TL;DR, If you can get past the dead multiplayer, lack of overall single player content, and a very strange racing mechanic compared to the rest of the series, then you will uncover what could be one of the biggest hidden gems of the 8th generation. If your desire for team racing hasn't been satisfied since NFS Carbon 15 years ago, this definitely proves its worth...as soon as you get used to the mechanics.


I got this as a gift from a friend after it went on a 90% off sale for 4 bucks. For that price alone it's at the very least worth a try; much less worth a game that's genuinely fantastic once you get past the rather big learning curve.

TSR is one of those games you really, really can't get the hang of within the first hour of playing. It's important not to treat this like a normal racer or compare it to the previous entry in the series (Transformed) because the team mechanics play such a gigantic part in how well you do in races.

This is a racing game where...
-Racing Lines should be avoided
-NOT using items plays a big role
-Simultaneously impossibly hard yet completely fair (more on that later...)
-The non-story GP/Single Races might be the best part of it

When I first got into TSR my instincts were either to play it like Mario Kart (focus on items and drifting) which failed, to play it like an sim-arcade racer (focus on lines and boosting) which also failed, then proceeded to get frustrated on just how you play something like this. What changed everything was when I used the look back button and saw the trail you leave if you're ahead of your teammates. Instead of focusing on my lines I decided to try and race in a way that made it easy for them to follow you and gain boost. This COMPLETELY changed the game and it finally clicked in my head on how you really use your teammates in-game. When you race in gentle lines and try to be as straight as possible on the straightaways it allows your teammates to catch up and either skimboost off of you or increase your team meter which allows for a full team boost once full. Also giving your items away instead of using them ALSO has a gigantic impact where not only do you boost your team gauge even more but you then give them even better items than what you could have had solo. Of course, this also goes the other way where if you request an item they can give you a more powerful version of what theirs was too! After that clicked in my mind, it lead me to believe that...

If you learn how to use the team mechanics in this game, suddenly it becomes one of the most fun racers I've ever played.

Suddenly once-impossible races on the easiest mode became extremely easy, and the expert mode which I swore was AI cheating and completely impossible before suddenly became a rush every time I would play. Using teammates leveled the playing field where it is VERY hard to beat the opponents but losing feels fair and winning feels like a grand achievement. If you use your teammates to get out ahead at the beginning, save your team boost until the end, and CONSTANTLY give items to your teammates who have fallen behind, then this game absolutely becomes one of the hardest yet most rewarding games I've ever played.

Of course, there are two massive downsides to this game as well.

Once you get past the mechanics, there's not a lot here. The music's FANTASTIC, the levels are neat, and the character/car designs are good, but other than that the two biggest problems with this game are its meager content level and completely dead multiplayer. This game is BEGGING for a fleshed-out team multiplayer career or at the very least a team mode of sorts but all you can do is queue up for races online with or without friends and that isn't even mentioning how there's almost no one playing at any time. My best recommendation is to find a discord for this game (some are in the steam discussions page) if you really want to play online but otherwise it's just lacking. That's why I said earlier that the most fun you can get out of this is playing the GP or single races in the single player since the raw mechanics underneath those negatives are still sublime.

There is a genuinely good game here despite all that. If it got marketed better and online didn't die off, then I don't doubt that people would largely consider Transformed to be the inferior of the two. Unfortunately the reality is that, just like with games before it like GRID 2 or NFS ProStreet, if you introduce a new mechanic that takes time to learn then most people won't take the time to do it out of frustration and in turn self-cannabises the very online community that would have saved this game. I really hope that one day this game picks back up or sumo digital could somehow revive it, but as it stands this will be one of the hidden gems that just couldn't make it.

TSR is a great game that has cult classic written all over it. I'm sure that 10 years in the future we'll look back on this fondly but as it stands it's a great single player experience without much else going for it. If I had to give a numerical rating, this is a solid 9/10 and what could have been a 10/10 given a great online community.

