Game of the Month, February 2013: Table Top Racing

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February turned out to be a pretty slow month for Must Have games here at Slide To Play. Still, we handed out Must Have scores to five titles, and one of them stands above the rest. It’s a racing game that may not take place on a large scale, but it packs all the fun and excitement of a great kart racer and shrinks it down to the size of Micro Machines. Our Game of the Month for February 2013 is Table Top Racing, by Playrise Digital.

Table Top Racing is a kart racer (think Mario Kart), but instead of transporting you to a faraway land like the Mushroom Kingdom, the game takes place in common household environments like counter tops and garage workbenches. It’s a clever idea that makes each track seem familiar yet new and exciting.

The small scale isn’t the only thing that makes Table Top Racing stand out. It also packs an array of crazy vehicles to drive, eight colorful tracks, and six game modes– all of which you have to master to motor through the campaign. And when you’re ready to take your skills to the real world, you can compete in online races through Game Center with friends or random opponents. It all adds up to a killer package, and our favorite game released in February.

Another great game to land on the App Store in February is Little Inferno, a port of a Wii U downloadable game from the Experimental Gameplay Group, who also made World of Goo. Little Inferno is a bizarre and creative title that takes place in a cold post-apocalyptic world. The gameplay consists of thumbing through catalogs and ordering things like dolls, magnets, and batteries. When these items arrive, you toss them into the fireplace. Combining items as they burn earns you combos and extra money, with which you purchase more items to burn. Then letters start to arrive, and the storyline starts to fall into place. Little Inferno is a fun game that actually has something to say.

Congratulations to Playrise Digital, the makers of Table Top Racing, and the Experimental Gameplay Group, the company behind Little Inferno, for bringing us our favorite games this month! Meanwhile, you should also check out these other Must Have iOS games that we reviewed in February: Puzzle Retreat, Dungelot, and Roar Rampage.

  • Rothgarr

    I thought Tabletop Racing was “ok” at best. The cars are cute and the visuals of real-world settings (love the japanese restaurant tabletop) are really cool. But even with the powerups I thought it felt pretty shallow compared to Mario Kart… I lost interest within the first hour.

    Little Inferno was REALLY GOOD for the couple hours it took to beat and had very nice visuals. I especially liked how the ending takes you out of your house to learn more about the world. But unless you find you absolutely need to find every combination to get the achievements the game is pretty short.

    Now for flame bait… my personal game of the month is… Real Racing 3. I’m at least 10 hours into it and still loving it. I think the IAPs were blown WAY out of proportion. If you go into it knowing that within the first hour you can buy your second car where you can then ping pong between cars when one has a service timer going on then you’ll have a great racing experience. After that you get your third and fourth car and you’ll NEVER have to wait — there’s always a race you can do with another one of your cars. Never once have I had to spend any of those gold coins (I admittedly spent some by accident since they put the button in the same place as the “race” button) and I’ve accumulated well over 100 of them. Awesome cars? Check. Hundreds of events? Check. Awesome visuals? Check. Free? YES! I do miss the replays, though…

    • Ana

      You can’t compare Real Racing 3 with Table Top Racing, they are different games, different engineers. Real Racing 3′s console quality F2P comes at a price. I had to remove 40 apps In order to make room for RR3 install. Not saying the game is not good, just saying it is an unfair comparison.

      • Rothgarr

        Sorry if there was a misunderstanding. I didn’t directly compare Tabletop Racing to Real Racing 3 in my post. I mentioned three games individually and listed what I did and did not like about each and why one in particular grabbed my attention. I did, however, compare Tabletop Racing to Mario Kart and said it felt like a shallow experience when compared…

      • M M

        Why did it take 40 apps to fit it? I only had to remove one…the cost is easily worth the amazing graphics.