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Reviewing Nadeo's multiplayer shooter ShootMania is an odd exercise; it is, in style if not in substance, rather like passing judgement on a box of paints. It is a matter of fact that some are red and some green, but what really matters is their eventual use. Do they sit in a drawer or become a constant companion - end up as a dilettante's plaything, or in the busy hands of a Picasso? The metaphor doesn't quite hold, of course, for one good reason; these days, everyone shares a canvas.In ShootMania's case this means ManiaPlanet, a production that perhaps marks the ultimate expression of Nadeo's player-centric philosophy. Ever since its breakout success with the stunt racer TrackMania the developer has focused, with no small degree of altruism, on feeding its dedicated community with more tools, more options, more avenues for sharing. ManiaPlanet is a wonderful endpoint to this vision, a shared hub for Nadeo's games that has been knocking around in prototype builds for several months but seems now in a final form - until the next major update, naturally.
I can sum up why ManiaPlanet is a good thing very easily: it is not a pain in the ass. As you may imagine I have accounts on every gaming service going, and it never ceases to amaze that something like uPlay (from ShootMania's publisher Ubisoft) is such a lousy user experience; this is because it's been misconceived for a world where people play nothing but Ubisoft games. ManiaPlanet avoids such overestimation of its own importance and instead concentrates on fuss-free and fast start-up (yes!), clear navigation (YES) and providing easy access to downloads of community creations (YES I WILL YES). It's won a desktop shortcut on my PC, and that says everything.
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