Be Excellent To Each Other

Yes, but does it come with Starforce?!

TrackMania is simple: racing physics-defying cars around the sort of courses an 11-year-old would build with an infinite supply of Hot Wheels tracks. But what makes it great is the instant restart. It's all about beating set times (or in the Platform levels, completing courses with limited restarts), and messing up on a single corner will likely lose you the Gold. So you hit a button, and with almost psychic speed you're back at the start, or most recent checkpoint. Were there to be even a second's pause, it would quickly become a frustrating exercise. That your car is reset before your finger is off the button means you'll never escape the just-one-more-go factor. But surely the DS can't do that, either?

Well, stand on your chairs and wave your arms, it can. It really flipping can. Unless Firebrand does something spectacularly stupid in the last couple of months of development, it's nailed this. My scepticism fell away like an oversized pair of trousers, leaving me feeling particularly embarrassed in my metaphorical boxer-shorts. First, it's fast. Second, despite being 3D on the DS, it doesn't look rubbish. And third, that instant restart is every bit as instant as the PC's.

I'll be arsing about with planes not long after

Flying places I imagine. Our CUS is a superjetsetter businessman type!

In fact that's just reminded me what the fuck happened to the Pilot Wings that was meant to be coming out sometime after when I bought my GameCube?