TNT Racers is an easy game to miss in the Xbox Live Marketplace. The market is saturated with all sorts of racing titles, most of which you could probably live without playing. TNT Racers seems to borrow elements from other games, but it’s hard to fault it for being unoriginal, especially when you’re talking about a driving game. TNT Racers is worth your time, but you may want to take heed before you drop 10 dollars on this quirky racing title.
TNT Racers is arcade style racing from a top-down perspective, if you’re thinking Micro Machines, you’re in the right ballpark. The purpose of the title is of course to come in first in each and every race, be it by point totals or the first to cross the finish line. Littered throughout the tracks are powerups that can help you out in your quest to be the best. The powerups range from oil slicks to lasers and everything in between. Does this sound pretty standard? It is.
The major bright spot in the game is the cheesy, jazztastic soundtrack. If you wanted to feel like you were driving a car in a Saturday morning cartoon, then this would be the music you would jam out too. Interspersed in the cartoon soundtrack is also some smooth jazz. I’m not quite sure why. It must have been the same guys who did the sound design for Marvel vs. Capcom 2. If you got that joke, you’re welcome; if you didn’t Google it. I’m not going to do all the work for you. As strange as the music may be sometimes, it fits, and that is all that really matters.
The core of the game is focused on a single player mission mode and the time trial mode. Unless you’re in the mood to beat times, you’ll want to do the mission mode. In mission mode, you have a variety of requisites in order to clear the mission. They usually range from obtaining the most points, to coming in first place. The AI presents reasonable competition and you’ll have some trouble getting all the way through it. The challenge is a good thing to keep you from decimating the mission mode.
Multiplayer is a different story. Multiplayer, at least for me, lagged almost to the point where it was impossible to race well. Usually that didn’t matter because there aren’t many people playing online. Pretty much 3 guys and one of them had the Gamertag Professor Oak. There’s nothing really important about that, I just couldn’t help but share. I’m sure multiplayer is a great experience when it works properly but I couldn’t get much going. Perhaps the people I connected to just had a bad connection to Xbox Live, but I have no way to verify that considering there isn’t anyone else online to play with. If you’re looking for a robust multiplayer, look elsewhere. TNT Racers just doesn’t have the community to support its online component.
TNT Racers is better than middle of the road, but not by much. It doesn’t really do anything wrong (considering the multiplayer is most likely not the developer’s fault) but it doesn’t do anything that spectacularly either. If you go into this title expecting a deep racer you will be disappointed, but if you go in expecting some good, shallow fun then you'll come out of this experience satisfied.