Mad Tracks

Mad Tracks was a relative success on Xbox 360 as a downloadable release from Load Inc. It was a simple to control racer which saw miniature cars shoot around often rollercoaster-like tracks in a myriad of locations.

Namco Bandai have grabbed the rights to bring it to iOS and their version manages to capture much of the original's appeal, albeit with a few caveats.

The game is largely governed by Mad Points (or MP) to unlock content such as cars, tracks and additional item packs to choose your own path through the twelve levels on offer. MP is gained with every completed race, your finishing position and the difficulty you played the level at determining just how many you'll receive.

Additional one-off bonuses are conferred upon the completion of set achievements, such as overtaking all competitors at once with a single boost.

You can... nay, you must repeat courses for points after you beat them the first time, as the reward for victory is minimal compared to the cost of purchasing another course or new collection of cars.

Grinding through the Championship mode is a real drag in the title's opening hour, the willingness to continue slowly draining when you realise you've raced on the exact same course ten times to get access to a stable of motors that handle very similarly to the original ones you started out with. Naturally you can buy more MP with cold hard cash but for those that want to keep things cheap, it's a bit of a slog.

Circuit racing isn't the only thing you'll be doing though; there's ironically a lot of variation to Mad Tracks' content, even if you have to do it over and over and over again.

There are arena based item collection competitions, single lap affairs that stretch for an age, nearest-to-the-pin ski jumps and more to be found, each requiring a slightly different set of skills on top of the basic ability to turn and accelerate.

Which is really all you'll need to know how to do. Controls default to a completely workable tap left, tap right, tap go, ignore brake set up. The tilt functionality is a little sensitive for some of the precise lines you'll need to take, but the virtual thumb stick option provides a decent alternative if you'd rather glide along the phone's glass than poke at it.

You'll pick up items on the courses too which confer weapons like rockets, a freeze ray and an oil slick. These assign to the screen as individual pick-ups that stack in quantities by time obtained, ensuring that, should you need to use the time warping item, you'll need to dart your eyes from the action to see what you're selecting to avoid using a boost.

This item aspect of the offering feels weak in comparison to the pure racing experience, which feels much like a good impression of a pint-sized TrackMania.

The (currently underpopulated) competitive multiplayer is a nice addition to the package, allowing for up to four racers to compete at once either locally or online. It's still the same tracks but it's lag-free and the addition of human opponents makes for a refreshing change from the robotic efficiency of the AI. You can earn MP here too, so it's definitely worth players investigating.

It's not a bad looking game, the frame rate holds steady for the most part, the car models feel chunky though not distinctive, the tracks wind and loop through the detailed environments.

There's little in the way of polish though: no shine to the metal of the cars, lacklustre explosions from missiles and so on. The audio is equally underwhelming, there's nothing memorable here in terms of soundtrack, engine sounds are mediocre.

It's like a cheese sandwich made with economy priced bread but premium cheddar. At its centre is substance at a reasonably high quality, though its nothing massively special in and of itself.

However its surroundings are less than ideal and a smidge off-putting: it doesn't look that appealing and bits of it taste increasingly cheap when you consume them quantity.