There are two types of racing games out there- realistic racers that lean more towards the simulation/pin-point accuracy end of things, and arcade racers. It’s the difference between Forza and Crusing USA. Arcade racers tend to play it fast and loose when it comes to physics and realism, choosing instead to focus on intensity and the overall fun-factor of its game play. There’s no right or wrong answer, and while there are those who appreciate both, most players tend to fall on one side of the debate or the other. For me, I tend to prefer arcade racers.
Personally, it’s always come down to three different series- Wipeout, Burnout… and Trackmania. Each have their own strengths, but where Trackmania excels is in its compelling “one more round” style of game play. Since it’s built around time scores and incremental improvement, once you’re dropped into an open track with a 5-minute limit, the loop becomes “how many seconds can I shave off of my last lap?”
I loved how weird and impenetrable the other releases in the series were. Nothing made sense; everything was run on private servers, there were numbers and charts all over the screen, there were dozens (if not hundreds) of other players on the same track at any given time, and it was just fun and loose in a way I hadn’t seen done by a racing title in years.
So, for those new to Trackmania, Turbo is a game built specifically for you. With the funding and polishing that an Ubisoft publishing contract brings, Nadeo presents something that may not be as blissfully crazy as past entries in the series, but still retains all the fun.
It’s easiest to break it down like this… Trackmania Turbo is the spectacle of Mario Kart paired with the white-knuckle racing of Burnout, and the insanely fast speeds and tightly contained feel of Wipeout. It’s not so much about racing against others as it is racing against yourself. Everything is time, and how to bring your runs down incrementally little by little.
An added single-player mode helps Turbo feel like a proper console release. Over the course of 200 individual races, you’ll learn the ins and outs of Trackmania. By the time you reach the end of them, you’ll be ready to drop into the proper mode of the game, which is online.
Picking from hundreds of user-created tracks, you will get to experience the twists and turns presented with dozens of other ghost-players simultaneously as you work on your score. Seeing as they’re all stored on dedicated servers, there are limits to what Turbo can accomplish when compared to its ancestors, but Nadeo still manages to encapsulate everything good about the series. You’ll also have the ability to generate and upload your own tracks, a feature that is fairly robust and in line with previous versions. I’ve only just begun to dabble, but trust that I’ll be uploading plenty in the near future.
I’m sure it’s plain to see just how much I enjoy this game. I had several concerns heading into it, given how much I enjoyed the older titles. Fortunately, Nadeo and Ubisoft delivered the goods. If you’re into fun, off-the-wall racing games that you can’t put down, Trackmania Turbo is for you.
