PolyTrack is a Trackmania tribute – almost identical gameplay mechanics, but with digital controls, simplified driving model, and a very stripped-back graphical style. It’s even simpler than Virtua Racing in many ways, with the car having a polygon count almost in the single digits. This simplicity means that it runs incredibly smoothly, even in-browser at https://kodub.itch.io/polytrack.

Much like Trackmania, the courses are short but deceptively tricky to complete. There are (usually) a few checkpoints throughout the course, and you can restart from those if you want – but the time does not reset, meaning that if you want to log a decent score you’ll need to restart from the beginning, again and again and again.

The physics seem very internally consistent, although it can be hard to judge when you’re racing on the wall or the ceiling, with only the downforce (upforce?) on your car keeping you aloft. As you work through the courses, there are some that are a bit overly complicated in terms of finding the route – especially the tower at the end of the Summer series, where you climb up high through various ramps and half-pipes, and then have to drive done the wall outside (made more complicated by the fact the camera doesn’t snap to the back of your car, so it’s effectively reversed on the way down). I have completed all the default courses, but some of the “community courses” are just a bit too obscure or long-winded.

Again like Trackmania, there’s a course designer. There’s a way to import and export designs (as well as game progress) through text. Here’s a fun, easy course from me.

PolyTrack14pdHKH1dCCCGAGefS7oY1usPABPlg5auY3ZKg5aUTDx6Xft1Vvnnz5Vl3K2wXsHnmmy5mE4QkHIUrAz8AmmbPOCA23BEJHisWgcn5fKmqxFKqiQoZ7C2fNmpsPzO7aAzyfvMuujFyVthpgbZSciWNEfl4peLPbpiaW01hckpss8EzpFt4i27ZmK55TvH3bAjQvth7TjtDzVo3aA9eNSNphJTd2peTd9zlodrqGLiIk51jiF93CuZXgPzUixNaNqFdDJUfckej1P6P0lEGvQmoPsXDfCleCc7HvKXryrj37lfuRWX4zqQ4hSjbuuyY5b1uFQ4I5qCeLQjGMWi

With sufficient blocking of the guards’ attacks, and aggressive hits towards them, it’s possible to get most guards to back up over the edge of a pit, landing on spikes, or getting cut in half by the blades. Doing so take time, but it’s very satisfying. Serves them right for attacking me.

I’ve completed level 11 now, and am back up in the palace after my return to the dungeons. In keeping with the way the original game allowed for saves, I am trying to keep my time for each level down as much as possible, so theoretically the overall game time would not exceed an hour, but the ability to adjust times per level after the fact makes the game much more fun to play. It’s still not easy – and it’s definitely my skill level that’s at fault here, not the controls – and I frequently die towards the end of a stage by misjudging a jump or accidentally just running over a cliff.

One level in particular took me a very long time to complete. Level 7 really isn’t that difficult – you have to loop around to find a potion which allows you to jump down much further than usual – but there were some parts which I just really struggled with executing, particularly when there was a time limit of a gate closing. The full map of the level can be found here, but it’s no immediately obvious where there are difficulties.

Anyway, the change in backgrounds is a relief, and the level design continues to be inventive. In level 11 there is one section where it seems you could simply climb up a ledge, but if you try to do so a guard would kill you before you had a chance to get your sword out. Instead there is a long convoluted route around so you can be on the passageway above, and then running to the left (across a floor that is collapsing as you run) means that you fall down at the other edge of the screen, giving you time to fight the guard.