Lane Rush

Lane Rush is a three-lane driving game with a clay-toy look. A chunky little car rolls through miniature towns full of pitched roofs, smoking chimneys, market stalls, boats and lanterns. You never steer freely: you hop between three lanes, so every decision is about which lane to be in and when to move.

The campaign has 120 stages in eight regions of 15, from Meadow Lane to the Lantern Festival. Every stage has one goal: reach the finish, collect coins, deliver parcels, pull off near misses or beat a time limit. The last stage of each region is a tougher challenge, and clearing it opens the next region. You get three hearts per stage; a crash leaves a dent and costs one, and the drive also ends if the fuel runs dry. Stars go to completing the goal, grabbing 60 percent of the coins and finishing without a dent.

Fuel drains the whole time, so the red cans matter as much as the coins. Passing right next to a car or obstacle is a near miss, which charges your nitro, and near misses in quick succession build a combo for extra points. Nitro speeds you up for a few seconds, doubles the points from distance and lets you smash through small things in your way. You will also find magnets that pull in coins, shield bubbles that absorb one hit and parcels for delivery goals. Each region adds one idea: cars that blink before changing lanes, ramps over fallen logs, ducks crossing the square, ice where you cannot steer, canal gates that swap the open lane at the last moment, gusts and rolling barrels on the cliffs, and parade floats two lanes wide.

A few habits help. Give blinking cars room, because they are about to move over. Save nitro for crowded stretches, where it turns obstacles into points instead of dents. Pick your lane before an ice patch, since you cannot change it on the ice. And the road always keeps at least one lane open that you can reach with a single lane change, so when things look blocked, look for that gap.

Coins buy eight cars, ten paints and a set of trails, plus one-stage boosts such as a magnet, a shield or a full nitro bar; some cars unlock only in later regions. Endless mode joins the regions into one road that changes scenery every 1,500 metres and keeps speeding up. One hit ends the run, and your best score goes on the leaderboard. Lane Rush plays on desktop and on phones in either orientation, with keys, mouse, taps or swipes.

Each stage has a goal: deliver parcels, pull off near misses, beat the clock or just reach the finish. There are three stars per stage: one for the goal, one for collecting most of the coins and one for finishing without a dent.

Coins buy new cars, paints and trails, plus one-stage boosts like a magnet or a shield. As you work through the campaign you move into new regions, and each one teaches you a new kind of obstacle.