Set for launch on 21st November 2008, the latest TrackMania game suitable for playing on the hand-held Nintendo DS is both satisfying in some respects and exceptionally frustrating in others. It is certainly easy to use, as all the button applications, tasks and operations work logically and without confusing menus. There are three main modes, Solo (single player), Editor (create your own tracks) and Multiplayer (using a wireless connection, other DS players can join in). In Solo mode (I have ‘no’ friends!), you can either progress directly to the race, or can try the Platform setting or a Quick Race, all of them are similar. The main menu presents such perfect images of racing cars that I could not wait to get started. However, my enthusiasm dwindled, with the loss of realism and depth and what resulted was not so much ‘driver simulation’ but more a traditional ‘time killer’ of an order you might find on a mobile-phone.

Actual car control is not so much ‘challenging’ as well nigh impossible. Naturally, there are no sensations and most of the courses are little more than obstacle avoidance exercises. To be fair, there are negligible delays between games and you can abort and restart as fast as the buttons can be depressed. Interestingly, put the game down (I did contemplate it…) and you can return to it without recourse to menus or half-finished championships. The car noises are not bad, although the in-game music is very basic and of an order that might have been delivered from a 1980s arcade machine.

Priced at £29.99, I personally feel that there are better things upon which to spend your money. I expected a tad more entertainment, which was not forthcoming. There is a reward scheme and you earn ‘credits’ for winning races but they can be spent too readily on changing the colour of your car or ‘buying’ new sections of track, which, I am afraid, are just more of the same. Definitely challenging and accessible but lacking in creativity.