Trackminia
Every time you start up a new racing game, you must first learn the feel of it. RowBot Rally feels different than P-Racing, which feels different than Trackminia, which feels different than Midnight Drift ‘86. Each asks something different from you and offers you something different in return, as well. Trackminia (no relation to Trackmania, although very inspired by it) is a drift-heavy racing game where you can make your own tracks! And you can share/download those tracks with others! Plus, it looks and sounds really neat.
First of all, it’s a 3D racing game on a console that doesn’t really seem like it should be able to handle it. The soundtrack is bangin’, and the full-screen dithering effects and three-dimensional third-person driving action really puts it in a league with just itself and P-Racing. But there’s a DIY-ness to the whole thing that P-Racing lacks.
Trackminia has a campaign of 24 tracks, each with an online leaderboard. The game has ghosts for you to race against to copy strategies, and each is at the next medal-level. Like, beat this one to get silver, and beat this other one to get gold. You’ll spend a lot of your first run through the campaign bouncing and sliding off walls – it took me quite a while to get the hang of the drifting. But you can feel yourself slowly improving and getting a feel for the car as you shave milliseconds off your times. For me, I get happy when I’m able to drift through a turn without the assistance of the wall! I’m getting better. Luckily, there’s no car damage.
After you’ve exhausted the main campaign levels, it’s time to make your own! The track editor has been simplified to work with the limited amount of Playdate buttons well, and it’s easy to finish building a track of your own. However, it can be difficult to make one that really stands out. I’m constantly in awe of some of the things that have been made in the Trials or Tony Hawk level editors, and I’m sure that some amazing things could be made here! One thing it’s missing compared to the full-sized Trackmania games, though, is the loops and jumps and really wild bits. This is a strictly flat course. However, the customizability means you can make Gran Turismo-quality courses if you have the time, patience, and creativity. After you make your own course, just run it a few times to set some lap times to beat and you’re good to go.
If you’re into making your own courses, or love trying to get the slightest time improvement on a global leaderboard, or just want to see some really cool graphics on our favorite little cheese slice, Trackminia might be exactly what you’re looking for. There are more cars and secrets to unlock when you do well, too! But I like to stick with the secret one… it’s silly and it’s my favorite.
(Released January 28, 2025, on Catalog. Upload your own tracks via USB here.)