Mad Tracks Trial Impressions

This weeks Xbox Live Arcade offering is "Mad Tracks" for 800 Microsoft points. It's a racing game in the "Micro Machines" mold, i.e. small toy cars racing around various environments. I've only tried the trial game but I thought I'd give my brief impressions so far.

The game offers up a couple of modes, both "arcade" and "adventure" with a number of different styles of racing within them. The trial only offers a couple of styles so it's quite hard to decide how much fun all of them will be. The two on offer include "Blackout", a straight 3 lap race around a circuit in what looks to be a bar. And "Beastie Balls", a bowl arena format where you have to avoid been tagged by spawning rubber balls (last car standing wins). Of the two I preferred the straight racing and I didn't find the arena that enjoyable.

As you're powering around the track you'll be able to collect upgrades ranging from homing missiles to oil slicks to help you get the better of your opponents. The power ups are stackable so you can add to your stash of rockets if you so desire and you can also switch between power-ups.

Unfortunately your little car runs on a spring, and as your driving around this slowly unwinds and you have to remember to take your finger off the accelerator to allow the spring to wind-up before it's too late and you come to a grinding stop. This can be a bit frustrating at first until you become accustomed to managing the spring and releasing the accelerator during tight turns or on jumps.

The graphics on the racing circuit "Blackout" were pretty good, but for me the arena was just a bit too dull.

The full game is playable over Xbox Live, and with some friends this may be quite an enjoyable little game. However, I wasn't too enamoured with the single player trail version and I doubt I'll be getting my racing fix here.