[b] TL;DR, If you can get past the dead multiplayer, lack of overall single player content, and a very strange racing mechanic compared to the rest of the series, then you will uncover what could be one of the biggest hidden gems of the 8th generation. If your desire for team racing hasn't been satisfied since NFS Carbon 15 years ago, this definitely proves its worth...as soon as you get used to the mechanics. [/b] [h1] Criminally Underrated...once you understand the mechanics [/h1] I got this as a gift from a friend after it went on a 90% off sale for 4 bucks. For that price alone it's at the very least worth a try; much less worth a game that's genuinely fantastic once you get past the rather big learning curve. TSR is one of those games you really, really can't get the hang of within the first hour of playing. It's important not to treat this like a normal racer or compare it to the previous entry in the series (Transformed) because the team mechanics play such a gigantic part in how well you do in races. This is a racing game where... -Racing Lines should be avoided -NOT using items plays a big role -Simultaneously impossibly hard yet completely fair (more on that later...) -The non-story GP/Single Races might be the best part of it When I first got into TSR my instincts were either to play it like Mario Kart (focus on items and drifting) which failed, to play it like an sim-arcade racer (focus on lines and boosting) which also failed, then proceeded to get frustrated on just [i] how [/i] you play something like this. What changed everything was when I used the look back button and saw the trail you leave if you're ahead of your teammates. Instead of focusing on my lines I decided to try and race in a way that made it easy for them to follow you and gain boost. This COMPLETELY changed the game and it finally clicked in my head on how you really use your teammates in-game. When you race in gentle lines and try to be as straight as possible on the straightaways it allows your teammates to catch up and either skimboost off of you or increase your team meter which allows for a full team boost once full. Also giving your items away instead of using them ALSO has a gigantic impact where not only do you boost your team gauge even more but you then give them even better items than what you could have had solo. Of course, this also goes the other way where if you request an item they can give you a more powerful version of what theirs was too! After that clicked in my mind, it lead me to believe that... [b] If you learn how to use the team mechanics in this game, suddenly it becomes one of the most fun racers I've ever played. [/b] Suddenly once-impossible races on the easiest mode became extremely easy, and the expert mode which I swore was AI cheating and completely impossible before suddenly became a rush every time I would play. Using teammates leveled the playing field where it is VERY hard to beat the opponents but losing feels fair and winning feels like a grand achievement. If you use your teammates to get out ahead at the beginning, save your team boost until the end, and CONSTANTLY give items to your teammates who have fallen behind, then this game absolutely becomes one of the hardest yet most rewarding games I've ever played. Of course, there are two massive downsides to this game as well. Once you get past the mechanics, there's not a lot here. The music's FANTASTIC, the levels are neat, and the character/car designs are good, but other than that the two biggest problems with this game are its meager content level and completely dead multiplayer. This game is BEGGING for a fleshed-out team multiplayer career or at the very least a team mode of sorts but all you can do is queue up for races online with or without friends and that isn't even mentioning how there's almost no one playing at any time. My best recommendation is to find a discord for this game (some are in the steam discussions page) if you really want to play online but otherwise it's just lacking. That's why I said earlier that the most fun you can get out of this is playing the GP or single races in the single player since the raw mechanics underneath those negatives are still sublime. There is a genuinely good game here despite all that. If it got marketed better and online didn't die off, then I don't doubt that people would largely consider Transformed to be the inferior of the two. Unfortunately the reality is that, just like with games before it like GRID 2 or NFS ProStreet, if you introduce a new mechanic that takes time to learn then most people won't take the time to do it out of frustration and in turn self-cannabises the very online community that would have saved this game. I really hope that one day this game picks back up or sumo digital could somehow revive it, but as it stands this will be one of the hidden gems that just couldn't make it. TSR is a great game that has cult classic written all over it. I'm sure that 10 years in the future we'll look back on this fondly but as it stands it's a great single player experience without much else going for it. If I had to give a numerical rating, this is a solid 9/10 and what could have been a 10/10 given a great online community.