The M.Indie 500: SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY

M.Indie by Joseph Lieberman

The M.Indie 500: SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY  (July 7, 2005)

We have all heard the annoying commercials, SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY at the nameofsomeplace Arena! Well, the for the multiplayer world of race fans, every day can be SUNDAY, and M.Indie is here to show you just where to look. Racing games are a troubled genre, often times requiring high speed connections to keep the action looking fluid. In the realm of indie race games the pickings are few and far between, but M.Indie knows where to look for the ever elusive checkered flag. We'll look at two games that are worth taking for a test drive in our first ever M.Indie 500.

Fans of quasi-realistic racing games who long for the NES days of top down racing should be rejoicing. Jollygood Games has produced a top-down racing game called Turbo Sliders, which reminds me of a host similar of games released oh-so-long ago. In Turbo Sliders it is unsurprising that your cars have to deal with a lot of sliding turns, and navigating those turns is the key to victory. In this game there are no weapons or power-ups, no super-moves or special obstacles, just pure racing action. This game is pretty much multiplayer only, with only time trials in single player mode, but there were always people online to race against while I was playing so I wouldn't be too concerned about not having an opponent. For the avid race fan, Jollygood's Turbo Sliders is your ticket to the winner's circle. However, not everything is well and good in Turbo Sliders.

I encountered a couple of problems with Turbo Sliders that need mentioning. The first is that the people were rude. Not all of them, as with any online game it is a mix, but the general attitude I got from people was they didn't want new players interfering with their race. It’s hard to figure out why this is, but it is an important fact. If you are looking for social interaction, it will take you quite some time to be accepted into a social group in Turbo Sliders. This is largely because the game is very difficult for new players. Don't expect to jump into this game and take home a gold medal online. Odds are you will spend your first few days just trying to FINISH a race. Turbo Sliders is a tough game, which isn’t a bad thing if that is what you like.

I was going to write about a game named ASDF Hoverboard… however the moment I clicked save I went back to the site and Lo! The game has been terminated. So you all get to hear my Racing Game Editorial Rant instead. Today’s rant is titled “Why You Think It Sucks.”

You would think that multiplayer racing games would be as popular as single player ones. The fact is, multiplayer racing games are not popular and every attempt at a massive multiplayer racing game of any scale or scope has failed. Now, Auto-Assault will be attempting to disprove that, but in reality Auto-Assault is no more a racing game than Doom3 is an opera-adventure. The only major attempt at massive multiplayer online racing was Motor City Online, an abysmal failure. Others have tried and met with modest success, such as Turbo Sliders, but nobody has broken the mold on multiplayer racing. Why?!

To answer this we ask “Why do RPGs do so well while other games do so poorly in multiplayer mode?” The reason is very simple: You want to be good at the game you play! You think the game sucks when you suck at it! Games of skill such as action-shooters, RTS, and racing become less popular the more “clearly” you can see yourself losing at it. Everyone should now be thinking “This is not true! Look at Counter-Strike! Look at Star Craft!” Well the key to this debate is that the successful games make it harder to see yourself lose. In Counter-Strike if you suck your teammates can carry you, same for Star Craft. Racing is much worse, there aren’t many team racing games. You are either in first place in racing or you are not winning. So, when you die in Counter-Strike your first 50 games, it doesn’t mean you had 50 losses, but losing 50 races is losing 50 races. By the time you are done you say to yourself, “This game sucks.”

So I challenge all the cowardly RPG players out there, who’s “skill” is seeing how many hours they can spend tread milling over the same terrain and monsters, to get a spine and find ANY game of skill, be it action, racing, or online poker, and see if there is something beyond camping a monster spawn point.

Well race fans, I hope this brings you up to speed on what is new with the indie race scene. Here are a few more games to check out:

Tiny Cars 2: Fun little car racing.
http://www.realore.com/tinycars

Chromadrome: Sky Roads Meets Marble Madness? A fun game, but not “racey” enough for my review.
http://www.alpha72.com/

Stay tuned to M.Indie: The only place to find the best in multiplayer independent titles. Next time M.Indie will take out the editorial rifle and aim at what features are behind good and bad communities in online games. Find out the truth in the next issue, M.Indie's Social Contract (AKA: Why some games are filled with idiots).