Uncomplicated mechanics and controls seem to be essential in iPhone and iPad games due to the limitations of the interface. Games that forget they are being played through a touch screen and try to overcomplicate their gameplay with elements that would be happier in a PC or console environment can render themselves unplayable. With this in mind, when something comes along that has a simple control interface, it is not only a pleasure to play but more importantly, something that you are happy to keep going back to.
Today I’m looking at Dream Track Nation which is one of these titles that is effective in its simplicity.
Title: Dream Track Nation
Developer: PowPow Games
Publisher: Chillingo
Price: 69p
Dream Track Nation from PowPow games is a beautifully simple racing game that best resembles fiddling around with a Hot Wheels set where you have slightly more control over the car after it’s launched. With a simple controls that allow you to move forwards and backwards, you have to beat the clock in a huge selection of levels across several different environments.
With a visual style that sits somewhere between Little Big Planet’s hand-crafted look and that of a vintage cartoon, Dream Track Nation has a huge amount of charm that stands out amongst other titles on my device.
Although gameplay is so easy to grasp that it’s impossible not to be instantly drawn in, it is not without its criticism. I have more than once hit a brick wall in level design which has caused my little car to go rocketing off into the middle distance or helplessly fall short of a jump, but as the levels are fairly short and restarting is never a problem, this never became too frustrating and instead my many failures were more likely to become a source of amusement.
The controls succeed in placing virtual buttons on the screen where a lot of iOS titles don’t, partly because there are only two of them and partly because they are placed at logical places in each corresponding corner. The other element to the controls is that you can tilt your iPhone or iPad to make your car do flips in mid air whenever you launch off one of the many ramps in each level. This was for me less successful and overly twitchy, but I feel this could easily be because I play these games on an iPad. On the much smaller iPhone, it is likely to be more responsive and less of an issue.
Dream Track Nation also comes with a track editor, allowing you to create and share your own levels. The editor is surprisingly intuitive and easy to get to grips with, adding extra replayability if you tire of the tracks included. Level editors in general are more often than not awkward affairs that take a long time to fully comprehend, but with this, it’s incredibly straight forward to get something playable up and running in a few seconds and something more elaborate in only a few minutes.
There are a few other quirks to the game that might prevent me from raving about it too much. I find some of the background animations, such as the fireworks to be a little distracting and unnecessary, and the crates that litter some of the tracks and scatter whenever you hit them appear to have been accidentally dumped here on their way to Angry Birds, but it’s hard to criticise the title for much else.
With short and fast levels, it’s easy to drop in and out of the game whenever you have a minute and with simple controls it’s easy to pick up and get going with. There are also a huge number of extra items and cars that can be unlocked as you’re playing which will keep the game fresh for a decent amount of time and will add a little extra variety to your races.
I often gravitate towards recommendations when a game has managed to achieve simplicity whist remaining compelling (it’s only a matter of time before Google points to this site if you search for “simple and compelling mechanic” considering how often I seem to write it) and so it’s no surprise that I would give this a thumbs up. You may find a few moments of irritation with the occasionally floaty physics, but it won’t be enough to prevent you from coming back to it. As with a lot of apps, it’s incredibly difficult to argue with the price, and at 69p, you will get much more than your money’s worth with Dream Track Nation. This is another highly polished and refined title that I hope finds success in the App store.