Tray Racers Review: A subpar distraction that will slide off your radar

Too often these days, the focus of multiplayer games are too focused on building a competitive atmosphere for chasing battle passes and climbing ranked ladders that the community turns toxic. That is why seeing a game like Tray Racers, which is attempting to offer a more relaxed and casual-friendly experience, can be such a welcome breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, a barebones and shallow gameplay experience means it won’t hold anyone’s attention for long.

Made by Bit Loom, the makers of Phogs, Tray Racers is a simple game, but in all the wrong ways. While it can be a relaxed way to race some friends, there isn’t much here to recommend playing it beyond a match or two. 

Keep your expectations very low

When first starting Tray Racers, it resurfaced old memories of Snowboard Kids from the N64. I was hoping it would have that same feeling of something that can be a bit cartoony and chaotic with a lot of personality. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case here. There are no power-up items to cause a little mayhem on the track, and the race is just a one-shot trek down the procedurally generated hill.

The aspect of control I really like is how the game rewards you for playing dangerously. There are sections on various tracks where it seems the entire stretch is filled with cacti. Hitting them will slow you down, but if you get close enough to them without making contact, you get a speed boost. It’s a kind of risk-and-reward situation similar to Burnout that I always love seeing in racing games. Outside of that, you spend most of your time shifting your weight when going up or down slopes to manage your speed.

Another example of Tray Racers trying to add some gameplay variation is when you go off a ramp; you can do up to three tricks to get some speed while in the air. However, the tricks here feel pretty clunky, and weren’t satisfying enough to pull off to feel worthwhile. Dodging and weaving through obstacles felt much more fulfilling and rewarding.

As barebones as it gets

For the most part, the game runs fine, but the loading screens take up a good chunk of your “play” time, at least on Switch. I also hit a few areas with rocks where I passed through the geometry and had to exit the game because there was no escape with no in-game reset option. Because of the loading times and how the game requires you to practice each race for five minutes before it begins, this isn’t a game you can jump in and out of. Its set-up is clunky and drawn out for no good reason.

 The waiting lobbies are pretty relaxed areas to chill out in while the game searches for opponents. You can have your character sit around a campfire and play an instrument, but there’s nothing else to it. I also think the design of the racers are kind of haunting. I don’t mind the world’s visuals, but I felt uncomfortable looking into the eyes of any created character. Something about the combination of their big heads and mouths with their little eyes is oddly unsettling. That being said, I am a big fan of the sandworm that acts as your starting spawn point in every race. That is a level of creative, smart thinking that this game could use more of. Being a small indie game, that is pretty much all there is to Tray Racers. Go down a hill and try to take advantage of as many speed boosts as possible to win.No more, no less.

Final verdict

In general, Tray Racers isn’t a game that is nearly as creative as the studio’s previous title Phogs, or even other contemporary racers, but it’s not a terrible way to waste about 15 minutes. The real saving grace of this title is that it is free-to-play, so you don’t have to put money down on it to see if you like it. If you want to support the devs, you can purchase the Supporter’s Pack cosmetic DLC, but there are no in-game unlockables to chase, and the gameplay here isn’t enough to keep bringing you back.

Tray Racers was reviewed on the Nintendo Switch with a code provided by the team. It is also available on Steam.