Monster Tracks

Monster Tracks is a physics driving game from Fancade in which a top-heavy monster truck has to be nursed across some very unfriendly ground. You only ever do two things: drive forward with W, D, the up or right arrow or a mouse click, and back up with S, A or the down or left arrow. All the skill is in the throttle. Those oversized soft tyres squash, grip and then suddenly catapult the truck, so holding the gas down flips you onto your roof while short, patient taps walk you over almost anything.

Every level is a hand-built obstacle course: spline bridges that sag under your weight, loose pebbles that steal your grip, tree logs, spinning windmills that swat you off the track, and ramps that decide whether you land on your wheels or your cab. Water underneath ends the run the second you touch it, so a stuck truck is usually saved by rocking backwards and forwards to find a new angle rather than flooring it. Coins you collect go into a shop with three upgrades — power, grip and weight — and they genuinely change how the truck behaves: weight keeps the nose down on climbs, grip claws up slopes, power gets you over the big stuff but flips you far more easily. If you like this kind of throttle-control puzzle, take on Drive Mad next.