Things On Wheels

Available on XBLA is the insane racing game Things On Wheels (TOW). This Micro Machine-esque racing game allows you to drive mini radio controlled (RC) cars around various rooms in a swanky mansion.

TOW comes with the standard single and multiplayer with the addition of sandbox mode. In single player you can play your way through ‘Championship’ which has four episodes, each with five tracks that are based in different parts of the mansion.

The arcade mode, which can be found in the single player, gives you the chance to play the tracks you’ve unlocked through Championship. You can also change things up with the various racing rules.  One of the rules you can play is Red Lantern, where the last one to finish each lap is out but their car remains on the track creating dead traffic. Endurance mode sets a timer between 2-20mins, whoever drives the longest distance during that time, wins.  Also in arcade there are two variations of co-op, with standard co-op where the first in the team to cross the line wins and co-op points where the team with the most points wins.

In sandbox you are able to try out the three types of RC cars which are ‘Muscle, Vintage and Super Sport’. It also gives you a taste of the types of environments you will come across. For multiplayer you can play up to four on split-screen and also via Xbox Live.

As with any good racing game, TOW has its own version of power ups. Known as ‘Bonuses’, there are four, which if used at the right time can be the difference between winning and losing. There is the obligatory ‘Turbo Boost’ bonus, ‘Lightning’ Bolt’ which electrifies nearby cars, causing them to lose power and the ‘Ice  Attack’ which turns the players tyres into ice which causes the other cars to skid and crash. The final bonus is the ‘Shield’, which can deflect attacks from other cars and the random objects which can obstruct your path. When you drive over a bonus, a gauge in the bottom left hand corner fills up. The more you collect the same bonus, the more your gauge will fill up.  But be careful, if you drive into a different bonus you then lose what you were building up.

The controls are simple with the trigger buttons acting for accelerator and brake, the X button is your horn, A is for your power up, B is to look in your rear view mirror and is Y to respawn your car at the beginning of the track.

TOW does have a certain charm to it and if you have a competitive side you can get easily obsessed with trying to beat the AI which at times can be more than tricky to beat.  Although I did enjoy the game as a whole and it does offer a whole heap of game modes I did feel at times that TOW didn’t really stand out for me. You can get TOW for 800 Ms points but would recommend giving the trial a whirl before you buy.