NerdMentality | REVIEW: Trackmania DS

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REVIEW: Trackmania DS

Posted March 26th 2009 by Derrick Lutz.

The Trackmania series has been trucking along on the PC for years. It's known for its arcadey racing gameplay and crazy tracks with boosts, jumps, and loops; and possibly best known for this video of 1,000 cars simultaneously racing. You shouldn't expect to see anything like that in this DS version, but in this review I'll let you know how well they translated the basic gameplay as well as describe what Trackmania is all about.

First of all, Trackmania is a game that is heavy on trial-and-error. Most of the tracks will require you to retry them three or four times minimum before you even finish the first time. You kind of have to memorize their layouts, more so than in most racing games. It's painless once you get used to it, but it can be discouraging at first.

The bulk of the DS game is the three single-player modes: Race, Platform, and Puzzle. In Race mode you are racing against the clock. There are pre-set times for Bronze, Silver, and Gold, and you can see the ghosts of the cars getting those times as you play. In Platform mode the goal is simply to get to the finish line without falling off the track. There are a lot of crazy jumps and traps, so you will inevitably fall off. Still, there's a retry button that takes you back to the most recent checkpoint and medals are awarded based on how many retries you use in the process of finishing. In Puzzle mode, you are given a specific number of track pieces to finish building an incomplete track. There are often numerous ways you can do that, but you have to build it in a way that can be quickly finished because your time racing the finished track determines your winnings.

To add further variety, there are three track and car types. There's Stadium, where you race an F1-style car with good grip and a wide turning radius around generally smooth road-like surfaces inside a stadium; Desert, where you drive a twitchy top-heavy stock car around desert-themed dirt tracks; and Rally, where the tracks are oddly castle-themed and your rally car oversteers and drifts around corners.

The game comes with more than 100 tracks, but in addition to that you can also build your own from scratch. Thanks to the touch screen, building them is pretty easy. You can draw directly on the ground to create a basic track, and you can drag-and-drop more specific pieces from the toolbar. You can immediately jump in and test the track at any time (as long as there are start and finish pieces placed). It's fun, but it's just too bad there's no way to share them online.

Speaking of lacking online features, there is no online multiplayer or even leaderboards in this game. It's a shame because this is a game where lag is not a factor; it's about individually setting the best time rather than battling it out on the track. Local multiplayer racing, however, is supported, with hotseat, single-card, and multi-card modes. The Stadium races are available in single-card mode, and if everyone has a copy of the game then every type of race track (including user-designed tracks) is available for multiplayer.

The progression of the single-player game is mostly straightforward; completing events unlocks subsequent events. But additional tracks, as well as different car skins and track building blocks, can be purchased with the game's currency, referred to as Coppers. Coppers are earned by winning Bronze, Silver, or Gold awards. As you might expect, you earn more Coppers depending on the medal awarded. It feels kind of forced, like they think you need that motivation to earn Gold medals. I can't deny that I like earning points that I can later use to buy things, but it's silly; why should I be forced to play through the developer-built tracks to get all the pieces needed to make cool custom tracks?

Closing Comments

I've been a fan of the Trackmania games on the PC for years. The competitive online modes combined with the wild variety in the user-designed tracks kept it fun for far longer than the basic gameplay would normally sustain. This DS version has that basic gameplay pretty much nailed. The catch is there is no online functionality; you can only share custom track designs and compete locally. In a way this is just a reminder of the point of handheld gaming. Of course it's technically possible to add online features to DS games, but that's not really what handheld games do best. If you want a game that gives you a quick taste of Trackmania on the go, Trackmania DS absolutely provides that. If you want a full-featured game that will provide endless hours of entertainment, I don't know why you're looking for it on the DS.

Tags: Nintendo-DS, Trackmania