Trackmania is a series of non-realistic racing simulators designed to be about as fun as it gets. Different titles in the series have you driving various vehicles ranging from Rally cars, all the way to Formula 1-esque cars.

The game design is simplistic at first glance, but when considering the vast diversity in track design, tile-sets and car varieties it quickly becomes apparent this isn't your every-day racing game. Newer titles involve a multitude of different modes of play, both single and multi-player. Furthermore, with the built in editors you can make fantastic works and share them with other gamers.

The built in editors use a simple design with great possibility for complexity. Maps are designed based on combinations of tiles which result in either various parts of track or scenery. Everything in the tile sets are drivable, even the scenery. Advanced maps combine tiles in many ways originally not thought possible, such as say knocking the player into a particular direction, or driving up and around scenery. The built in vehicle skin editors allow you to customize your car just the way you want. Further editors are available for creating completely new vehicle models also.

Single player offers vary from one title to the next. The common single player modes include going through stock or downloaded maps and beating the lap times built into the map, completing these time trials earns you ranking versus international players. Other modes in certain titles in the series include stunt mode, puzzle mode and a few others. Stunt mode puts you on a map which is designed strictly for performing aerial stunts, earning you points increasing with complexity, while landing them of course. Puzzle mode gives you an incomplete map and limited tiles, you have to figure out the best way to make the track playable and then race through the track to meet the goal lap time.

Multiplayer gameplay is primarily focused around time trials or round points. Playing on game servers against other players earns you ladder points which count toward the international ladder ranking, as well as national and provincial rankings. Multiplayer gameplay for Trackmania titles are designed to be hop-in-hop-out capable, in which you can connect at any point in a round and be able to fully participate in that round. Furthermore, with the simplistic design of maps, downloading maps is extremely quick; map sizes ranking from 35kBytes to ~150kBytes. The network code for multiplayer is also very resilient, primarily designed where you play locally and report results to the server and interpolate the movement of other players.

Combining all these facets and more result in a fantastic game that continues to grow almost exponentially and provide a robust and long-lasting gameplay. Recent titles in the series include Trackmania Nations Forever and Trackmania United Forever.

Trackmania Nations Forever can be found on steam (FOR FREE) at: http://store.steampowered.com/app/11020/
Trackmania United Forever can be found on steam at: http://store.steampowered.com/app/7200/