Walkthroughs

How not to Burnout in Maximum Car - top tips and tricks

Maximise your playing time

How not to Burnout in Maximum Car - top tips and tricks
|
iOS
| MAXIMUM CAR

Maximum Car has rather won the hearts of most of the PG crew, what with its silliness and its loving nods to Burnout and Chase HQ.

But it's tricky to start with. We know that crashing is kind of the point here, but we found ourselves smashing into stuff rather more than the developer probably intended early on.

It's hard to provide a guide to a game that essentially requires repeat play to perfect, but here's what we've picked up so far.

Drift to boost

Drifting is tightly bound up with boosting. You can earn boost by drifting, but you can also prolong your boost by doing so while drifting.

In most arcade racers you reserve your boost for the straights, but in Maximum Car it pays to boost through corners.

Perfecting the art of drifting

As we've just mentioned, drifting is the key to building up boost quickly, but it can feel counterintuitive at first. You initiate a drift by steering into the turn and tapping the opposite direction.

Obviously the whole opposite direction thing can disrupt the way you take the corner, so the key to this is making sure you're turning properly before tapping the opposite direction. Also, when we say tap, we mean tap - don't hold the opposite direction any longer than you can.

Once you're sliding, you can freely switch directions depending on the curves you encounter and you'll maintain the slide.

Buy a really good car early on

It's always tempting to buy a new car early on, but you'll make life easier for yourself if you take the early races (which are pretty easy) to save up 50,000 to 60,000 coins and buy one of the best cars first.

With Buttons - the 60,000 VW Camper-a-like - you'll have a well-balanced, fast-accelerating car that will help you compete in the tougher races. The Taser, meanwhile, is a super-grippy and surprisingly tough race car.

Alternatively, you can pay 50,000 credits to maximise your default car, which actually turns it into a pretty tasty little runner.

Don't forget to maximise

Speaking of maximising, it's easy to forget the area that gives the game its title. Don't.

You shouldn't bother maximising your rockets and boost before every race, but when the going gets tough it can make a massive difference. It's also handy to maximise your rockets if you're specifically trying to unlock new cars, as it boosts the chance of getting hits - and multiple hits, when your opponents bunch up.

Far more worthwhile, though, is the aforementioned practice of maximising your car. Unlike the rockets and boosts, maximising your car is a one-off, permanent enhancement that improves your vehicle in every way. Do it.

Drive against the flow

You get easy points for driving on the left side of the road, against the flow of traffic. So do it! In general, it's pretty easy to avoid collisions, and you can survive all but a direct head-on conclusion.

Even when you do wipe out, the game doesn't penalise you too much. So go on, live dangerously.

Battle - but not too much

You get points for 'battling' - that is, physically trading blows with other cars. But don't over do it.

If a car doesn't fold after a few bashes, move on, as it'll just slow your progress. And the idea is always to win!

Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.