Tiny Trax from Futurlab is an arcade racing game with tiny slot cars now out for PS VR. Is it a good one? Read our Tiny Trax review to find out!
While growing up, most kids loved playing with Scalextric or with generic slot racing car games where you raced around tracks trying to get the optimum speed to get round without flying off – It was so addictive! So when the opportunity came around for me to try Futurlab’s Tiny Trax on PS VR, I was literally bouncing round the room and putting on my virtual driving gloves in one go!
You enter the game and, straight away, you’re treated to your Race Truck area where you can edit your car and make it your own by customizing its color and look. You then have access to Solo or Online play, and you can go to level select for Championships (you need to go through each championship to unlock the next). There are also leaderboards for friends and global rankings for each track, which is a nice touch.
When the track loads, you’re facing it as if were playing with a physical slot racing set on a table in front on you. The kicker is that these tracks go further up and down than the table could in real life, giving you a new dimension of gameplay. You can poke your head underwater and through loops within the environments (there are a few different trophies on offer for doing certain tasks, so go crazy!), which is also very fun and makes good use of the PS VR hardware.
The different tracks have you racing through themed environments, such as sea, volcanic, tundra and more. The graphics are fabulous, bright and colorful with quite a lot of detail. There are 12 environments / tracks altogether which at first glance does seem a bit light, so I hope that Futurlab brings out an update to add more tracks to the game, or even offer players the chance to toy around with a track editor.
I found that for the first hour of playing, I could only muster up 3rd or 4th places in all the races I played. This is down in part to the inability to just pick up and floor it round the track like you would (apart from corners) on a physical version of the game. There is a bit of a learning curve for Tiny Trax where you need to master drifting round corners, which involves you “turning” a few degrees on the DualShock 4 controller, but not too far or your car will come to a complete stop. That being said, the game has an addictive quality that drew me back as I tried to master its gameplay mechanics. This game is NOT an easy one, so you’ll have to work at it to get the skills needed to become the champion.
You will notice that when you do get the drifting round corners right, you earn “Boost” which fills your boost meter. This is a major part of the gameplay since you need it to play catch up or to make long jumps. Be warned that you need to use it sparingly in little bursts as it runs out real quick. On top of that, you can swap between the two lanes by pressing the Square button so that you can go on the inside line for each corner. I’ve found this to be a great tactic since it slightly sorta halts your opponents which are on the same lane.
The game sounds are spot on, with solid the 3D audio that helps to immerse you into the action. When you’re running around and suddenly hit the water, you’ll definitely get to experience the aural side of things. The dev team has really thought about it when building this game from the ground up, and I recommend that you play the game with headphones to get the full effect. During gameplay I had no issues with clipping or ghosting, in fact, I suffered no inconsistencies while playing which, to be honest isn’t the case with most games for PlayStation VR.
Overall, Tiny Trax is a pleasure to play. It’s exciting, visually lovely, and frustrating but addictive. It’s these qualities that make the difference between a mediocre game and a great game – and Tiny Trax is a GREAT game. If you have PlayStation VR, you buy it this one since its inexpensive and a lot of fun. See you on the trax!
Disclaimer
This Tiny Trax review is based on a PS VR copy provided by Futurlab.
