In Mad Tracks you start like any other racing game, first you accelerate, then turn a bunch, and possibly brake if you are pretty cowardly, but you aren't, so don't brake, because seriously, it is less funny that way. At the bottom of the screen you have a power indicator, it is a spring. As you accelerate you compress your spring and use the power, when you take your uh.. finger off the accelerator the spring will slowly recharge and become uncompressed. It kind of seems the opposite to real world physics and energy storage, but we'll ignore that, because nobody knows about E=(1/2)kx^2, nobody. That ranted about, you do need to strike a balance in many races between accelerating and coasting or you could run out of power on jumps and other tricks!

The real beauty of Mad Tracks is the race design. Not only does it have traditional lap style races, there are many many other games to play. You can be racing against time, racing against rising water levels as you move along a climbing track, and they even have elimination type races where the weakest player is eliminated each lap. I'll admit to not being a major racing fan myself, but these are very fun to play. Mad Tracks features an arcade mode, quick action mode, battle modes as well as multi-player play styles. Beating tracks in the arcade mode unlocks other races for play, and finding the special flags in random races will let you unlock the special battle modes in the game. While I'm not a huge fan of that much unlocking in this light, fun style of game, it isn't all that bad. But between my blowing up other cars, pushing them off the track or watching them fling end over end into a wall, I am either laughing and bouncing up and down in my seat, or I'm swearing at the AI for doing it to me (The nerve of them!). But wait! There's more!

Yes! Mad Tracks has more surprises in store for you. A large portion of their matches are not even races, they are just games. I don't think I can explain how fun some of the games are, I am simply blown away by the fun yet simple design that exists here. Can you imagine bowling with toy trucks? Make a run down a ramp, and then you hit a super slippery surface and smash into giant bowling pins! It is a riot to fling yourself across the floor, and use your power ups to screw over your opponents. But it just isn't bowling, you can play on a giant soccer field, with a giant soccer ball, this is my favourite game, (mostly for the fact that you can make some comical PVP type actions on the steep side ramps on the fields) there so many cars zipping everywhere and smacking the ball, it is amazingly fun, and laugh out loud hilarious at times. From croquet, to darts, to pool, foosball, golf, table top, golf, and even bobsledding, there are so many games here to play, it will take ages to get bored. There are 45 different tracks, and many types I haven't listed because they take some explaining, for example, there are a variety of table top style games. In these games you go from just smashing everything off the table the fastest (like a dinner table full of plates) to being the last man standing in a free for fall smash fest that is endless fun. But wait, there isn't more! That is pretty much it, some what a simple game, but endless fun.

Now there could be more! The game is crucially missing one very important aspect, something I feel would make it famous, slightly more famous than me! Why oh why did they include such crummy multi-player support? When I hit the on line button, I expected to be taken to, at the very least, an on line game match room type deal, where I could see players hosting matches and join in? Ya know, like the ones in the '90s? The PC version only has the ability to connect to IP addresses, meaning the chances of many games really getting played on line is low. You need friends and a meeting spot to swap IPs, and arrange hosts, I don't see that as a likely scenario. To me this just doesn't cut it, and it really brings Mad Tracks from a potential fun, long term casual game to something that will be deleted from my hard drive prematurely. Mad Tracks is based on PVP style interactions, and they didn't even write a half decent multi-player option to use that, it really saddens me what this game could be, and what it is. There also doesn't even appear to be a chat when on multi-player games (although documentation of its features is generally pretty poor all around), so even if you do play on line, you won't be able to trash talk your buds like you have the right to do!

I really had a great time with Mad Tracks. I haven't laughed that loud, and swore that much, and simply had so much fun in a game in many years. The devs did things the right way (except the on line thing), it is simply an amazing casual game that is about fun, not winning. The graphics are fine for the style it was made it, and the controls are a bit clumsy, but that just adds charm to how it plays! Mad Tracks is a great single player game, and even though the focus is player vs. player interactions, if you can accept that you really won't be smushing people on line, then it will be loads of fun. I do seriously hope that the developers find a way to patch in a better on line experience, add a in game chat, because this game could be extremely popular. So get to your phones and dial the number on your screen! And if you promise to tell a friend, we'll give you a hug! *There is supposed to be an X-box live version being released, but it has apparent problems with the networking end. If it comes out (and if I owned an X-box thingy) I would buy it in a heart beat. However the PC version does not seem to be compatible.