Miniature cars racing in life sized environments is nothing new, as fans of Micro Machines can attest. Racing style party games are nothing new either, as we’ve seen with the Mario Kart series. The only thing really new about Mad Tracks is that it is the first such game to grace the Xbox Live Arcade, and it is the first effort from Load Inc.
Mad Tracks features miniature Hot Wheels sized cars powered by spring loaded engines. As you hold the accelerator, the spring winds down, as represented by a “fuel gauge” at the bottom of the screen. Once the gauge has completely run down, your car will plod along at a snail’s pace. To rewind the spring, the gamer need only let off the accelerator and allow the gauge to recharge. Though this system should work well in theory, and add an extra dimension to game play, the fact remains that players will seldom find themselves in a situation in which they’ve depleted their power supply. You’ll do enough lifting on the throttle when cornering or jumping when racing, or by braking and reversing in minigames, to accommodate the spring gauge.
Mad Tracks has a good variety of game play modes to choose from. Racing styles include circuit events, and elimination events, where the last place car on each lap is removed from play. The minigames come in a plethora of forms. There are sports themed games such as billiards, foosball and golf, which will have the player pushing balls around in attempt to sink them in a pocket, goal or hole. The darts game challenges players to jump from a ramp and land as close to the bull’s eye as possible. Other games will task the gamer to push more objects off a table than their opponents, or even knock all other opponent cars off the table. Still others will have cars racing around a bowl, avoiding rubber balls that are increasingly dropped into the environment.
Despite the variety of game play modes; the game does not have a lot of replay value. Events seldom take more than one or two minutes to complete, and most gamers will have a handful of game styles that they will not like. The average gamer may not like the games where they are required to push a ball around, because more often than not, the ball will take a different trajectory than was intended. Another gamer may not like the race type events, because the poor handling of the cars usually means that the outside wall is often needed to help you around a corner.
Mad Tracks has 12 different power ups that can be picked up and used during the course of the game. These range from the standard rockets and oil slicks, to the unique “time warp” which slows time for the gamer. Though there is a good variety available, only a few power ups are any real use to the player
