Toy Chaos 2 Sprint Track Sunday, 11th February 2024

That is one long track, even as a sprint track! It's a shame that some of the obstacle types have missing or poor collission.

Fantaisie n°1 Standard Track Sunday, 11th February 2024

I certainly hope to see this turned into a series at some point!

Hanging Gaps Standard Track Saturday, 10th February 2024

It's unique, lots of fun to race, and looks beautiful too! Great job.

Venice Arcade Standard Track Sunday, 1st October 2023

This is quite a special version of Gabor's classic Venice track, released in June 2002. It was included in the arcade version of Re-Volt that was released in September 2004. This game includes several tracks from the original game, some of which made easier, as well as one brand new track, and... a modified version of a custom track. I suppose Gabor must have given permission for use of the track in the game, which is interesting to consider, as the game was released over two years after the release of Venice, which was Gabor's last of three tracks. It also makes one wonder whether any other custom tracks were considered for inclusion. Besides these interesting questions, though, the track is not of much value in my opinion. Venice is a great classic, and this version could be considered to make it more accessible, as argued by Marv, who in 2014 brought the track to PC Re-Volt in collaboration with ThugsRook. However, I think the challenge is a big part of the appeal of Venice. Besides, this version of the track often doesn't look as good. I particularly dislike the walls in the inside area, they ruin the view there. So you had better just play the original! But it is very interesting that this version exists, and I'm glad it is easily available to everyone. I do think it would've been good if the archive included a readme. Video: https://youtu.be/4Zo_l6evf6U

Safety Car Misc. Car Sunday, 10th September 2023

This is quite a weird idea, and when I heard it I could barely believe it worked. When you start the race, you have to hit reverse/brakes. After letting go, the car will drive automatically you only have to steer. When you go straight, the car accelerates, and when you steer, it steers but also greatly decelerates. When you're stuck against a wall, the car will reverse into the direction that you steer into. Very interesting! The viability of this car depends a lot on the track. When taking a corner, you lose a lot of speed, so unless a track has a lot of straights, you can't really go fast. It might be possible to drive the car better than I do, and using analogue steering might help; I haven't used the car too much yet. One tip I can share is that you should not use battery, it messes up the controls. :') Just wait until you get zapped and waste it then, I guess... yeah, waste it, because getting zapped doesn't affect the car at all (except that you can't horn, I suppose :P). Something I found weird is that the car rotates in the air very easily. I wonder if that was necessary. Video: https://youtu.be/lMduVTHbl24

ATV Circuit Standard Track Sunday, 10th September 2023

I'm confused about this track's release history. It was published by Paperman in 2022, but it apparently received a major update. However, the earliest date I can find is March 25th, and the latest I can find is March 27th. Did the track really receive a major update within a couple of days? Perhaps. I'd like to see the original, in that case. Anyway: This track is very simple, and was inspired by the Game Boy Color game ATV Racing, which uses code of the cancelled Re-Volt port. Despite its simplicity, it's quite a challenge to go around, because of some humps that are formed so that they tend to flip your car upside down. Kind of annoying. :P You can try to avoid them by going into the grass, but you should take care to not lose too much speed in the grass, as the surface type is extreme, and you might have difficulty getting out of it. Overall, not a very enjoyable experience to me, although it's completely functional. It is interesting that it was inspired by ATV Racing, but I haven't actually seen much of this game. It was an unlicensed game. Video: https://youtu.be/ivuYkGZZkBw

