XBLA Wednesday: Mad Tracks

Filed in archive XBLA on May 30, 2007

Now here's a racer I can enjoy -- Mad Tracks is an original title in which you race tiny Hot-wheels-esque toy cars around elaborate tracks set up in environments like toy stores and restaraunts. The physics are decidedly unrealistic and there's a dozen power-ups ranging from heat-seeking missiles to the always classic oil spill.

The game itself seems pretty fun but there is something about Mad Tracks that concerns me -- the pricing structure. The core game will run you the standard 800 MS Points ($10 US), but they've already announced two "expansion packs" with extra tracks that will each cost 350 MSP (Just over $4 US). I don't like this psuedo-deceptive practice -- see how quickly they can turn your $10 purchase into a $20 one? And what's with the odd price on the expansions? It's bad enough that we're still stuck buying points in bundles, but setting odd point values on downloads so that you'll be stuck with points you can't use (basically, giving Microsoft an interest-free loan) is just lame.