When comparing Trackmania Turbo vs TowerFall Ascension, the Slant community recommends TowerFall Ascension for most people. In the question“What are the best split-screen PS4 games?” TowerFall Ascension is ranked 3rd while Trackmania Turbo is ranked 23rd. The most important reason people chose TowerFall Ascension is:
You run, jump, and shoot arrows, which anyone can learn in a matter of minutes. To become a great player, however, there is a lot of technique and strategy to learn. This includes aiming, using cover, reading your opponent, and many other things. As a result TowerFall Ascension is accessible to casual players while also being able to keep the hardcore players interested.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Cars can be easily customized to your liking
While not necessary for the game and a bit limited, there are some painting customization for the available cars, which allow for a more individualistic look, though this only goes so far as most cars do look the same no matter the color.
Pro Robust track creator extends the gameplay
The track creator in the game allows for creation of just about anything one can imagine. What is even better is that players can share these tracks online, which means unlimited replayability due to always having a plethora of new tracks to race on.
Pro Crisp and clean visuals make for a very arcade-like feel
The graphics have a very arcade-like feel to them that stands out as something that has been designed with this in mind. The colors are bright and the tracks each have their own look, thanks to the locales they are placed in. The whole of the game will run easily at 60fps no matter the platform, which helps to keep the arcade-like feel while also looking sharp, thanks to no dips in the framerate. Overall this is a slick looking racer that performs solidly.
Pro Local and online multiplayer allows the game to be accessible no matter the preferred way to play
There is split screen local multiplayer as well as online multiplayer. Both of these allow players to play with their friends whether they are in the same room or online somewhere else. This makes for convenience, which is always nice to see.
Pro Over the top track design keeps the gameplay exciting
Cars dropped from a helicopter to begin a race, tracks with numerous loops, jumps, twist and turns, this all lends itself towards how over the top the gameplay is. It is not based in reality at all, but the game offers a bunch of arcade-crazy action that is just superbly fun.
Pro Simple in nature but focused in design
The looks, as well as the gameplay, may be seen as a bit simple, but this all plays into the core of the game. Trackmania is designed to do one thing, and one thing well, race time trials. So while it does not feature over-complex customizations or graphical effects, its track design and overly fun gameplay are what makes the whole thing stand out. This all means that the game is easy to grasp so that anyone can understand how to play. Of course this does not mean the game is easy, the difficulty is quite challenging, which just adds to the charm and overall appeal.
Pro Easy to learn but hard to master
You run, jump, and shoot arrows, which anyone can learn in a matter of minutes. To become a great player, however, there is a lot of technique and strategy to learn. This includes aiming, using cover, reading your opponent, and many other things. As a result TowerFall Ascension is accessible to casual players while also being able to keep the hardcore players interested.
Pro Feels fair at any skill level
Each player only has three arrows at the beginning of a match. Once they are fired, the arrows can be picked up by anyone. This way no player can build momentum that feels oppressive, allowing even new players to control the pace of a match since they can just hog all the arrows.
Pro Single-screen levels add depth to strategy
In the style of old school games like Asteroids, everything that moves outside the edge of the screen appears on the opposite side of it. Because of this you always need to remain aware of your surroundings and other player locations, so you don't get hit by an arrow coming from an unexpected direction. This adds a level complexity not found in many modern games, which is quite refreshing.
Pro Co-op mode that improves communication
TowerFall Ascension has a 2-player co-op mode where you and your friend fight against hordes of bad guys. It has friendly fire, so you need to communicate to avoid hurting each other. This creates a mode that motivates you to communicate with your friend more, leading to a lot of back and forth banter.
Cons
Con Basic looking cars are boring
There is not much to differentiate between cars, while not really the focus of the game, having a few more unique looking cars could not hurt.
Con Music is a bit "samey", which can get old
The music in the game is basically techno with thumping beats. The majority sounds pretty similar and it may become grating for those that spend a ton of time in the game. While not overly bad, it definitely gets old after a while.
Con No personal servers for PC
This means that online games will be dependent on the developers servers. There will be no way for users to create their own servers that can house their own rules or tracks. Earlier releases allowed for this and it does seem that the console release has held the game back in this regard as dedicated servers are how the consoles work as well.
Con Can be excruciatingly difficult
This is a time trial game and it shows, players will need to reset after reset each course in order to learn the track to get the best times. One mistake and that record is gone. Only pure perfection succeeds here. Some may enjoy this type of challenge, other though will most likely get frustrated.
Con Really short co-op campaign
The co-op quest mode takes around seven hours to complete. So if you're not interested in the competitive multiplayer aspect of TowerFall Ascension, you'll run out of things to do really fast.
Con Limited to just local multiplayer
As it is now, you're limited to just playing with or against your friends or not playing at all. If you could play matches against other players online, the game would've been a lot more accessible.