If you’re into PC gaming that isn’t strategy, shooters or World of Warcraft, you’ve probably heard of TrackMania. It’s the super-speedy, super-accessible racer where you make your own fun, and as with its big brother, the more you put into the little DS version, the more you’ll get out of it.

There are three game modes which basically involve zipping around the twisty, loopy courses as quickly as possible in a car with the skittish handling of a radio-controlled toy. You’ll fall off the edges a lot because it’s incredibly fast and the vehicles don’t always turn as sharply as you want them to, but you can be back on the course within a fraction of a second simply by hitting the reset button.

Removing the consequences of crashing means you can zoom around with impunity, but it’s much more satisfying when you learn the tracks properly and stop wiping out every few seconds. There’s also a complicated track editor where we made some excellent tracks that gave us the best feeling of videogame vertigo since Stunt Car Racer on the Amiga. If you have a few mates to share and race with, there’s a lot of value to be had from this package.

Nov 17, 2008