Super Toy Cars is an incredibly strange game. When I played it for the very first time, it felt like a poor copy of the now outdated, Micro Machines. However, Micro Machines, as old and as archaic as it is, has charm and play-ability which Super Toy Cars clearly lacks. Since mid 2000, indie games have come a long way, and gained a cult following as they offered experiences that couldn’t be found within any triple AAA title. But Super Toy Cars is nothing like the contemporary indie games that we all know. It both feels and looks like an extremely low-budget AAA title.
Vehicle models are on par with early last gen titles, but the environments are quite frankly laughable. Smudged pixelated textures haunt each and every track, as most are simply stretched over various shapes, and to add insult to injury, majority of the on track objects are hidden behind a wall of blur effect when more than 5cm away, and loads in only when you are within the touching distance of one of these monstrosities. Design itself is also lacking, especially in the scaling department as balls of bubble gum which litter some tracks, are as big as balls of cereal, meaning that the world of Super Toy Cars has an extremely large asphyxiation rate during breakfasts.
Poor graphical display, and low number of physical and particle effects usually allows most games to maintain high-resolution as well as steady framerate, however, not in this case. Initially Super Toy Cars worked great, however, mere minutes into my playthrough of the campaign, it started to crumble. First the framerate started to drop rapidly to a point where the game was nearly unplayable, and at points, during races with ”rain”, it was stuck for a good second or two when taking a corner quickly. Also, when attempting to restart certain races, Super Toy Cars, would stop working completely and would display nothing but a black screen, which would remain until I’ve backed out to PS4’s main menu.
Mechanically, Super Toy Cars is an absolute mess, a mess which is also filled with missed opportunities and incredibly poor design choices. I would lie if I was to say that Super Toy Cars is a completely unplayable, as at times, I had quite a lot of fun with it, however, every single time I would come across something that would either hamper my experience. Just like any game of this ilk, Super Toy Cars features power-ups, but most importantly it features an 8 ball which ploughs through the track eliminating everything in its way.
During my early moments using the 8 ball it was fun, but the spectacle quickly faded and became a bore, and made me think “why have they only implemented a single pool ball?“. This could have been an entire mechanic of its own, or even a game mode, only if developers have decided to include different balls, which behaved differently and possessed unique abilities, but instead all we have is a single 8 ball, which rolls like a tumbleweed across western scenery.
To add to the disappointment, I also need to underline that the rest of the content available in the game is not very captivating. Yes, you have more than a dozen of vehicles and upgrades, but using any car with low drift factor is simply pointless as it will require you to break and slowdown. Whereas the ‘drift-mobiles’ can skid around corners at full speed while boosting, deploying a power-up, and recuperating the boost as drifting fills up the meter in a matter of seconds. In game progression, it also feels a little off as you’ll be able to purchase a tier 3 vehicle before completing the first round of the tier 2 events, meaning that you will get through the campaign with relative ease. All 48 events shouldn’t take more than 90 minutes to complete as some events such as time trials last about 40 seconds, if not less.
Ultimately, Super Toy Cars, is a title which you shouldn’t worry too much about. It’s short, forgettable and filled with empty promises, the diversity which developers have promised is non-existent, and tracks, with exception of a couple, feel just like re-skins. The variety of vehicles is also meaningless, as drift cars triumph over the rest and rather than being fun, Super Toy Cars is a monotonous slog, as racing simply becomes a chore. In a way, I’m glad it was short, because after an hour I was already tired of looking at a car positioned sideways in the middle of the screen because it would rarely stop drifting.