Trackmania Nations Forever is quite obviously a racing game. However, unlike most racing games on the market nowadays (except maybe Burnout), Trackmania embraces its pure arcade roots with the complete absurdity of its tracks and cars. Loop-de-loops, impossible turns, incredible speeds, and physically confusing tracks are all a part of the Trackmania experience, and Trackmania Nations Forever certainly has those in spades. But I am sidetracking off of what Trackmania is all about.

Trackmania races take place on preset tracks (either user-generated or designed by the development team). Your goal is to reach the end of the track as quickly as possible. That's it! There's nothing fancy like dealing with other race cars or power-ups. It's purely a test of your skill to get from one end of the track to the other in the shortest amount of time. The best thing is that you can restart instantly at any point, reducing the amount of frustration quite a bit.

The tracks themselves range from the mundane (a figure 8 track) to the impossible (a loop-de-loop vertical jump switch track). They are always fun, though, and that's really what matters in this game. There's only one theme (a stadium), but if you love the arcade racing that it provides, you aren't really going to care.You're just going to drive fast, drift, and jump!

As I said in the first paragraph and alluded to in the following paragraphs, Trackmania Nations Forever is a game about community content. New tracks and new cars are both available, created by anyone who feels like it. Many servers online don't even use the base tracks, instead the tracks they think are best from the community itself. This showcase of level-making talent is especially cool.

Where Trackmania Nations Forever really shines is online. While racing around, trying to beat your own scores is fun to a point, sometimes you just have to go out and dominate other players. The online functions much like the single-player, with a few changes. First, there is a time limit, meaning you have to get the best time within the time limit. If you finish more than once, and the second time is better than the first, it will count as your time at the end of the round. Second, you can't hit other players. That would just be rude! All cars are ghosts. Finally, and this should be no surprise, you can't change the map according to your whim.

And just like that, this article is over. There's not much to Trackmania Nations Forever, but what it lacks in complexity it easily makes up for in excellence. It's a great way to relax after a hard day, or compete with other friendly faces. It's a heavy community with great mods and tracks. It's great both multiplayer and single-player, and fits its niche perfectly. That's all there is to it. You can download the full version of Trackmania Nations Forever from Big Download.

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