Tray Racers!

Genre: Racing Game

Players: 1-16 Competitive (Online)

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Review:

Tray Racers! is a free-to-play downhill Racing Game released on PC and Nintendo Switch in 2023. In this game, players race using sleds (or trays, if you prefer) in various locales in a post-apocalyptic desert with massive skyscraper-sized camels and sandworms that vomit up your characters to start the race.

The presentation here is mostly good, with colorful 3D imagery, some decent shadows and reflective surfaces, and a large and relatively detailed world rushing toward you at high speed. These issues do take their toll on the game though, with some noticeable framerate drops, as well as some occasional clipping issues. It’s not so terrible that it damages the game terribly, but it is definitely noticeable.

These visuals are backed by a soundtrack that’s split between some calm, somber acoustic guitar for menus, and energetic rock guitar for races. It works, but there definitely feels like a tonal disconnect between these elements.

As for the gameplay itself, everything is boiled down to simple controls – turn left or right, and lean forward and back, with each type of leaning useful for increasing speed either downhill or uphill. Unfortunately, these controls don’t feel anywhere near as responsive as I’d like them to be, and sometimes hitting part of the level geometry will cause you to careen off in a direction unexpectedly.

There’s another issue here, and that is that the races in this game take an annoyingly long time to actually get going. You have to choose to join or create a lobby, the lobby needs to load up (long loading time), then fill with people, then you need to wait for everyone to indicate they’re ready (with no timer to force them to just get on with it), then the level needs to load up (long loading time), then everyone gets at least a few minutes where they’re just practicing racing on the course, then the actual race starts. In all likelihood, you will spend multiple times as long waiting to race as you will be actually racing.

In the end, Tray Racers isn’t a terrible Racing Game, but between a lack of polish and poor streamlining of the menus, this game feels like it could have been much better than it is. If you’re looking for a simple Racing Game to add to your Nintendo Switch library, this game’s free price tag may look enticing, but given all its problems, I doubt that many players will find themselves wanting to spend much time with it.

tl;dr – Tray Racers! is a free-to-play downhill Racing Game where players sled down a desert landscape in a colorful post-apocalyptic setting. While not a bad Racing game, this game does have some control issues, problems with having to constantly wait before you can actually get to the racing, and an overall lack of polish that make this far less enjoyable than it could’ve been. Since it’s free, players may want to give it a try, but with all the frustrations present I suspect that most will move on to other, better games soon enough.

Grade: C-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2023 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best New Free-To-Play Game

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