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Trackmania Turbo, a title announced by Ubisoft at last year’s E3 initially seemed like a big AAA blockbuster destined to place publisher back on good terms with fans of the arcade racing genre. Ultimately it was, and surprisingly still is the only ‘’major’’ arcade racer of this generation. However, even though it was published by a major firm, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is a fully fledged release which everybody was expecting it to be.

At the time of title’s announcement, all the signs were pointing in the right direction. It was a major reveal during Ubisoft’s E3 press conference, and most importantly the title was under the watchful eye of Nadeo, video-game developer who has been working on the series since its humble beginnings in 2003. Now that push has come to shove and the game is finally available for public consumption, the final product is not as impeccable and incandescent as Ubisoft has made it out to be.

While featuring on all the contemporary platforms, which include PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, Trackmania Turbo is clearly not putting the hardware of the machines to good use. It runs smoothly, and doesn’t drop frames on the first sign of expansive scenery, but then such occurrence would be inexcusable as Trackmania Turbo, at least visually, is not on par with the rest of modern titles of the genre.

When travelling at high speeds, which by the way are unbelievably good in Trackmania Turbo, tracks look fine and are mostly a blur. But as you come to a standstill because you’ve just hit a bent over palm tree, which some genius have decided to place right in front of a jump, the entire spectacle collapses. And while considering if it’s worth restarting completely, or simply going back to the previous checkpoint, you have good 10 seconds to look around the scenery, and then you notice the horrible artifacting of all forms, shapes, and sizes.

Blurred out textures, jagged edges, and low quality models are incredibly annoying, and even more so when they feature on each and every surface that surrounds the vehicle, and this includes scenery, background, and most importantly the roads themselves. However, as it has been previously underlined, everything in Trackmania Turbo takes place at an unbelievable velocity and if you drive flawlessly, like I do for example, you’ll rarely notice the graphical flaws throughout the 200 levels which the game has to offer.

Single player component of Trackmania Turbo, can take you between 10 to 50 hours to complete, depending on how good you are at the game. I was about 50% through the game at the 4 hours mark, as early levels of the title can be completed with substantial ease and should take no more than two tries to get at least a silver medal. However later chapters, including the penultimate chapter labelled as ‘RED’, can take up to two hours to complete a single racing class, and each chapter is composed of four different classes.

Four racing classes featured in the game are: Canyon Grand Drift, Down & Dirty Valley, Rollercoaster Lagoon, and last but not least International Stadium. Each class, as the names suggest, takes place within a distinct environment, and features a completely different vehicle. All four in game cars differ significantly in terms of handling, and offer four distinctive experiences to be had. In addition to the physical difference in terms of vehicle handling, Nadeo also allows the player to choose one of the two button configurations, which assigns throttle and brakes, to both square and X, or R2 and L2, respectively. And in game, players can chose to alter between the two on the fly, as both are active at all times, I personally used square to accelerate, and R2 to administer breaks.

Trackmania Turbo, in addition to its tremendous single player component, also features an extensive list of multiplayer modes which allows the player to challenge others online, or on the same couch as the title also features a split screen mode for versus play, and double driver mode for co-op. However, judging by the number of current players on PlayStation 4 who have purchased the game worldwide, which is over 400,000, Trackmania Turbo will be relevant for a very long time so there is no need for player two to sit right next to you.

While being an extremely satisfactory game on many levels, Trackmania Turbo also proven that the arcade racing genre is still not dead, as it has sold over 400,000 units over the Easter holidays worldwide, and such is a tremendous amount for any game. While proving that the genre is in demand, Trackmania Turbo has also presented us, the consumers, with two worrying issues. First is the fact that a vast majority of reviewers have failed to even reach the halfway point of the game, before slapping the final score on Trackmania Turbo, and the other is the fact that I’m the best there was, the best there is, and the best there ever will be, as the below image indicates.

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