Reviewed by: M1ckey
Developer: Nadeo
Publisher: Digital Jesters

One month ago today Nadeo released a free official expansion pack "Power Up!" to their stunt racing game, TrackMania. At the same time they re-shipped the game out to UK stores with new packaging, the extras bundled in and a lower retail price of £19.99. DNM reviewed the original game back in December of last year, so this review concentrates solely on the "Power Up!" expansion pack.

The first question is of course, what's new? Well noticeably, there are new blocks, a new solo game mode with new tracks and some interface improvements. The new blocks are distributed across the three existing themes Alpine, Rally and Speed. Unfortunately, it looks like we're going to have to wait for 'Trackmania : Sunrise' for some new themes or you could always try out some of the custom mods that are popping up now. I counted 20 new blocks in Alpine, 20 in Rally and 19 in Speed totalling 59 in all. One small anomaly I noticed was a missing Rally four-way car park bollard piece. I presume it is still in the game (I didn't search for a map with it on) but it was definitely missing from the editor.

A lot of the new blocks are scenic or signs based, but then in TrackMania scenery and signs can be used to great effect so they're certainly welcome extras. The most important additions though are the tunnel blocks. I'm sure a lot of TrackMania fans acknowledged their omission in the original. These really add variation and obstacles to a track. Now you'll have to consider height when zooming down tunnel slopes; go too fast and you'll hit the ceiling slowing you down.

Building tunnels in the editor can be a bit trickier than ordinary track layout. It took me some time to get used to the conditions for placement of the entrances/exits into and out of the landscape blocks at the various heights. You don't actually build down into the floor as I had imagined. Instead, you build up your landscape using the landscape blocks (if you had enough copper I suppose you could increase the height of the whole playing area first), then tunnel into them. When inside the landscape blocks, building your tunnels, the editor switches to a new underground view, hiding the outside so you can see what's going on. Still, when you start building complex tunnel systems, it can get a bit claustrophobic under there and you'll need to use the tilt and rotate controls extensively.

At first I dismissed the new 'Survival' solo mode as a rather basic concept and thought I'd have it completed within an hour, after easily winning my first few races. However, I'm still trying to beat it!! The best I've managed is 14/18. If you thought achieving gold on G1, G2 and G3 on the 'Race' mode was hard, expect to be playing this for a long time.

For the first time in solo mode you are racing against other AI cars. Maybe the term 'Solo' needs to be adjusted to 'Single Player' now eh Nadeo? :) You play through 18 tracks in random order, 8 in each theme meaning you might need to immediately adjust to different conditions. The further you progress the fewer cars compete against you (somewhere between 1-3 opponents) and the faster they ride. Towards the later levels I'm sure the fastest AI is riding some kind of Super-Author times! To keep you trying to win (even though you only need to make sure you don't come last), you get to skip a race for coming 2nd and skip two races for coming first. It's very easy to get a few firsts initially to ease new players in and expert players quickly past the early points. But then it gets very tough and you'll need good knowledge of all 18 tracks because one lose and it's game over.

Although the tracks in 'Survival' solo mode are chosen at random, they are chosen two at time and you are allowed to select which you wish to race. Or more strategically, which you wish to skip when you've been rewarded for coming 1st or 2nd. This means you can push the odds towards playing your favourite theme and away from tracks you know you are no good at.

Whilst researching for this review I was playing between the original TrackMania and the new "Power Up!" TrackMania a lot. I noticed many of the improvements in the interface such as the 'Next Challenge' option after finishing a race meaning you no longer need to return to the challenge listings menu. Another was the outline of the currently selected block set in the editor (the F1-F12 keys) and the re-phrasing of 'Play' and 'Validate' to 'Test' and 'Validate' that led me to discover I could test out small areas of my track by starting from the cursor (wish I'd known that before!) The whole menu system is a lot more logical now too, with menu items laid out in a single vertical line. These are just general usability issues that most gamers will only notice if it irritates them but it's great to see they've been addressed. The multiplayer browser has vastly improved but I still think dedicated server support would increase the number of players online.

The "Power Up!" expansion pack goes some way to address the cries for some decent mod-support of TrackMania beyond custom tracks. A small integration of this in the profile settings is the introduction of avatar and car skin selection screens. However, creating your own skins and mods is still somewhat of a cumbersome external procedure. You'll need to search for the skimpy text files amongst your TrackMania install directory and download the TrackMania Manager tool which is very much work-in-progress still.

Before I summarise, a few download prezzies for our readers... (instructions for use are inside each zip).

tmpu_avatar.zip (2Kb) - a DeadAlfs avatar for TrackMania "Power Up!" Expansion Pack Edition.

tmpu_blocks.zip (5.87Mb) - large jpegs comparing the blocks in the original TrackMania with those in the "Power Up!" version of TrackMania.

tmpu_challenge.zip (1.35Mb) - a track! My challenge to you, see if you can beat my author time. It uses some of the new tunnel pieces found in the "Power Up!" Expansion Pack.

Presentation	7
Interface issues have been addressed. Graphics haven't really changed noticeably. Still a few teeny weeny bugs: cars still fall through the water without a splash, speed arrows pointing one way and boosting the other on one of the new rally tracks.
Gameplay	8
The new 'Survival' game mode raises the difficulty level offering a new challenge to experienced TrackManiacs. Lots of new block pieces but alas no new themes (am I being too greedy?).
Value	9
It's free to download! We love you Nadeo! Plus the retail price has been cut by £10 in the UK and US have finally got it in their shops for 29.99 (publisher Enlight). Looks like the community's about to get a whole lot bigger!
Benchmark	8
Tricky one to mark. Comparing it to other free expansions for games there's no more or less here. Not enough to warrant a retail release but look at this as supporting the TrackMania community and we owe Nadeo big thanks (and greedy cheeky pleas for more!).
Score	8
If you're a TrackManiac you'll probably already have this. If you're a casual racer, this is a good time to revisit the game and remind yourself how fun it is! If you haven't got TrackMania in your games collection yet, now's a good time to buy: it's cheaper and you get more.

Buy TrackMania: Power Up! from GAME!

Minimum Spec	Reviewed on
Pentium II 450 or Equivalent 64Mb RAM 32Mb 3D Graphics Card	P4 2.8GHz 512Mb RAM ATI 9800 Pro 256Mb