Racing games on the DS. Badunn-pssh. It’s a joke, right? RIDGE RACER, roll on drums, laughter and applause. Other than Mario Kart, we haven’t really seen any great racers for the portable. Firebrand Games’ portable extension of the popular TrackMania series is here to change that.

It’s no laughing matter. TrackMania DS is the first real effort that we’ve seen at delivering a satisfying racing experience on Nintendo’s portable. Does it succeed, or will it become another laughingstock?

TrackMania DS is a little different from your average racing game. For starters, you aren’t competing with the other cars on the track. Your position doesn’t matter. Really, the other drivers might as well not be there. Their entire purpose is to show you how you should be driving. They are your teachers, showing the fastest path to the goal. A racing game where you aren’t racing? Not so fast. Rather than racing against other drivers, you are racing against a time limit.

Yes, TrackMania is an entire game of time trials. Each track gives you a set of three staggered time limits, awarding medals based on which ones you meet. It isn’t that dramatic of a difference from the majority of racing games out there, but it is one that makes TrackMania a much better portable experience. Each race is over in a matter of seconds, “toilet-gaming” at its finest. TrackMania is perfect for those times where you only have a couple of minutes to kill. You can flip on your DS and earn half a dozen medals in the time it takes to get to your next bus stop. With no need to maintain the first position, you lose a little bit of the intensity of a racing game. You don’t have to keep a constant eye on your backside. The only thing you have to worry about is the clock. Fortunately, that clock may just be all of the stress that you need. This game gets hard pretty quickly. You know all of those tricks to keep you ahead of other racers? You’ll still need all of those to beat the harder time limits.

Even if it is fundamentally just you on the track, you have no excuse for not honing your skills. You won’t be able to skate by on bronze medals for long. You’ll need to collect a certain number of each medal type to unlock new tracks. These same medals can also be used to open up new cars and additional track pieces for the level editor.

TrackMania’s simplicity is a double-edged sword. It is a fun game, no doubt, but that main game lacks staying power. Once you discover the best way to beat that gold medal limit, there isn’t any real reason to return to that track. To combat this, the developers included what is TrackMania’s coolest feature – a track editor. Tired of the existing tracks? Create a few new ones. The editor is definitely not a half-assed effort. It actually became a bit of an addiction for me. You are given the same set of tiles, loops, and obstacles that the developers had for the core game and an empty plot of land to place them on. From there, you can run wild. The sad part is that TrackMania lacks any sort of WiFi Connection component. You can share your tracks, but just with local players. Honestly, I don’t really care about online multiplayer, but no online track sharing is a huge missed opportunity.

Don’t have any ideas for your own tracks? TrackMania also has an awesome puzzle mode. Puzzles in a racing game? Yep, the puzzle mode builds off of the track editor by giving you a certain number of pieces and challenging you to complete the track. It’s a neat bonus mode and actually serves as a primer in track design and minimalism. Complete some of the harder puzzles, and you’ll be set to design some awesome original tracks.

Racing games have a reputation for being graphical showcases and TrackMania DS is no exception. Honestly, I usually just avoid 3D games on the DS. If your game is going to look like a relic from the mid-nineties, you might as well just leave it in two dimensions. Basically, it takes a lot for me to be impressed with the graphics of a DS game. That being said, it isn’t idle praise when I say that TrackMania is probably the most beautiful 3D game on the system. There are a few key concepts to make a DS game look good, and the guys at Focus understand them. Watch a few of the gameplay videos, the developers aren’t performing dark rituals to squeeze some additional power out of the system. It’s as simple as a clean interface, good art direction, solid use of colors, and uncluttered environments. Surround your track with stone barriers, a couple of green hills, and throw a sunset behind it all. Your focus is on the racing, you won’t be stopping to look at every detail. By making each stage clean and focused, the entire package is more attractive. Other developers should start taking notes.

I’m not much of a racing guy, I’m definitely not about to run out and start tricking out a car. Heck, I don’t even own a car. Still, I’ll take a fun arcade-y racing game any time. There’s something addictive about slicing those last couple of seconds off of your old record. It’s no secret that the racing genre on the DS has been kind of abysmal. Come on, what else do we even have? TrackMania isn’t perfect, but it does a nice job of filling in that gap. With gameplay structured around providing a quick burst of adrenaline, it’s pretty much the perfect portable racing experience. However, by limiting the racing to time trials, you do limit the replayability. Even so, the game does come with a ton of levels and a full-featured track editor, so it’ll take awhile before you get too bored with it. TrackMania DS is definitely worth taking a look at if you’ve been looking for a racing fix on the go or if you’re a fan of the PC versions.

Positives: Beautiful graphics, good for “short-burst” playing, robust track editor.
Negatives: No reason to replay a track after mastering it.

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