Daxtear
2017
Great game. It's interesting to compare this to the first game, because they are quite different gameplay experiences. You do the same things, but the structure is completely different. The first game is a straight dig down with some caves once in a while, this game has a whole world to explore with several seperate digsites. It does a lot more of the whole metroidvania backtracking thing, tho the fasttravel doesn't really let that become an issue. Same as the first game, the way your powerlevel increases is very satisfying, though there is a lot more "move that makes previous abilities obsolete" in here. It also doesn't really let you get in the zone of digging and cashing out as much, which could be interpreted as a positive or a negative depending on your stance on if the first game gets boring at times, but for me I would have liked some more time just digging and making my cave in the early game. However what replaces that are some pretty fun puzzle caves all over the place. There were a couple in the first game, but they really stretched out with them in this game. They dont really get crazy, you could compare them to zelda BOTW shrines in complexity, but they're nice as some variety in the game.
Not a fan of the little floating guy next to you trope that this game relies on for conversations, but eh whatever. In a worldbuilding sense its a fun connecting piece between the previous two steamworld games.
Had a lot of fun with this one.
Not a fan of the little floating guy next to you trope that this game relies on for conversations, but eh whatever. In a worldbuilding sense its a fun connecting piece between the previous two steamworld games.
Had a lot of fun with this one.
2024
This game is crack for your "ok lemme try that again" brain. An incredibly hard to describe game, but very easy to understand from its simple tutorial. It's the binding of isaac but you're playing poker and your mom is a joker. It suffers from a lot of the same problems as other deckbuilder roguelikes like the fact that RNG can just screw you with nothing to do against it. Almost every build has a boss that can just completely counter you and end your run if you have no way to circumvent it. However when it does work out, it makes you feel like the smartest person alive. Joker abilities comboing into something greater than the sum of their parts makes it all worth it. That's what I'm here for in a roguelike.
2013
I've been sleeping on this game for way too long. Very fun metroidvania with a cool loop and the limited movement gives getting around some depth. Upgrades are very well paced and feel like actual upgrades that allow you to do cool new stuff. You feel really powerful at the end zipping around the final boss arena, and it doesn't give itself the time to get old.
Good game.
Good game.
Most inventive platformer I've played in a while. Nothing quite controls like this game, and it's incredibly satisfying. seems pretty simple to start with, you can accelerate, brake, turn and do a lil charge boost, but as you will discover, that's not quite it. As soon as you unlock the boost, most of game is open for you to explore, you just might not quite know how. If you don't know how to proceed, talk to some NPCs and they might teach you something about your little taxi you didn't know yet!
The levels are pretty creative and diverse too. I'm not a huge fan of the time limit mechanic in some levels, thout it does work better in a few of them than in others.
Loved it, as of april a contender for GOTY 2024 in my mind.
The levels are pretty creative and diverse too. I'm not a huge fan of the time limit mechanic in some levels, thout it does work better in a few of them than in others.
Loved it, as of april a contender for GOTY 2024 in my mind.
2020
This game gets better with every new car added. In terms of ground types the variety in this game is off the charts, but before October 2023 it had the problem of only featuring the Stadium car. Gets old at some point. With now 3 cars at the time of writing we're slowly getting there. Almost worth the money now.
2017
Trash environment. Like bay but bad. They did something to the steering on controller. Magnets sometimes just eject you for fun.
2016
Glitchiest Trackmania game. Also the worst tracks since the first game. Still fun, but annoying and I hate Lagoon.
Yawn. Play TMNF instead.
2013
I like this more than Canyon. The Canyon car is probably more fun on its own, but driving the narrow roads with a focus on repeatable precision just works better when your car controls like an understeering racecar. This environment also has the best rally in the series, though in a later game they completely oversaturate you with it, it's good here. Also the multilaps are shorter on average which is nice.
2011
TM2 Canyon kicks off the Maniaplanet era of Trackmania with a new environment. Canyon is really cool and fun in theory. Being as understeery as Stadium, or maybe moreso, and having a very of the time drift for fast cornering makes the car very fun to control. Shame that there are way too many stretched multilap tracks here. 5 Laps is way too much for a game like this. Just not fun. And then later on the roads become so narrow its - again - just not fun to corner anymore. Shame, but still a cool one.
2010
An alright game. My time with this game was plagued by technical issues, but I think this might have to do with the age and wear of my equipment. This is still firebrand physics so it doesn't even begin to feel like a Trackmania game, but it's decent enough if you're addicted and United has somehow just run out of shit to provide. Lots of content if you can find enjoyment in it, though the environments feel a bit samey.
Shitty physics and handcramps await you in this slideshow for the nintendo DS. By the standards of DS racing games this is lower middleclass. By the standards of trackmania this is 2nd to last, just above its predecessor.
2008
if you ever want to have handcramps this is the game for you. If you think the ground should be made of ghost rubber, then this is also the game for you. If you like terrible framerates I recommend the sequel, but this is still an acceptable choice.
The sheer amount of good quality tracks in this game is insane. 7 Environments that are all fun on 294 race mode tracks that are mostly really cool. Theres other modes but you dont care about those. The culmination of the first era of Trackmania, and still not matched in terms of variety which I value a lot.
Kickass game. Adds a bit of variety to the stadium environment with dirt and I think platforms too. The core campaign is really solid, but there are a few tracks that just fucking suck. Either pure trial and error, or just shitty endurance tracks. Don't let this distract you from the ~60 tracks that aren't tho. It's also still free and on steam, if you ever wanna get into trackmania, start here.