When it comes to arcade style driving games one would expect to see them primarily dominate the console market. The trackmania series are probably the best exception to that rule as it's provides an endless amount of insane fun on a PC.
Trackmania is a developed by Europe based Nadeo and has had quite a few games in the past. Their last incarnation was Trackmania nations which was a free downloadable game.
Trackmania United combines all the best features from the series so far and combines them into one of the craziest racing games ever, as a matter of fact TMU is a combination of all previous Trackmania games in one game with extra features and improved graphics.
Everything has a very strong arcade feel about it, all the cars are fictional ranging from flashy open wheelers to streamlined hardtops and although you will quickly learn how each of them behave they are all diverse enough to provide a challenge when it comes to driving them.
The different landscapes where the tracks exist vary from tropical islands to futuristic cities, deserts landscapes and a rollercoaster style midair suspended track genre named stadium, it is all very much over the top but works very well.
There is no such thing as realism in this game as TMU doesn't take itself too seriously, the cars are indestructible even when hitting a wall at over 500Kph. The game is all about reflexes and precision at high speeds
The game is all about reflexes and precision at high speeds
, you will find that the challenge in racing at first is more about beating the track then your opponents.
The racing tracks is what the game is all about as they are filled with the challenges of different proportions. Gaping holes in the middle of the track big enough to fall through, pillars to zigzag between at high speeds, some sort of wind engines that catapult you towards the speed of sound and off course the jumps and loops. These jumps and loops are certainly the most enjoyable part of the game and make you feel as if you are riding a rollercoaster. They also provide some of the most satisfying visuals as the camera will frequently change view while your car is flying midair.
The feeling of height and speed is very entertaining indeed.
Although the game largely focuses on online gameplay you certainly have the ability to drive solo, you have an AI car to race against or your own ghosted car from the previous race. Although this adds a nice touch and ads to the desire to stay in front as mentioned earlier, the real challenge lies in actually finishing the track at all and preferably in multiplayer mode.
Depending on the time in which you managed to finish the track you acquire either bronze, silver or gold medals which then unlock the next gameplay modes and tracks for you.
None of these modes are particularly that much more difficult then others. They each have their own set of levels to unlock but the unlock system is rather pointless as it isn’t hard to unlock the levels, it just puts a certain amount of structure in your progression towards the more challenging tracks.
Despite it’s arcade genre TMU still remains a challenging game
Despite it’s arcade genre TMU still remains a challenging game
and you will find yourself repeating the tracks regularly in the hope of getting to the finish line
In addition to these modes there are some other modes like platform and puzzle. Platform has a strong focus on jumping from one part of the track to the next using ramps and loops, the aim is to get your speed and angle right in order to correctly make these jumps. Puzzle provides a gameplay mode where you start with basically a blank field and you have to reach the other side by creating your own track in the shortest amount of time. It basically is a track editor forced upon you in form of another mode of play. This particular one is something aimed at those who enjoy creating tracks.
Building your own tracks is however a very strong feature of TMU when it comes to online play where fans of the game have gone through massive lengths when it comes to adding to the already impressive selection of tracks.
And the most enjoyable part of TMU is it’s multiplayer component, jumping online is easy enough and given the massive fanbase there are always plenty of servers out there with custom tracks ranging from the insane to the very cleverly designed.
there are always plenty of servers out there with custom tracks ranging from the insane to the very cleverly designed.
Multiplayer has some neat features where you can grab replays of the track champions to see how they managed to do so well. And using manialink you can grab many other things like cars, skins, tracks etc. If you run out of challenges with the built in tracks you can download new community created ones and rate them yourself on a variety of features which in turn ensures that the best tracks make it to the top of the download chart.
Acquiring the above goodies relies on an ingame currency named coppers which you can obtain by doing things like setting good times in races, creating and uploading tracks.
The graphical quality is slightly improved from the Nations game with some better lighting effects but is largely of equal quality.
The stadium tracks look however a whole lot more polished then some of the other settings where the arcade style bright colored environments give a somewhat less real feel, given that the game is a combination of the previous games you can somewhat notice which tracks are part of the previous games, not that they are bad, there simply is some more repetition in the scenery buildings etc.
Sound quality is what you can expect from a racing game, there is some techno sounding background music as well which was driving me mental, strangely enough there was no menu option to disable it, thankfully a google search led me to a solution on how to get rid of the music.
Trackmania is a game that is aimed at casual gamers who enjoy racing without any expectation of any realism of any sort. If you just want a nice change from your daily involved gaming routines then Trackmania is certainly able to fill that gap. You quickly tend to say I'll have a quick play of this game for the next 10-15 minutes and find yourself still playing 2 hours later, it's an addictive adrenaline filled game and it's replay value is fairly endless.
For those who play racing games on xbox or playstation platforms I can only say that TMU beats any console racer that I have played so far. Not only that, TMU runs beautifully in high resolutions, with full AA making the graphics look very crisp indeed compared to any of it’s console based counterparts.
This game is not about ultra realistic graphics, nor does it try to simulate the experience of racing a real vehicle, but for those who like an arcade type racing game on their PC, TrackMania United ensures endless amounts of high speed entertainment.
The game is all about reflexes and precision at high speeds 
