Mad Tracks

Rating ESRB: Everyone Genre action Publisher Published By D3P / Load, Inc. External Links Xbox Live Arcade Official Website

It seems that once in a blue moon, a racing game comes that impacts and changes the way we look at the genre. Mad Tracks for the Xbox 360 is not one of those games. On the surface, Mad Tracks is another racing game with a few different, but not very unique or innovative, twists on the genre.

The game doesn’t feature your regular, run-of-the-mill cars competing against one another in races, but rather has you racing miniature matchbox cars around larger than life venues such as bedrooms and pool tables. It’s a premise that has already been done and done only slightly better. Aside from the basic concept being knocked from games like Micro Machines, Mad Tracks manages to take from other games, including Mario Kart. Driving around, players will accumulate weapons they can use against their opponents, including trick boxes and rockets. Sadly, however, no turtle-shells are found.

The game manages to have modes other than just the aforementioned race mode. There is also a fun pool-mode, where players use their car as the pool cue, trying to knock more color-specific balls in to the closest available pocket. Also there are scavenger modes that have the player trying to find objects around the environment. And a surprisingly fun foosball mode keeps players frantically moving around, trying to hit a large ball in to a goal, past goalie trucks.

The single player mode proves to be challenging and fun for about a day, but after that, there really isn’t much repeat value. Mad Tracks’ true value comes in the online, Xbox Live modes. While there really are no differences between the single and multiplayer gameplay modes, the multiplayer online modes just prove to be more fun. But then again, when is playing a game with someone else not more fun than playing it by yourself?

While Mad Tracks has some decently fun game modes and levels, overall, it just blends in with an already oversaturated crowd of racing games. For the price, though, it’s a good value. It’s not going to win any awards for being a wonderfully original game, but if you are in the mood for a quick racing fix, Mad Tracks could quench that desire easily.