DS Review: TrackMania DS
Released: March 17th, 2009 (US) / November 14th, 2008 (EU)
Developer: Firebrand Games
Publisher: Atlus (US), Focus Home Interactive (EU)
Genre: Racing
Pros: Plethora of Tracks, easy to pull out at for a quick stint or a long haul, easy to learn track editor, pure unadulterated fun.
Cons: Repetition of tracks won’t appeal to everyone.
For me, TrackMania has always been a bastion for the old school racers. Gone are the objectives of scoring as many points in stunts as possible, and going head to head in races where you try to thrash each other off the track, and try to block each other off. TrackMania, on the PC at least, has only been about two things: How quick you do the track, and how many retries it takes for you to complete the track.
And thankfully, the DS version retains these things.
The game plays homage to it’s predecessors perfectly, having played a few versions of TrackMania previously, as well as the free version that was on the Steam network. The aim of the game, as I said before, is simple; get from A to B as quick as you can, and with as few restarts as possible. But the real beauty, is that you cannot crash into your friends, as each car you face is a Ghost Car, representing the exact time it took for that car to complete the track. Each track has Bronze, Silver, Gold and ‘Firebrand’ (think of it as Platinum) medals, which each in turn earn you credits. With these, you can buy tracks, skins for your car, and new bits of track for the Track Editor. There are three different race categories; Stadium, Desert and Rally. Each of the cars you drive have varying characteristics. As an example of this, your Stadium car will accelerate quickly, and no doubt has the highest top speed, but can’t turn into corners very well at full pelt, and therefore you have to slow down. The Rally car, however, is relatively slow to accelerate, and due to the track design you rarely notice a top speed, yet you can slide your car easily and do turns that would be otherwise impossible to do in the Stadium car. It’s this variation that begins to show just how much depth, and how much content is available in this game.
There are different modes, as well. The modes are Race (get from A to B before your rivals do), Platform (get from A to B in as few tries as possible, dodging the plentiful hazards along the way), and Puzzle (get from A to B, in as little time as possible, using track pieces to create your own way). The last one of these is the one I find most ingenious, as I haven’t seen a Track Editor of this quality outside of the TrackMania series since Re-Volt.
Each mode has the three race categories, and each category has five different difficulties, and each difficulty within each mode, has five different tracks. Most of these you unlock as you go through the game, but some you have to use your credits for, in order to ‘purchase’ using you well-deserved rewards, and some require you to fulfil objectives in other modes, or using other tools in the game. Luckily, you are plainly told what these objectives are, so there is no confusion and no frustration at not being able to unlock Track X despite how a friend has told you to do Action Y. So without making a single track (outside of Puzzle mode), you’re looking at two hundred and twenty five tracks. Granted, most of these will only last around a minute, but since you’re looking at about five tries per track in order to get used to the corners and remember where to accelerate and brake, you’re looking at about eighteen and a half hours, and that’s with a steady mastering of the controls and tracks in line with the difficulty. So already, you’re looking at a lot of mileage for your moolah.
But this is only the beginning. As I said previously, there is a Track Editor available, which you learn to master through Puzzle Mode. Here, your imagination and the limits of the physics of the car you make it for are your only limitations. Want a chicane? Two corner pieces will fit that. Want someone to to go faster through a bend? Force them to with a booster straight. It really is entirely up to you what you do, and how advanced the tracks are. You can test them from any point, and can also set the trial times, should the computer get them wrong. I found myself making a simple track within five minutes after a few levels of the Puzzle Mode, so it wouldn’t really require that much of a leap of competance with the Editor to make a track that will really test a player. The only problem I had was rotating the map, being left-handed. I couldn’t find the option to change it, but this really was a minor problem, and required only a slight repositioning of my hand in order to do it. And in the editor, where time is obviously not of the essence, this is a very minor issue.
However, where this game falls down is the Multiplayer, or lack thereof. It’s a great game for where there are more players than DSes, as it has a ‘Hot Seat’ option, something that I haven’t seen in quite some time. This allows each person to take a turn, and then stack their own times against each other. You have the standard Single-Card Play, and Multi-Card Play, but what was sorely missed was a WFC connection. There is no online mutliplayer, and it is a missed opportunity. For a game that focusses on Time Trials as a method of racing, rather than simultaneous presence on the same track (ie with collisions and other such mishaps), it would be a perfect addition as the amount of lag would be irrelevant; all that would matter would be the figures at the end.
Technically, in my opinion, the game is sound. The graphics look simple, and because of that, the framerate is smooth; very smooth. And in a game that requires you to find the perfect point to brake, accelerate and turn, the framerate is a big component of you being able to find that perfect apex. The times that you actually race have very little HUD involvement, to boot. I myself just looked at the car, and then the turn ahead of me. I noticed my speed, and obviously my times when I passed through a checkpoint, but ultimately it’s a very clean experience compared to what it could have been, had it had a speedo, a gear ndication (there are no gears, by the way; I’m just making a point), and your rev limiter; it would get very cluttered. The bottom screen is only for the relevant times, and for menu selection.
The sound is solid, and uses the speakers perfectly; I could guess how close someone was behind me, and what race angle they were about to take, something I found a lot harder to do on other racing games for the DS. The soundtrack fits in with the TrackMania feel without a problem, although obviously you do not notice it that much when you’re actually playing the game.
The controls felt great, and once again reminded me of old school PC racing, where you tapped the arrow keys repeatedly to make a light turn. Firebrand could’ve made a virtual steering wheel to give gradual control, but I’m glad they didn’t. The only issue I had with the controls was with the Editor, something that was a minor problem, and ultimately didn’t distract me from the enjoyment of the game itself.
Overall, this game is a must-have for pretty much anyone that can even remotely tolerate the racing genre. With quick tracks and many modes, it is hard to put this game down. The editor allows for endless possibilities (within the constraints of the editing area), and the constant urge to do better is always present. I have my favourite tracks, and even though I have the Firebrand medals in them, I still find myself going around them because they are simply so much fun, and so quick to play.
I would even go so far to say that this is THE racing game you want this year.
.jpg)