Table Top Racing (PS Vita) Review

A first glance at Table Top Racing might recall memories of another classic title, the miniature top-down racer Micro Machines. This new game is similar in many ways, and follows the central concept of tiny racing vehicles zooming around bigger worlds of regular household items, whilst firing weapons at one another. Whereas Micro Machines chose a top-down view of the track, and a limitation for how far racers could be away from each other, Table Top Racing goes for more of a traditional third-person perspective behind the respective car with unlimited distance between opponents. Weapons can be obtained from crates lying on the track, and although there is little in the way of uniqueness in the selection - mostly generic tools like rockets, bombs and EMPs - each can be used offensively or defensively, allowing for more strategic deployment. Race courses are simple to navigate (which makes the lack of an on-screen map easier to tolerate), not overly long so as to become tedious, and most importantly, depending on the task at hand, a lot of fun to race on, often yielding shortcuts and ways to shave seconds off each lap.

Although Table Top Racing's origins lie in a device without buttons, Playrise Digital has done an admirable job in retooling the game for the PS Vita's strengths. Visually, the game is very clean and varied in level and car design, and the frame rate, in particular, is incredibly smooth. The game speeds up in later stages but early on races seem to glide rather than go at blistering speed. The music is a very pleasing mix of guitar riffs and energetic melodies, repeated slightly too often relative to the number of challenges the game offers, but they are rarely a distraction or deterrent. Button and D-pad control works flawlessly, and bring to mind how this game could ever have been as responsive with on-screen digital inputs.

There are two notable criticisms to make, however, and whilst neither is game-breaking, they have the potential to annoy. First is the back touch panel on the Vita hardware, and this is used in races for a quick view behind the racer. A useful function, except for players who are used to gripping the Vita casing with fingers spread out; this view toggle can't be turned off sadly, so many will need to readjust their grip to play this game. Second is the touch screen navigation on the main menu, in that buttons are disabled in this section alone. Whilst this is again a minor annoyance and a remnant of the game's original development direction, it is disconcerting at first, especially for those who navigate the Vita's bubble selection menu with button control before launching their games.

These two slight issues aside, the core concept of Table Top Racing is rock solid, and there is a vast amount of playability for the £4.99 store price. The Garage is where the bulk of customisation lies, and here is where coins earned through racing or bought as micro transactions can be used to buy and upgrade chosen cars. Most games with micro transactions make getting the regular currency in-game more difficult to urge players to part with real money, but that is thankfully not the case here, as coin rewards are plentiful and frequent, and the actual coin-to-cash value of the transactions themselves are high and fair.

For the solo player, the Championship option consists of cups, each with a branching set of challenges. Completing these, plus getting all the top star rankings in each, would take a considerable amount of skill, and the coin prizes for doing so open up the Garage options immensely. Drift Events test the player's ability to drift around corners and accumulate points for doing so; a unique challenge, and a handy test bed for getting the feel of the courses outside of races. Special Events can be chosen by preferred difficulty, and follow similar rules to the challenges in the Championship mode. Finally, Quick Race is as the name implies: a way of getting through a track as quickly as possible; very convenient for a pick-up-and-play title such as this one. Network Mode is the gateway to multiplayer, which can be done with up to four players locally or online. Online play can be jittery depending on the connection between players, but it is still fully playable. This mode houses the Trophies and online Leaderboard rankings, as well.

Table Top Racing does very little relatively new, but as far as options, cost and convenience go it is a hard one to outrank.