Sometimes a good idea needs a bit more time in the oven to cook. Little Laps is a game that was in development for not much longer than a month. It is a small 18 track single-screen time trial racer that runs similarly to a slot car racing game. It is also a one-button game, press to accelerate, and try to hang on around the corners without your car spinning off through loss of grip. There is potential for a budget gem in Little Laps, but I’m sad to say that this game caused me a lot of confusion and ultimately, frustration.
Each track is a single-screen, lo-poly circuit with a timer and a speedometer. Your car sticks to the central white lines and will show animations for a drift when going around corners. Watching the speedo is key to success because without a brake, you’ll need to work out when is the optimal time to let go of the accelerator to make it around the corners. It feels like there may be some grip and tyre warming physics, but I’m not entirely sure. The first lap of a circuit seems much slipperier than subsequent ones, as you start to push your luck going faster and faster, hoping you can make it around the bends. This in turn means you’ll place higher on the online leaderboard for each track, but also through Steam achievement time trial requirements, unlock new vehicles. They all handle the same, so it’s a cosmetic swap out, but at least it’s something as a reward for perseverance.
However, I’m not sure Little Laps has a physics engine or true grip mechanic at all, and if it does, it doesn’t match what is being shown on screen.
Hairpins can be taken faster than long radius corners, which seems baffling to me. There is no feathering of the throttle; it is all or nothing. That means if you floor it on the way out of a corner, you’ll spin off… but only sometimes. It doesn’t seem to match the speedometer for overarching speed, nor its corner angle. The player seems to need to hit a specific timing for each corner to be successful or stay out of trouble. The problem is, there is zero feedback from the game to help you understand any of this. I spent an hour flummoxed. It wasn’t until a comment on my review video articulated how I felt better than I did that it clicked in my brain what the problem was. Little Lap plays more like a quick time event game, but it doesn’t give you any of the prompts or visuals to tell you when to press the button. You have to work out and guess how the developer thinks, and when they think you might want to press the button. It undermines the entire experience.
Circling back to the opening paragraph, this game was built in around a month. A few days of product testing with real users would have pulled out all of these issues. I tried the game in Steam Racing Fest, and all of these problems existed in that demo. The only feedback on the Steam forums is asking for some kind of visual to understand the grip level. Perhaps because grip isn’t really being simulated here, that’s why nothing has been implemented.
For some, Little Laps will still be an enjoyable experience. I just couldn’t get into it. The inconsistent outcomes, constant guesswork, and back-to-front physics of hairpins versus wider curves and switchbacks confused me. If some context or tutorialisation were in place, maybe I could reorient myself to think how the developer wants us to think. Until then, I’ll be parking Little Laps as a missed opportunity.
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