So what's new?
The basic premise of the game remains the same… fling your vehicle around race tracks featuring completely OTT jumps, ramps and pipes and cross the finish line first. That’s in the race mode… but there’s more than one way to skin a cat… or in this case, wreck a car.
In addition to the standard ‘get to the finish line fastest’ type race, there are puzzle and platform modes too. The platform mode sees you merely having to complete the course with as few car resets as possible. Certainly, at places in the platform tracks you’ll need a lead foot, but that can also work against you too. A little thinking is needed to get round these with as few resets as possible… a combination of skill and brains goes a long way… which probably why I got stuck on level three…
If the platform section stumps you, then the puzzle area will really have you scratching your head. Very cleverly, DJ have used the map editor and actually incorporated its use into the game. What happens here is you are given a limited amount of the tiles used to make a map, and have to figure out the best way to use them to get from the start point to the finish line. It might be you have 30 straight sections and four curves… but then you have to climb a gradient with speed boost arrows going the opposite way… it’s up to you to figure out how best to build your speed up before you hit the speed boosters… tricky, very tricky.
All in all, TrackMania Sunrise is shaping up very nicely. There’s a whole load more in here than the original, although it still retains its pick up and play appeal. There’s now more here than the mindless but fun arcade racing and if anything, the stunts and speeds are even more outlandish. The AI cars could do with a bit of work as the code I played still had them being able to corner on rails, its annoying to have them go screaming past on the outside when you’re already on the racing line. Otherwise, this is looking very nice and certainly one that I’ll be losing some more quality time to.
