TNT Racers – Nitro Machines Edition (Wii U eShop) Review

The top down battle racing game is an all to often forgotten genre that doesn’t get much respect in the mainstream games environment. Rock’n’Roll racing on SNES, Micro Machines on Ps1 and Mashed on Xbox/Ps2/PC all stand before as testaments to this genre’s glorious past. So when TNT Racers came at me across my email I did have a little bit of a nostalgic almost reverent feeling towards this title.

You play the hero in the form of a car with a colour of your choosing, there is no story I just choose to consider the car a hero to keep positive about the entire game. You have to face off against 3 other rivals who will use all manners of power ups to stop you from being the first to the relevant goal for the race. These goals are usually very simple, being the first over the line or the one with the most points due to the damage inflicted during the race, most coins collected and others in a similar vein.

The play style is all too familiar; the entire game exists as an almost isometric top down view. You and three others race around a variety of different courses with a variety of weapons and pickups designs to either flat out destroy your opponents or slow them down enough to be destroyed as they get pushed off screen. It’s a somewhat simplistic and retro design choice but it works. At the core this is the usual cart racer battle mechanic we have all seen in Mario Kart or any of its various knock offs.

As you progress and pass each goal a new level is opened up with a corresponding event, it’s all fairly standard basic game progression at work but I’m not going to rain on this party because of that. The game concept is old but other than that the entire title idea is presented with a great amount of finesse. Personally speaking it is perfectly fine to be a clone provided the additional content more than makes up for the lack of ingenuity.

The courses are fairly simplistic but have some unique designs and feel to each one, this is always a good sign for a racing title as it at least means the courses are present for a good reason and not just to be another stat to try to sell the game. The races through the 45 courses do span a variety of environment designs to keep everything fresh and while nothing looks astounding they do the job.

It’s at this point I should point out that this game may look familiar to those who were keen on the WiiWare store (<–that’s a pun! Because it’s made by Keen games! I’m funny damn it!). I somewhat would not dare to call this a sequel and more an expansion to the original Wiiware game and it is because of this that it does explain a lot about this title and what it really is.

This is not an entirely new game, half of the levels present are copies in verbatim from the original releaseand this is not an issue unless you were a fan of the original game out for an entirely new release. If you have come back for more content then you won’t be entirely disappointed but a big chunk of the content on hand is just duplicated. This is a warning for all those that might have purchased this game previously on Wii expecting an entirely new experience.

Visually it’s history does show itself as it looks like a Wiiware game simply running at HD resolution, nothing is very complex and as a good example the textures present are generic if not horribly simplistic. They have taken advantage of the WiiU’s additional power in the most simplistic fashion possible. It’s not a horrible end result but it does reinforce that this is more expansion than an entirely new game.

Audio is a funny one here as it is all entirely generic stock music. I’m sure we have all heard every track before and I don’t mean that in a Daft Punk/Lady Gaga style. It is along the lines of cheap late night Plumbing Service/Bank TV commercial audio track, it is unsettling in an indescribable way making the entire package feel somewhat lazy as an afterthought. I know that as an indie they struggle to fill the gaps of development but this is not the ideal solution as I’m sure there are more than enough people out there who would donate their time to a project like this to improve the end product. It’s just a shame that more couldn’t be done for this title or a better solution wasn’t at hand.

I was prepared to give this game a fairly negative overall review and score because while everything was done to a reasonable amount of quality the end title just didn’t really appeal to me or anyone else I had shown it too at the single player level. That was until I got deep into multiplayer.

This is the saving grace of this title. It is a purely local multiplayer event and one that will keep you and three other friends glued to the screen for dozens, hundreds and possibly thousands of rounds – for as generic the rest of the title is, this is where the game genre has always shined. It is excellently balanced for the local experience. It favours the pro players while not making it too difficult for a beginner – it’s a perfect balance but it will keep a group entertained for hours on end. That is the true staple of a great multiplayer title. And as an added bonus, both the Wii U pro controller and the Wiimote are supported here so it should be fairly easy to get the gear together should be easier than getting the player together.

If it seems like this review is a little bland and uninspired it is because the game itself doesn’t particularly jump out at me in any major ways. It’s not terrible game by any means so I can’t be too harsh on it but at the same time I can’t particularly endorse it in a whole hearted manner.

As such I will keep it simple. If you are after a multiplayer experience I would recommend this title, otherwise you are probably best to steer clear as there are better single player titles on the eShop that deserve some attention.