Introduction
Living life in the fast lane with TrackMania Sunrise
One of last years hidden gems was TrackMania, an out and out arcade racer which, for me, tipped a nod to the MicroMachines series as well as doffing it’s cap to other contemporary racers like NFS:U and the like, even the superb Stunt Car Racer on the Amiga.
The basic idea was to drive like an absolute loon around some of the most improbable tracks ever designed, flinging your car over ramps, half-pipes and loops, down into tunnels and across accelerator pads before being flung across vast gaps in a bid to cross the line first. A few people scoffed at its simplistic gameplay, but Digital Jesters had done away with all that tosh of dozens of keys to learn… all you needed was the four direction keys and the ‘reset car’ key and you were off.
As a pick up and play racer, nothing could beat it, and it had that ‘one more go’ quality to make you come back and do old races again. In some places the racing could be devilishly hard, especially as your AI opponents made few mistakes and never seemed to fall off the track as often as you did, unless that was me just being cack… But overall, TrackMania was a fun and easily playable way to pass time… even if it was a bit shallow.
Now, DJ are back with TrackMania Sunrise and this time round there’s plenty more to do. The basic gameplay remains un-altered (why fix it if it ain’t broke?) but DJ have added a few totally new parts to the game, so this is more than just a sequel (sequels, as we all know, are usually more like dressed up add-on packs). With Sunrise you get two new single player modes, customisable car skins and avatars and an integrated P2P function to share your work with others.