Mad Road Driver Review

A post-apocalyptic wasteland is as good a location as any for an endless racing game. No one is going to question the need to speed down ruined highways forever because what else is there? Mad Road Driver continues the trend of fun, good-looking games being made from awful, ugly scenarios.

The moment a giant truck with front-mounted spikes starts barreling towards the screen, Mad Road Driver firmly establishes itself as part of the Mad Max school of post-apocalypses. It might as well be a school bus. Players must race for their life and drive their little armored car as far as possible while staying ahead of this looming threat. A few minor bumps bring the danger perilously close, while a full-on collision ends the game entirely. Fortunately, the endless highway’s five different lanes give players enough potential escape routes to choose from so that deaths never feel unfair. While on the road, players can crash into treasure boxes for power-ups like bombs or time freezes. They can also purchase them in the menus using the gears they’ve collected during each run.

Mad Road Driver does little to differentiate itself from its very obvious influences, but it makes up for that unoriginality with tight execution. The controls are incredibly fluid, making it a breeze to quickly shift between lanes. That’s partially due to the game’s silky smooth frame rate and overall technically impressive visuals. The barren, brown desert roads and rocky archways are brought to life with great detail all without sacrificing the game’s excellent sense of speed. Players can see tumbling boulders or forking paths in the distance and time their next moves accordingly. Some bits of geometry are a little blocky up close, but the game skillfully hides them with dynamic, swooping camera movements. Even the down home country music sounds good when paired with these visuals.

Mad Road Driver is well-made, uncomplicated fun. At the end of the world, who could want more than that?

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