Toy cars minus the super part.
I don’t mind an arcade racer every once in a while. Their fun, twitchy controls mixed with fast speeds and crazy turns are always a nice escape for me. Super Toy Cars tries to hit that arcade racing feel while adding a small spin in art direction and a bit of car combat to the formula. For the most part it works, but a few technical issues and lack of online multiplayer hinders the experience.
Players race toy vehicles around giant playrooms fitted with tracks created with hardwood floors, carpet, and other household items. Mixing the track walls with books, cereal boxes, and other toys, and players will instantly see what they’re going for. We’re racing actual toy cars around a house. It’s an interesting take that has been done before, but still works in this sense.
Much like Mario Kart, players can hit power-up blocks on the track that will give the player a weapon to use. These can be oil slicks, land mines, a giant 8-ball to throw, and more.
MSRP: $9.99
Price I’d pay: $6
Platforms: XB1
One interesting thing I have never seen is when dropping an attack that sits on the track like an oil slick or a land mine, a small box showing the item will pop up. This allows me to actually see if it hits my opponents. It’s a neat feature that I wish other games would do. Cars also come with a boost feature that will rocket a car ahead for a short period of time. This boost meter fills up any time the player drifts or jumps in the air over a ramp.
There are multiple types of races to compete in like time attack, knockout races, and checkpoint races. It adds a bit more to the game, but it is all standard stuff at this point. Players can also purchase new cars to use as well as upgrades for each car using coins they earn in the career mode. There’s a decent amount to choose from and each car really does feel different.
Where there is split screen multiplayer, the game lacks online multiplayer, which could have helped out significantly.
On top of that, I ran into some rather strange issues – particularly when it came to jumping ramps. If I were to jump a gap and land too hard, my car would reset, almost like I had flipped the vehicle over. This reared its ugly head in one time trial race that always had me fail because my car would reset, and it happened multiple times on different tracks. Eventually, I had to make sure I wasn’t going too fast over the ramp. I thought the entire point of a racing game was to go as fast as I could.
While it does have its issues, the racing is fine and the look of it all is interesting and fun. It’s not going to blow anyone’s socks off, but it does offer a decent racing experience if you’re able to handle the issues it has. There’s a decent amount to do for the single player gamer, but people looking for a competitive experience will have to look elsewhere.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
