Mad Tracks review

Mad Tracks is an iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone app made by Namco and it is a fun little racing game that harkens back to many other power-up based racing games where you can pick up items and use them against your opponents. Let’s get into the review of Mad Tracks.

Concept
The concept here is very simple: win the race. You get to pick from several different cars in this application, and each one has slightly different stats. There is also a meter at the top that makes it easy for you to see your position, so you know exactly how far you are trailing or leading in the race.

Power-Ups
Just like many other racing games, you get power-ups here. There are not that many power-ups, but they are certain fun to use. You get rockets, shields and boosting items to help you decimate your opponents. One interesting thing about this app is that you get to hold several different power-ups at once, while most racing apps only allow you to hold one or two items.

Graphics
The graphics certainly don’t look hyper realistic, but they aren’t supposed to. This app is stylized to look more colorful, and it does a good job at this. Everything is easy to see, and most of the graphics are very crisp. But, if you are obsessed with realistic looking cars, you won’t find it here.

Audio
While you’re going through the track, you have some fun and upbeat music to listen to that will keep you from getting bored. While the music isn’t exactly studio quality, it works with this game.

Controls
The controls are pretty straightforward. On the left you have two arrows to turn left or right, and on the right you have a backwards and forwards arrow for braking and accelerating respectively. You also get a great button in the center of the screen that you can use if your car gets turned around by a rocket. By pressing this button, you go back to the last checkpoint, which is a lot easier than slowly turning around.

The only bad thing about the controls is that your items are above your gas button. This means, to use an item, you have to stop accelerating for a second. These buttons probably would have been better over on the left side, because there are a lot of instances where you are going straight and not turning.

Multiplayer
You get to play against your friends and other players online in tournaments and single matches, which is really fun and it’s great to see.

While there is the one small problem with the controls, this app is very fun and works very well. If you are interested in racing and blowing up other cars, you will certainly get some fun out of this.