On Reflection

What we really wanted was a Mega Drive version of Micro Machines, but, like receiving a sock at Christmas instead of a 360, what we got instead was this wad of purified averageness. If you want to race little toy cars around little toy tracks, wait for GripShift. We’ve played it and it’s (shhh… don’t tell anyone) rather good.

The Score

Starting from a base point of feeling cheap, this pocket racer continues to lift ideas from its peers liberally, and without shame. In terms of feel, the whole thing reminds us of desperate Dreamcast title Toy Racer, handed out for a budget price of five pounds in the year 2000 as an accessible entry point into online gaming. Unfortunately, this makes Mad Tracks two quid too expensive, seven years late, and lacking the ‘aw’ factor of its predecessor’s donation to charity per copy sold.

The challenge is divided roughly halfway between regular racing action, and a series of wacky™ party games. These include driving your dinky car from a ramp onto a target (à la FlatOut), playing football as part of a two-vehicle team (à la Street Racer) and collecting objects strewn around the environment (à la every game ever made). Although there’s extensive multiplayer support both on Live and off, such silliness quickly gets old (and isn’t exactly immune from cheating, either). What’s more, there’s no option to customise controls and only three environments, with two thirds of the final game yet to come through downloadable add-ons (a fact crassly advertised by the game’s menu). This simply isn’t fit to clean the hubcaps of the Micro Machines conversion we all crave, and will feel like a losing episode of Bullseye for anyone taking a speculative punt. Avoid.

5 out of 10