A Night at the Arcade: Mad Tracks

I find myself once again brimming with articles to write and doing my regular XBLA feature has never seemed like such a chore. It hasn't helped that this week's Arcade release is Mad Tracks.

Massage the jump link for my impressions of this arcade diversion...

Mad Tracks is a cute kiddy racer based on toy cars, not unlike the Matchbox and Hot Wheels kind that you remember from your hazy, half-forgotten childhood. Fittingly, the control mechanics and car physics are very basic and developer Load Inc. has implemented various game modes and features that elevate the game beyond a simple race to a finish line.

I wasn't incredibly impressed with what I saw in the trial version of Mad Tracks and I think that has more to do with the bare-bones trial itself than the spirit behind the game. There wasn't enough in the trial to really hook me into paying 800 MS points. It's fun to drive these toy cars around the inclusion of weapons harkens back to the venerable Mario Kart games on the SNES and N64. Unfortunately, there was only 1 type of weapon available on the 1 available racetrack in the trial version. This is the homing missile, a kick-ass weapon to have in this kind of racer, until you've raced a lap and realize every weapon pick-up is a homing missile. Perhaps this was an idiosyncrasy specific to the trial or that particular racetrack.

Ah, but the pre-exit sales pitch does promise "12 funky pick ups and power ups" in the full version of the game. That's great, Load Inc.. Might I suggest you make a few more of those available in your trial product in order to, you know, entice me into buying the game? The all-homing-missile racetrack became empty and tiresome after the 2nd lap. To be fair, the game does have bright, attractive graphics going for it and a great sense of fun. Oh, and what humour. If you read their sales blurb closely, you'll even learn that another benefit to buying the game is the "satisfaction of getting a genuine cool game".

I kid you not. Fire up the trial and see for yourself. As for determining whether Mad Tracks is that genuine cool game that I've been waiting for all my life, the jury is still out because the trial doesn't compel me to give a damn.