Matthias Endler

A lot has changed in Mania Drive since I’ve played it some months ago when the newest version was 1.01. I’ve mentioned the game a few times in the past when I talked about linux games. Here is a short review on what has changed in that funny TrackMania clone:

Download and installation:
The tar.gz file has increased by 5 MB since 1.01 and weighs now 58 Megabytes full of free-as-in-freedom fun. I download from the official Mirror and make a short tar -xzf ManiaDrive-1.2-linux-i386.tar.gz in my download directory. I start the game by going into the newly created folder called “ManiaDrive-1.2-linux-i386″ and execute the binary with ./mania_drive.sh . The menu is well known to me and I select “Options”. A new function called “Window mode” allows me to play the entire game in a tiny window on my desktop. I select 800×600 and press “Apply”.


New tracks and textures:
When I enter “Story mode” the first thing that catches my attention is the newly created beginners tutorial on the left side. It offers five tracks that help you getting basic skills. There’s a looping track at the end that can be very challenging for beginners.

On the right side all the “Pro” tracks are listed but no new circuits have been added here. A button in the middle brings you to the “Other Tracks” menu. This is an offline mode for custom maps and stuff you’ve downloaded from internet. I recommend to play a snowy-mountain like track called “rally”. It really makes fun and has some great new textures and tiles in it.

Also make sure to check out my own composition called “SuperClioBrothers 3″ that can be downloaded here.

Soundtrack and Credits:
I won’t have to say much about the soundtrack because nothing has changed at that point. Mania Drive features eight songs that are all licensed under CreativeCommons and can therefore be freely distributed within the game. Most of the ogg-files can be categorized as rock music and that perfectly fits to the fast, dynamic gameplay. By the way: Did I mention that Mania Drive can be really tough from time to time? You can finish the whole game in around five minutes but I’m sure you won’t. There are to many chicaneries in it so you will have to practice, practice and again practice until you’ll be a master.
Hopefully I haven’t discouraged you now to complete the game because the credits are worth all the hard work.
The team around Xfennec did some great work and all the other contributors make it a great experience.
 

Visit the homepage here.
Download Mania Drive for free and I promise you will have fun playing it!
There are Linux and Windows binaries available. Enjoy!

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