TNT Racers Review
TNT Racers for the Xbox Live Arcade is a light-hearted game that offers a bit of a break from the more serious or hardcore games within the racing genre. This cartoonish racer manages to pack in a bit of racing depth while being simple enough to pick up and play.
Upon starting the game, I became confused… I was treated to an aggressive splash-screen graphic of these larger than life cars barreling down the road but it was accompanied by a light and peppy ragtime tune. I was aware that the cars would be ironically small but I was not aware that TNT stood for Tracks-and-Tricks. I thought that I would be knee deep in some b*tchin’ speed metal or maybe some catchy techno tracks the usual “standard” racing music lineup. The surprises did not end there.
TNT Racers is not a normal racer, the main concept in the game is to basically forge ahead in a race and force your opponents out of the screen. Once you get far enough ahead and force all of your opponents out of the screen you win the round. Depending on the type of challenge,the number of rounds won generally determines the winner of the race. Rarely did I win a race by actually finishing the race in first.
As a top down racer you can see your three opponents, power-ups, coins, and immediate track layout pretty well. Being a racer of this particular style the camera actually does a pretty good job of staying focused on the whole cluster of the action. The only problem I had was that if you went fast enough it was still quite easy to lose sight of your car before you were given credit on winning the round. The top down view was not zoomed out far enough to see a substantial amount of track so it did become difficult to be ready for a slight curve or troublesome U-turn. It’s a minor annoyance, but I feel like this is where the depth of the game came through and where ones skill is rewarded.
Knowing what to expect as far as car and track choice will definitely help a skilled player. I became familiar with one of the speedier cars from the start. It was faster than most of the chosen A.I. cars at the start but it didn’t handle as well in the turns; learning the tracks and lines allowed me to compensate and capitalize. It seems like the cars balance pretty well with each other so for the most part you have a pretty good fighting chance if you can stay on the road and avoid the hazards.
Tracks-and-Tricks Racers kinda falls short in the track number and variety department but it doesn’t disappoint on the tricks side of things. In order to win you must battle it out with your rivals for that top spot and the tracks are practically littered with power-ups. We’ll here’s the bad news: TNT Racers does not do a good job of explaining on what these power ups are, what they look like, or what they do… you’re on your own. The good news is that they are plentiful and most of the time you can just use it to your advantage no matter what it is. The loading screens provide various tips and oddly enough none of them say anything about the power-ups. An example would be:“Use the candy gun to blast the confetti mines.” Not only did this message come up about 20 times, A – I didn’t know what either of those things were until I had played enough to decipher what they were talking about (despite using them the whole time) and B – its hard enough to drive the car and shoot the candy at other cars let alone try and aim it at the candy mines. Honestly, you’re better off just driving around them because it’s a waste of ammo. All in all your standard lineup of racing game power-ups are here: oil slick, mines, multi shot in a straight line weapon, boost, homing rocket and a few others. They toss in a few extra power-ups that are creative and different but without a straightforward rundown it’s tough to learn how some of them work.
TNT Racers is a solid racer but it lacks a basic run & gun racing mode. Round based modes are all you get. There is no chance to tear up the tracks and opposition Mario Kart or Blur style. The only exception are the time trial modes, which succeed in breaking up the monotony. But aside from chasing an almost static leaderboard there isn’t much incentive to revisit. I did managed to break into the top 20 (#14) on one of the time trial races.The time trials were also great for test out other cars. I found that the bottom most car netted me the top times as it was nimble around corners and quite responsive despite its lack of speed.
There isn’t much in the way of online racing as there doesn’t appear to be many people playing. I managed to get into and kicked out of one game after trying to join/host multiple times. I can say that in the 2 online races I’ve done, I was able to hold my own and keep the round score tied up but in classic BigRob fashion I broke down in the last lap and blew it in the last couple turns.
If you’re achievement hunting, be warned most of them can only be earned by playing online races.
Ups
- interesting twist on kart/rc racing, yet familiar and easy to pick up and play
- variety of powerups/downs keep each race interesting and different
- style and charm by the bucketful painted on top of a solid racer
Downs
- the gameplay twist is interesting but where is the regular lap based racing mode?
- no one is playing this online, good luck getting those achievements/trophies
- difficulty ramps up unexpectedly to make up for the lack of different tracks
- the menu music is terrible, doesn’t fit with the game and repeats endlessly
Bottom Line
All in all, TNT Racers is not dynamite but at its core it is a competent racer. It has a charm and unique style that’s downright pretty at times (especially when you blow up the competition). It stumbles at times on some things but I think for what it’s supposed to be it’s pretty good.
TNT Racers is also available on the PSN and is coming soon to Wiiware.
Full Disclosure: The review code for this game was provided by Evolve PR.