You might not have heard of Trackmania before but its been going for quite some time on PC. In a world of wild-west servers and mods, Trackmania garnered cult fandom due to the absolute weirdness of it all – it felt lawless. It was all part of the "Mania Planet" that included a competitive FPS called Shootmania Storm and a never released "QuestMania". Trackmania Turbo distills the arcade action and contains it in a closed and fun foundation that's incredibly hard to put down.
Developed by Nadeo and out now on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, Trackmania Turbo is all about crazy driving on insane tracks. It's honestly a rather simplistic affair. The game is rather limited in the sense that it all comes down to time trials but it's the all encompassing aspects that make it such a joy to actually play.
There are over 200 tracks here across four different locations. Each track only takes from a dozen or so seconds to a couple of minutes and the design of these tracks are what will keep things interesting. No track is really too difficult to complete but what will keep you invested is improving your time to earn gold or even mastering the track. Everything feels so impressively smooth, something akin to the best arcade racers have to offer. The game is spread across four different locations and each location features a different car to control. Each car feels different and with different styles of tracks and each area has its own personality and track design leading to different styles that is all done really well.
The game feels so easy to pick up and play and honestly I loved playing every new track just as much as I loved replaying the same track over and over again to improve my score, even if it was by just hundreds of seconds. The gameplay is so satisfying that whether you're trying to improve your time or just seeing all the tracks the game has to offer chances are you'll be having an incredible time doing so either way. If the tracks the game has at its disposal isn't enough for you, the game also allows you to create your own tracks. While the system isn’t perfect it's still more than good enough to possibly extend the longevity of the game for many months to come. I can only guess that as long as a community jumps on the tools available, we could have some insane and fun tracks to try out every week.
Visually, the game is both rather simplistic but quite beautiful. Each of the four different locations look equally great and distinctive. The game is also technically impressive in that the game consistently runs at 60 frames a second no matter what is thrown at it. This smooth frame rate enhances the gameplay experience with the extremely smooth gameplay feeling even better. Sometimes simplicity is bliss and Trackmania Turbo is just that. There's no direct competitive mode but as you're all striving for the best time that's always so much fun to be a part of. It looks and plays so smoothly that makes it incredibly tough to put down. If you love old-school action racing, Trackmania Turbo is a perfect fit that might have an exciting future ahead.
Keeps the fun right on track. 4/5.
★★★★☆
Jason Redmond
Trackmania Turbo at CeX
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