Table Top Racing: World Tour – Nitro Edition

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Title: Table Top Racing: World Tour – Nitro Edition
Developer: Playrise Digital Ltd
Publisher: Greenlight Games
Website: https://www.ttr-worldtour.com/
Genre: Arcade, Multiplayer, Party, Racing
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Audience: Everyone
Release Date: 01/05/2019
Price: £24.99 – Rapid Reviews UK were very kindly provided with a review code for this title.

What the Developers say

The Ultimate Pint-sized, Powered-Up, Combat Racer! Split-Screen game play both Online and Offline!

Get behind the wheel of 16 ultra-cool, miniaturised racing cars and engage in combat-racing like no other. Master over 30 table-top race tracks and over 180 events in a bid for glory, then take the battle Online* and compete with the best in the world.

On Nintendo Switch you can bring a friend too! Race offline or online with two new split-screen game modes. Go head-to-head in “Splitscreen Vs. Battle” mode and take on the A.I. or get online with “Splitscreen Online” mode and take on the world!

Crush your enemies with 8 cunning ‘Power-ups’ and 6 unique ‘Weapon Wheels’ and blast your way to victory!

Pint-Sized, Powered-Up Racing has never looked so good or been so much fun.

KEY FEATURES

✔ 2 Player Split-screen Gameplay both Offline and Online*
✔ 8 Players Online* multi-player combat racing
✔ 9 Unique Game play modes spread throughout the Championships
✔ 32 Table-top race tracks set in 8 themed locations (4 circuits per location)
✔ 16 Super-cool, fully upgradable, iconic miniature Race Cars
✔ Over 180 unique race events to challenge your skills. Over 25 hours gameplay!
✔ 8 Cunning “Power-Up Weapons” designed to attack and slow opponents or protect yourself
✔ 6 Unique “Weapon Wheels” help you get an edge over your rivals
✔ Funky exclusive break-beat soundtrack by producer Wes Smith of Juice Recordings

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Table-Top-Racing-World-Tour-Nitro-Edition-1544793.html

Introduction

Table Top Racing will inevitably be mentioned alongside Micro Machines almost every single time it is spoken about, and with good reason. This table top racer has clearly taken inspiration from the Codemasters’ great, and also owes a lot to Nintendo’s own Mario Kart Series. Basing your game on two powerhouses in the racing genre can often be a gift or a curse. Let’s find out which it is, with our Rapid Review of Table Top Racing: World Tour – Nitro Edition. 

Audio and Visual

From the off, it is evident that whilst it may wish to be heralded as the next great Nintendo multiplayer racing game, it’s lacking the level of polish of its aforementioned spiritual cousins. It is vibrant and bright, with pop culture references and well-designed levels, but it fails to capture the true essence of the Switch with lacklustre attempts at finer details. The pick-up icons, for example, are uninspired question marks inside a round bubble. It offers a lot, and includes all one would look for in a racing title of this nature, yet it fails to enamour and delight.

Table Top Racing does have a dose of personality injected into it, when the audio kicks in. The soundtrack is filled with upbeat, bass-hitting tunes and it sets the tone of this racer well. It is a shame that this isn’t complimented by the visuals, as it would have made for quite the pairing. Instead, the audio served to remind me of all the other missed opportunities. 

Gameplay and Replayability

As to be expected in a combat racing game, the premise is relatively simple: race against other cars, collecting power ups and applying these to good effect to beat the opponents.

Running across three difficulty levels, from amateur to expert, you race through a variety of table top landscapes in a number of different scenarios. Some are the plain and simple race against others, with no power ups. Others have you utilising a range of nifty collectables to wreak havoc on your opponents: my favourite being the blast of ice which turns every car in its wake into ice blocks, sending cars careering off in different directions.

There is enough here to keep things from getting stale, and it was great to not have to keep completing the same race type time and time again. That being said, the gameplay itself is what most racing game fanatics come for and Table Top Racing is best described as a mixed bag. 

Whilst the car itself is responsive, with sharp turns occurring after a swift nudge of the joy-stick, there is little need for the brake whatsoever. In turn, this makes for a game which is all about fast speed and blasting opponents out the way, and less about driving skill. This may have been the developers intention, and the aesthetics certainly suggest this, but it seems to make for a more shallow affair than one would have hoped for.

What isn’t shallow, however, are the customisable options in the ‘Garage’. From decals to wheels and statistics, there are many choices you can make with regards to your car and how it fairs on the race track. I particularly liked the bonus options on the wheels: receiving double points for every successful weapon attack by purchasing the bling wheels is genius. It placed an importance on the choice of wheels which I have yet to see outside of the Formula 1 series.

The game also provides a multiplayer offering which covers all the bases: local co-op, online single-player and online co-op. At the time of writing, I was unsuccessful in finding any games online. This review will be updated to reflect the status of the online modes once enough gamers have purchased the title and there is an online community to race against.

Conclusion

Table Top Racing: World Tour – Nitro Edition almost came close to hitting the mark. The ideas are there, and on some occasions, it does manage to deliver, however for the most part, it’s a relatively mediocre racer that fails to capitalise on the thoughts of its predecessors. There are far worse racers on the market, and there is some enjoyment to be had here – the price point, however, means that this title is overpriced and underworked.

Rapid Reviews UK Rating

You can purchase Table Top Racing: World Tour – Nitro Edition on the Nintendo eShop at the following link:https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Table-Top-Racing-World-Tour-Nitro-Edition-1544793.html