Post apocalyptic wastelands are gloriously fun when you’re a Tray Racer.
There’s no use waiting for snow when the world’s all scorched earth. Tray Racers is taking us to sun scorched plains for Steam NextFest on 6 February, but developer Bit Loom invited us to fling ourselves into the sands ahead of this. Tray Racers is a chaotic multiplayer racing sim, filled with bright sand dunes, creative caves, ridiculous wildlife, and a bunch of competitors all relying on gravity to get them ahead of the pack. Following on from the delightfully silly Phogs, this Dundonian Studio is aiming for a brand new level of multiplayer pandemonium. The idea is simple. Take sand surfing, mix in a range of unpredictable obstacles, and add another 15 players to the race. What emerges is a gloriously chaotic mix of Mario Kart, a little bit of Descenders, and a hint of Fall Guys.
If you’ve had an opportunity to check out the announcement trailer, then you’ll already be aware that this sunny slide ‘em up is miles away from the desert wastelands of Mad Max. Instead, the future of Traytopia is filled with rapscallions racers intent on just having a good time. While Tray Racers is decidedly more fast paced than the boundless enthusiasm of Phogs, there’s a similar energy. The general aesthetic continues to embody the same stylized approach that Bit Loom has already established. A warm campfire welcome in the clouds is the first introduction that many players will have to Tray Racers, where we bounced around a little bit of this beautiful wasteland. before entering the race, we managed to pet the oddest doggo and busted some tunes between goofing off, because why not? Clear skies, bright colors, and oversized cartoon characters are all happily intermingled in among bulbous cacti, wispy sands, and lots of bold outlines that lean a little closer to the likes of OlliOlli World than Kart Rider Rush.
Controls
Zooming into Tray Racers for the first time means getting to grips with the controls. Much like the aforementioned skating sim, there’s barely any effort required to get moving but the trick is not crashing. A thrifty tutorial runs through the basics in barely a few minutes and the majority of movement centers on a single analog stick. Both keyboard and controller support is on offer, but it’s exceedingly more intuitive to fling your best tray forward the left controller stick. This allows players to quickly navigate the myriad of obstacles that pop up and ensures racing is instantly accessible. This low barrier to entry is something that the developers are focused on, describing an experience where players can just group together and go. There are no complex gear changes or weapon metas to master. There’s only the course, your competition, and a timer.
Plenty of room still exists for dedicated and skillful play to excel. Acceleration, braking, drifting, and mid-air tricks are layered into each race and help facilitate the descent down a range of hills. Even after you manage to swerve successfully over the finish line, there is more to learn. Bit Loom has even seen early testers who’ve managed to catch air and ride it right until the end of a race because they’re that good. This time, the easy pick-up-and-play approach left me feeling accomplished, if not highly skilled at the end of my first hour.
Heading Down
From the initial lobby entrance to the finish line, there’s a lot more to this contest than meets the eye. After finding a group to jump in with, the race is on and no two sand tracks are the same. Each instance of gravity fuelled fun is procedurally generated, meaning a whole mix of twists turns, trees, and other obstacles are thrown together in a one of kind calamity. For a full five minutes, I and my accompanying players were spat out onto a track and given an opportunity to try out each angle of attack, all to find the best line and prepare for a final run against the rest of the racers. In the end, it’s the best time out of all your runs that goes up on the final scoreboard.
What makes this more than just a dry day at the slopes are the innumerable mechanics and extra permutations that come along for the ride. Windy wisps, geysers, giant globular frogs, shortcuts, and clotheslines are some of the absurd environmental additions that players need to navigate or use to their advantage. Everybody has a chance to avoid or attack these ridiculous landmarks and eaach item has a level of risk and reward baked in. Slip by an immovable object or perform three consecutive tricks and you might get a speed boost. Hit a shooting geyser mid flight and it will add even more speed and altitude. Land in it at the wrong time and you might stop dead in a shallow puddle.
For racers looking for a little more skill than luck, then it’s all about finding the best line to lean into sand dunes or slide past abandoned wrecks and pick up every inch of speed. All these elements create an equal opportunity for players to play it safe or go for broke, there’s a wonderful freedom to this new endeavor that makes it a great party game or casual contemporary to something like OlliOli World, while the more eagle eyed and responsive players will revel in finding just the right moment to move.
I’m grateful that Bit Loom has leaned into the casual end of the market and avoided adding combat when constructing Tray Racers. It’s the kind of game that embodies the bright chaotic sensibility of Fall Guys with surprisingly compelling gameplay. There’s more depth than you’d imagine and it’s really jsut lots of fun, and did we mention it’s going to be free?
Tray racers gave us an hour of laughs and what more could you ask for? Check it out when Tray Racers comes to Steam NextFest on 6 February and drops onto PC & Switch in 2023.
