TrackMania United's outstanding core mechanics and incredible community make it one of the best arcade racers ever made.
Who would have thought that a PC game-in which driving is done entirely with the four arrow keys-would be the one to nail this feel to a level of perfection no console game has reached since PGR4? And not only that, but that it would also extend an olive branch to the drifting half of the arcade-racer market, all while providing some of the most incredible multiplayer competition a racing game has ever had? TrackMania United is that game.
The racing in TrackMania is simple: set the best time. You're given the same car as everyone else and a short stretch of road to cover. Most tracks take less than a minute to run. This does not make things easier; you'll quickly learn how on shorter tracks, shading the car to the right or left can slice off the hundredth of a second you need to achieve a gold medal, or to vault from 22nd to 5th if you're playing online. With so many players, and with tracks being so short, you will often find yourself having to improve on what you thought was perfection. If you mess up, a simple button press returns you instantly to the start line or the last checkpoint you passed, no loading screens, making the act of just trying again compulsive and addictive. With the cars equal and time the only objective (you race only against the ghosts of other cars), this is competition stripped of the superfluous bells and whistles of other racing games, and distilled to its purest form.
But the racing is only part of the fun. TrackMania has always been about the robust track editor, which lets you arrange premade "blocks" into incredible layouts. If you're not partial to building your own tracks, a quick jaunt online shows the jaw-dropping variety that people have made: some servers focus on tiny tracks that will find you wondering how to shave off another microsecond; others have huge acrobatic arrangements where not falling off the myriad loops or spirals is just as important as setting a good time. I've seen online communities running exclusively on recreations of Formula 1 tracks (an absolute blast to race on), and other servers dedicated to giant "RPG" tracks, where the goal is to perform the vehicular acrobatics necessary to reach the exit. There are even alternate game modes that really spice things up. Platform manages to turn racing into a platforming game, where complex jumps and careful timing is necessary to reach the exit and you're graded not on the time you spent but the number of times you had to reset your car at the last checkpoint. Puzzle gives you a limited number of building blocks and asks you to make a track that will let you drive to the exit before time expires. Stunt is especially great: you launch your car into the air, perform flips and twirls, and earn points for it.
United has a free variant, Nations, which only includes the standard race mode and one of the game's seven cars and environments, the Stadium; because of this, most of the online community is focused on Stadium tracks and races. Luckily, the Stadium car is a joy to drive-it's wonderfully balanced for driving on tarmac, inviting you to push it more, more, more, taking corners faster and faster, getting ever closer to the wall on corner exit. On dirt, it's equally impressive, with the line you take through the corner being surprisingly important. Indeed, simulation fans might enjoy TrackMania for the sheer racecraft it demands-knowing what the fastest line is, knowing how far to push your car before you crash.
This isn't to say that the other six cars and environments aren't worth your time. Coast is even more fun than Stadium if you like your driving skills tested: a heavy, slow car that will slide punishingly in the environment's tight turns if you're too free with the throttle. For those more inclined towards drifting, the Island car fits the bill, with incredible speed on huge, wide expanses of road. Meanwhile, Rally involves drifting on much narrower roads. The Bay car is all-round fun, combining speed and forgiving handling with an especially bouncy suspension. Snow is maybe the oddest of the bunch; the car accelerates very slowly but turns on a dime, emphasizing momentum. Last but not least, Desert cars are the dangerous combination of fast and liable to tip over if turned too sharply. In this game, there's something for everyone.
If there's one shortcoming to United, it's that neither the graphics nor audio are particularly remarkable. Luckily, you can import your own music, and since servers are run by the players, they tend to have custom soundtracks. Meanwhile, many players have designed alternate skins to spice up the cars and the environments, so that you can change your Rally car to a hoverboard if you see fit.
Sadly, I have not played TrackMania United in quite some time, as I no longer have a working PC. Nadeo have since begun a next generation of TrackMania games, the first of which, Canyon, wholeheartedly embraces the same drifting mechanics as every other arcade racer at the moment. United is undoubtedly the better product, but I honestly do not know if the community remains intact or if they have moved on. Seeing as the servers were community-run, perhaps the online community lives on, although if you're new to the game you should download the free TrackMania Nations first to check this. United does have hundreds of single-player levels, though, as well as local multiplayer in which you and your friends take turns trying to set the best time, so there's still plenty to recommend even if the online community has dwindled. Nonetheless, this is an incredible racing game that offers enormous variety, tremendous community support, thrilling and addictive competition, and an astonishingly sophisticated handling model. And you use the left and right arrow keys to steer.