soul" of Table Top Racing - where different weapon pick-ups can change the face of the race. A true sense of competition really shines through here, particularly in the final string of races of each cup, where saving a good piece of weaponry for the final stretch can be a determining factor. One variation of the combat race is particularly exciting, a "last man standing"-event where the last car to cross the line each lap is eliminated from the race. It's a well-executed addition, but I've seen it before - and I've not played many racing games.
 

Other modes are pure racing challenges (no weapons, just racing), one-on-one car chases, and a couple of time trial modes. These are all decent, but all too tempting to restart once you screw up, because once is often enough to at least bring you down a peg. Besides, you can only hope to win these by tweaking your car with the highest upgrades in the garage. This might mean grinding for money by re-entering races you've already won.

I can't deny that Table Top Racing: World Tour delivers a solid racing challenge, but it is dreadfully uninspiring. Ahead of each session, I'd often sit and scroll through all the other games in my library for minutes. They all felt more appealing. Then I'd just sigh and boot it up for another couple of tracks. Consequently, I played it for weeks. When it got a little tough towards the end I finally summoned up some passion for it.

How will I remember this game? Will I remember it at all? I imagine looking through my old reviews ten years from now, wondering who the hell played this and wrote this text. It's Mario Kart without the personality or imagination, taking place inside realistic settings like workbenches, desks and picnic tables. For better or worse, we get no "rubber band"-mechanic. You can excel at a track or suck at it without the hand of fate altering the outcome. Does that make it sound more or less fun? Well, I guess that's up to the suckers themselves to decide. At least this old sucker knows he's sucked enough.

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