Super Toy Cars is a racing game much like other racing games. There are various tracks, time trials, car upgrades, and the like that you can unlock with points won during races. None of which add anything new to the racing genre. On the other hand, if you like racing games this is one of them.
There are things to like. Cuteness has a role in Super Toy Cars. Initially players drive a toy Volkswagen Bug and then there are upgrade options to a jeep, a van, and then sports cars. All the cars are rendered in a cute way reminiscent of the movie Cars, only not that cute and without the talking. The tracks are also cute, at least at first. They are put together as if a child, with a really good eye for design, had designed the track with food and toys from his or her bedroom. Unfortunately, the tracks look pretty similar after you play for a while. This is no Mario Kart with more and more fantastical tracks as you go along.
As for gameplay, the cars are a little clunky. At first, I blamed this on the fact that I hadn’t played a racing game in a while, but as I got used to the controls and began winning races, I realized the controls were just clunky. And there are glitches. Sometimes your car ends up going through walls or through objects. To Eclipse Games’ credit, none of these glitches cause a freeze and instead your car ghosts briefly before being set back on the track to continue, but the glitches are annoying nonetheless.
As in Mario Kart, you can drive through various boxes that give you the opportunity to send a rocket after your opponents or a boulder-like thing that I think is supposed to be a Magic 8 Ball. The Magic 8 Ball spawns additional boulders though, which can slow you down if you’re not careful. There are also pink oil slicks and targets you drop behind you to thwart your opponents. Essentially there are a variety of obstacles you can pick up and lay down for your opponents. The upgrades are kind of weird in the sense that the first couple of new cars you can buy aren’t that great, so you end up racing with your original car for longer than you should have to.
The only real flaw with Super Toy Cars is that it’s just really average, so if you love all racing games, you won’t hate this one, but it won’t be your favorite. If you like to play racing games occasionally and you don’t have one, this is a basic one that isn’t too expensive, but you might be able to find a used copy of one that’s better.
Super Toy Cars earns 3 out of five GiN Gems.