706th played so far
Genre: Simulation
Platform: PC
Year of Release: 2000
Developer: Balazs Rozsa
Publisher: Balazs Rozsa
Sometimes, an indie physics simulation is what you need to play. The screenshots of Elasto Mania – a motor cycle racing game with early 2000s simple graphics never quite sat with the memory of a game description that I would have expected to be more like Stretch Panic – a completely unrelated game.
Here, we’re talking about a motorcycle game, physics based as we drive through… some area? It’s not quite clear, all I know is that there’s an elastic motorbike, really.
Our Thoughts
In the end, Elasto Mania has a simple concept. You drive around on a motorbike that stretches, yeah, accelerating in either direction, trying to manipulate jumps and other physics interactions to get you from point to point – both to gain apples that open the exit and to get to the exit itself. It mainly gives you the challenge of how to reach these points – easy at the start, but the included levels ramp up difficulty really quickly, and that challenge only gets more difficult in the user created additional levels. The controls are messy – gain air, and you’ll keep spinning without a way to stop it if you’re not careful, and I didn’t figure out the controls for it. You just have to keep it steady so you don’t facpelant, which feels tricker than needed.
I feel like the custom made levels are the more interesting part of the games – as a physics puzzler, it’s fine but only gives you so much. When the user comes in, it becomes a lot more challenging and you get the really unique options in there. It’s also still not that common for games to support user generated content to this extent, which sets it apart on its own.
Final Thoughts
Showing the power of user generated content more than anything, the physics in this game are occasionally stimulating but nothing too special. Instead, seeing what people do with such a basic engine is more interesting and stimulating.