Trackmania is a relatively new series of racing titles, with all previous iterations coming on the PC. Now you can get your arcade-style racing fix on the go with Trackmania DS. At first, I was concerned that Trackmania wouldn’t translate well to the DS, but as soon as I started playing, all doubt was cast aside.
The gameplay revolves around short, frenzied tracks, often with big jumps and the occasional loop. There are a few things you can do when you start. Going to solo mode allows you to choose Race or Quick race, with Platform, Puzzle, and Custom modes are grayed out. You can go to the editor and create your own crazy tracks. There is a local wireless multiplayer mode, as well as a shop where you can buy new skins for your cars, new pieces to use in the editor, and new tracks to race on.
In solo race mode, there are 5 difficulties ranging from Practice to Extreme, with Practice being the only available selection to start out.
Under each difficulty, there are 3 environments, each with their own cars. The Stadium environment has you racing an F-1 style car with excellent top speed, but the handling leaves a bit to be desired. The Desert environment has you in a boxy, 4-wheel drive car that turns pretty well, drives decently on dirt and grass, and can go pretty fast. The Rally environment, my personal favorite, puts you in (surprise) a rally car, with amazing acceleration and the ability to turn on a dime, driving almost the same on-road and off-road.
Once you pick your difficulty and environment you are faced with 5 races, 4 of which are selectable, the 5th being the tracks you must buy from the shop. Then, you pick who you want to race against, the gold, silver, and bronze medal winners. You are really only racing against their time, and they won’t interfere with you, they’re basically ghosts and racing with them is entirely optional, but recommended because until you know the track by heart, you can watch the ghost to see where you need to turn next. Depending on your time and what cars you beat, you will be awarded coppers, the form of currency for the shop.
There is a ton to do in this game between beating all the courses and making your own courses and perfecting them. The only gripes I have with the game are that the physics get a little messed up at times causing you to get stuck, go through floors, etc., but it doesn’t happen all that often to ruin the game, the camera often gets messed up when you go through loops if you’re in third-person view, due to the game automatically switching to first-person view once you’re inside the loop, and my biggest complaint is the lack of wi-fi features. It would have been great to race against people online, but the worst part about no wi-fi is, if you’re lazy like me and don’t want to create your own awesome tracks, you can’t go download other people’s tracks.
The flaws mentioned above keep the game from being the perfect racing experience on the DS since Mario Kart, but Trackmania is still a solid game that will provide you with hours of fun.
7.5/10
The gameplay revolves around short, frenzied tracks, often with big jumps and the occasional loop. There are a few things you can do when you start. Going to solo mode allows you to choose Race or Quick race, with Platform, Puzzle, and Custom modes are grayed out. You can go to the editor and create your own crazy tracks. There is a local wireless multiplayer mode, as well as a shop where you can buy new skins for your cars, new pieces to use in the editor, and new tracks to race on.
In solo race mode, there are 5 difficulties ranging from Practice to Extreme, with Practice being the only available selection to start out.
Under each difficulty, there are 3 environments, each with their own cars. The Stadium environment has you racing an F-1 style car with excellent top speed, but the handling leaves a bit to be desired. The Desert environment has you in a boxy, 4-wheel drive car that turns pretty well, drives decently on dirt and grass, and can go pretty fast. The Rally environment, my personal favorite, puts you in (surprise) a rally car, with amazing acceleration and the ability to turn on a dime, driving almost the same on-road and off-road.
Once you pick your difficulty and environment you are faced with 5 races, 4 of which are selectable, the 5th being the tracks you must buy from the shop. Then, you pick who you want to race against, the gold, silver, and bronze medal winners. You are really only racing against their time, and they won’t interfere with you, they’re basically ghosts and racing with them is entirely optional, but recommended because until you know the track by heart, you can watch the ghost to see where you need to turn next. Depending on your time and what cars you beat, you will be awarded coppers, the form of currency for the shop.
There is a ton to do in this game between beating all the courses and making your own courses and perfecting them. The only gripes I have with the game are that the physics get a little messed up at times causing you to get stuck, go through floors, etc., but it doesn’t happen all that often to ruin the game, the camera often gets messed up when you go through loops if you’re in third-person view, due to the game automatically switching to first-person view once you’re inside the loop, and my biggest complaint is the lack of wi-fi features. It would have been great to race against people online, but the worst part about no wi-fi is, if you’re lazy like me and don’t want to create your own awesome tracks, you can’t go download other people’s tracks.
The flaws mentioned above keep the game from being the perfect racing experience on the DS since Mario Kart, but Trackmania is still a solid game that will provide you with hours of fun.
7.5/10