Two neighborhoods Sprint Track Sunday, 10th September 2023

This track was made for the Re-Volt World Summer Contest of 2021. The goal here was to create a track that used one of the stock tracks. Keyran decided to combine Toys in the Hood 1 and Toys in the Hood 2, adding something new in the middle, and turning it into a Sprint track. I don't like this track. I've raced on the stock parts plenty, and I don't enjoy any of the original parts. Right away at the first turn that's not in Toys in the Hood 1 it is very obvious that you're getting into the custom part, as the road suddenly gets really wide and the track looks quite bare compared to what came before. However, shortly after this you get another shock, as the style of all textures completely changes. In general, I find that the new textures don't fit well with the textures from the original game. For the new part, there are two paths to take, which is a bit weird in a Sprint track, as you can only take one. But I'll show the other, more interesting, path in an alternative video. One of the paths is kind of boring and the other is rather crazy. If you can manage the jump in the house, this part is pretty fun, but usually I fall down and have to use a recovery path that skips the most interesting part. Something that's furthermore remarkable is that the transition between stock road texture and new road texture is quite abrupt: in one case it's only in the texture, which looks very weird, and in the other cases it's also reflected in the model, but this gives an awkward bump in the road. If you take the easier, less interesting path in the original content, it seems that the scale is off, everything looks really big. Also, both parts rely on excessively steep slopes, making for unpleasant races. Sorry, there's not much good I have to say about this track. :P I really don't enjoy it. Fortunately I like most of Keyran's other tracks! The phat_trolley packlist adds three Phat Slugs traversing the road in two spots, and traffic signs in these places to indicate their presence. This is a cute detail, although it doesn't affect gameplay too much. This seems to be the only track so far that uses this packlist thing, so it took me a hint from Keyran to figure it out. It's a neat extra, but it does not make the track worth replaying for me. In my video on it you can also see the other path in the original part of the track, which is quite hard to do well, because of the very steep slopes. It is the more interesting path, though! Video: https://youtu.be/gGhGjOdCBdw Video (phat_trolley): https://youtu.be/PYkxFUXcpnA

Pluto: NAN0-5JJ Breach Standard Track Sunday, 10th September 2023

In 2018, Biometal released three variants of earlier released planet tracks. Here is the variant for Pluto, where disaster has struck. The readme contains some interesting backstory. :) This track is very dark, which is a bit of a downside of this version. It is otherwise quite fun, though! For some reason I kept forgetting to slow down after the ! trigger before the crater. This version has no pick-ups, which I think is fine. It also doesn't have speedups. Overall, I think I might like this variant a bit more, but both are worth playing! The music doesn't loop well, which is easily fixed. Video: https://youtu.be/OoW1WXvPc5k Video (music fixed): https://youtu.be/p02cGQhqUfE

Wildland Standard Track Sunday, 10th September 2023

Wildland is a really unique track. It started as an idea to create a track in a day, by using satellite imagery to get the roads, and then do some modelling to add depth. However, of course it took a lot longer than anticipated. ;) But I'm very glad javildesign took the opportunity to polish up the track and make it a high-quality release, as it's well worth playing! The satellite imagery is from Texas, USA. Texas is rather flat, but javildesign added some elevation to make it more interesting. Other elements such as tires and guardrails add a lot to the atmosphere, as do the animated flags. The experience is completed by a stunning skymap, and apparently a wind force, although I wasn't able to find where this is defined, nor did I notice it (which is good). The track is surprisingly fun to race. The surface type feels really good, and the bumpy terrain is a lot of fun to navigate. There is a good balance between turns and straights. What I love most about the track though, is that you can drive up the banks around the track, and cut off parts where you'd like to try. There are no crazy surface types or annoying repos to keep you in, so you can have fun using all of the track to your advantage. Except... the track was updated in 2022, and in this version my very favourite cut was disabled with a repo. I don't know why. :| As far as I can tell though, in the rest of the track you can still cut to your heart's delight, which actually makes it a bit more of an odd decision. Oh well, I'll just keep playing the 2020 version! One more cool thing about this track is that javildesign recorded the custom sfx himself, and also composed the music track. :) Oh, and also, I'm in the credits. ;) Apparently I helped test this track! This is a must-have in your Re-Volt collection: it is a very unique track, but it is also just a lot of fun. It has a fair length, yet it'll be over before you know it. Video (latest version): https://youtu.be/YbCPIhtLn7E Video (original version): https://youtu.be/MTZ0qUPEDB0

Challenge Lake Standard Track Sunday, 10th September 2023

This track takes place around a lake, with also parts through a cave and in a very narrow ditch. This latter part is where most of the challenge comes from. You'll probably not be driving full speed here. The track's graphics aren't superb, especially the lake area looks rather bland. A bigger problem however is that the entire track uses the default surface type, whereas the track would've been a lot more fun and realistic if the lake part and probably also the ditch part had a looser surface. Overall, not one I'd recommend. Video: https://youtu.be/IdJeTVTg_XU