Game - Trackmania Turbo

Release Date - March 22nd, 2016

Platform - Xbox One (reviewed), PS4

Developer/Publisher - Nadeo, Ubisoft

 

Trackmania Turbo is the newest arcade racer by Nadeo and Ubisoft. It's basically Micro Machines on steroids. Like any racer, you have the ability to play through a campaign while unlocking tracks as you go. In addition, there is an online component, local multi-player, personal track builder and garage. 

The campaign is huge. It features 200 total, individual races that are set up over 20 different sets of 10 tracks. The way the menus are organized provide an easy navigation option. You can choose to play solo (no ghost) or challenge the bronze, silver or gold time. If you choose a medal, the AI ghost races along side of you to give you guidance on how to drive. I suggest playing solo at first, because as long as you don't mess up too badly you should be able to get a bronze medal. "Dont mess up too badly" LOL. That is definitely easier said than done. The beauty of Trackmania Turbo, and it is beautiful, is also it's biggest pain in the ass. Playing with a ghost only messes you up psychologically, so I suggest you play solo at first and hope you get the best time. With so much variety present in the track layout and obstacle options, it's damn near impossible to get gold. Go off the track once. Finished. Roll over one time. Finished. I respected this though. Too often do arcade racers just go through the motions. Trackmania Turbo chose not to do that, however, and it's much better off for it. 

Luckily, you don't need gold or silver for that matter. As long as you get any medal, even bronze, you will be able to proceed to the next track. Each section requires you beat all 10 tracks in order to move to the next grouping. In each group, usually the 5th and 10th tracks require multiple laps. Now, I know what you're thinking. With 200 tracks it must take forever to beat this game. Not true. Each track is organized perfectly and lasts approximately 30-45 seconds with the multi-lap tracks totaling about 75 seconds or so. Once you get the hang of it you should be able to breeze through each group of 10 in about 10 minutes. Should you really crash, you can just respawn or pause and restart to save time. 

For those who wish a lot of fun, the campaign can also be played with two drivers. That's two players controlling one car. The two of us here that played, of course, decided it would be more fun at first to annoy the other. Basically, we'd turn left on right turns and the opposite of what we were supposed to do. You play through the same tracks in this adventure in teamwork. In theory it's teamwork, but in reality it's sadism. To be honest, the one of best parts of Trackmania Turbo is how creatively you can screw up and crash. 

Trackmania Turbo also lets you challenge other players around the world. You can create challenges in either one track or groups from any of your unlocked campaign races or created tracks. Just as the campaign, the game doesn't take any shortcuts and offers an immense variety to you. You can issue challenges in the way of 

•         a. track style - offroad, trial, concept, full throttle, stunts, random, various, race, tech, lol, full speed, platform
•        b. duration - normal, long, multilap, various, mini, short
•        c. stunt - yes or no

Now, here is the fun part. Any challenge you create has to be validated. To do this you'll need to beat your own challenge by passing through all checkpoints. Once validated, you can publish your challenge for everyone to see, and even challenge those on your friends list with a buddy challenge. Buddy challenges are good for a set amount of time of your own choosing and each friend will have to play within that time period. You can choose whether or not they see ghosts of other participants and how many chances each person gets to beat the challenge. Each chance provides "3 credits" to ascertain your best time. Two chances equals 6 credits and so on. Once you run out of tries, you can no longer participate in the challenge so you better hope you get the best time. Of course, if you like, you can train first to practice prior to racing for real. It's a fun time and really functions for bragging rights among friends.

Trackmania Turbo is also loaded with with gorgeous colors and even more incredible music. The bright, cartoon like background is loaded with funny product placements. You have Double Driver, Drift Hard 2 and Good Drift, all mocking the logos of Double Dragon, Die Hard 2 and Good Year tires. We lost count at about 20 or so, but they really make for fun conversation pieces. In the middle of nowhere, for  no reason, you'll find a floating donut covered with frosting and sprinkles as if they put a track through Cloud Cuckoo land from The LEGO Movie. As you play, you unlock new customization options for each of your five available vehicles. Paint jobs, colors, flag logos, race numbers can all be chosen from the menu. Every single in game song can also be listened to. The options for customization unlock as you play, so it's pretty much useless the first couple of hours until you earn some medals. 

As good as that sounds, the trackbuilder is even better. This is basically roller coaster tycoon with cars and it is amazing as it sounds. Trackmania Turbo's bread  and butter makes it easy for even newcomers to build a kick-ass, bad ass, entertaining race car track. They can be made within four separate locations and set during different parts of the day; Sunrise, day, sunset or night. It's incredibly easy to use and nothing is locked. Each part is available immediately and it doesn't require any experimentation. Your imagination is your own limitation whether it's a pure straight away or 17 loop-de-loops in a row. Even if you were never big into the creation part of games, you need to take the Trackbuilder for ride for the fun factor alone. 

The local multi-player offers an arcade mode and 4 player split screen. Nothing out of the ordinary, but the split screen gets crazy. It's hard enough to maneuver perfectly without crashing alone, but with 4 cars and a smaller screen it gets even more hectic.....and more fun.

The online servers were only up for several hours prior to review, but we did get enough time on them to see what it was about.  There are 6 modes you can play online consisting of; time attack, rounds, laps, and each of these with stunts. The stunts simply are tricks with loops or jumps opposed to not having them. Up to 64 racers can participate in any room but don't worry, they are all ghosts. After all, with even two cars on the track you'd never make it to the end let alone 64. The time attack is the most fun because it puts you on a track for 5 minutes and as many tries as you can get within that time. Your rankings are continually updated so if you get a faster time, you may still drop in rank if your opponents also get faster times. At the end of 5 minutes, your final ranking is tallied and you get points to increase your world rank. At all times your current rank updates in real time at the top of the screen. Laps and rounds consist of multiple tracks that add your times up as you go, with your final ranking being determined at the end.

The online is absolutely phenomenal and by far my favorite part of the game. Servers responded well and there was literally zero lag, which I found surprising with up to 64 racers in the room crashing all over the place. Even though you can't touch the other cars, it's funny to see all the drivers reacting as if you can. Not only is it a test of your driving skills, but also human psychology. Thinking the cars can touch you even when they can't plays a huge role in how well you drive and adds to the immense enjoyment online. 

There were some slight control issues present as well. Nothing too serious, but minor things stood out. Each of the vehicles has different control patterns, but they are all incredibly sensitive. Taking a jump with your car even slightly off center will send you flying. You'll be wobbling all over and almost immediately crash upon landing, or at least flip over. Many times the ramp you'll jump off of will be wider than your landing strip. Taking the jump from the edges will result in you landing off the track and have to respawn. This, of course, will make you lose time and the medal needed to move on. It's a slight pain in the ass because it's a crap shoot until you're in the air. Fortunately, the tracks are short as mentioned so you're only losing a few seconds. On the other hand, it was a bit frustrating to not know where you have to go until you get there.

Overall, Trackmania Turbo offers an exhilarating racing experience with arcade design yet realistic crashes. After all, if you fly off a track at 350 MPH in real life, you're not just going to pop back on. Even over 200 tracks, the game never felt stale or rehashed. It was continuously fresh and it speaks volumes that each of those 200 were completely different tracks. There is simply so much you can do in Trackmania Turbo that you'll want to play all 200 tracks "just to see what's next". I had just as much fun seeing how many different ways I could crash as I did seeing the setup of each, individual track. 

Fans of racing games will have hours of fun with Trackmania Turbo as it's the best arcade racer ever made. From the campaign to online challenges to Trackbuilder, Trackmania Turbo is a racing game for all types of racing fans. Whether you are a diehard simulator fan, arcade racer or mission type, Need for Speed type player, Trackmania Turbo has a little bit of something for everyone and is a must purchase in what is a nicely, well-rounded game that focuses on what it is supposed to be; Pure Fun. 

BOTTOM LINE