Moto Titans

How to play Moto Titans

Three laps of an alpine pass against three riders. The throttle is W or the GAS pad, the front brake is S, the rear brake is Shift or the REAR pad, and A and D lean the bike. That last one is the thing to understand: lean is a state the bike is in, not a direction you are steering. You ask for lean, the bike rolls into it, and the front wheel follows because a leaning motorcycle turns - which means the bike counter-steers on the way in and needs to be stood back up on the way out, both of which take time you have to plan for. Everything else falls out of the same simulation: too much throttle out of a slow corner lifts the front, too much front brake into one drops it, and asking for lean and brake together on a cold line is how a lowside starts.

Tips

• •Lean early. The bike takes real time to roll over, so the input that gets you round a corner has to happen before the corner, not in it.
• •Finish braking before you commit the lean. Front brake and lean angle compete for the same grip, and the front is what lets go first.
• •Use the rear brake to settle the bike mid-corner. It slows you far less than the front and upsets the line far less too.
• •Roll the throttle on progressively as you stand the bike up. Opening it at full lean is the other way to lose the front.
• •A wheelie is lost time, not style. If the front is coming up out of a hairpin you are asking for more than the rear can put down.
• •Stay on the tarmac. The red and white kerb is still track, but the gravel past it drags the bike down hard, and the guardrail beyond that stops you.

About Moto Titans

Moto Titans is a motorcycle game that models roll properly, which is rarer than it sounds. Most browser bike games steer the machine like a car and tilt the model over for looks; here lean is an actual dynamics state with its own inertia, and the cornering comes from the lean rather than the other way round. The consequences are not scripted anywhere: counter-steering, wheelies, stoppies and lowsides all emerge because the same equations that make the bike turn also make it fall over when you ask too much of it. The rivals run the same physics and the same track, and the difficulty is in how hard they are willing to lean rather than in any speed bonus. The setting is a mountain pass at blue hour, three laps, no shortcuts.

What you need

Graphics

WebGL, which every browser from the last decade has switched on already

Controls

Keyboard or touchscreen

On a phone

Yes

Install

Nothing. It runs in this tab.

Questions

Why does the bike not turn immediately?

Because it has to lean first. Lean is simulated as a real state with inertia, so there is a delay between asking for it and getting it - the same delay a real motorcycle has. Turn in earlier than feels natural.

Why do I keep crashing in corners?

Almost always front brake and lean angle at the same time. They compete for the same grip and the front tyre is what lets go. Finish your braking upright, then lean.

What happens if I run wide?

The kerb is still part of the track. Past it is gravel, which slows the bike fast; stay out there for a second and a half and you are put back on the racing line. The guardrail at the edge holds you and scrubs off more speed.

Is there touch support?

Yes - a lean pad on one side and gas, brake and rear-brake pads on the other.

If you liked this

• Fare CityTaxi driving
• Transform RaceTransformation racer
• Trail BlitzBike racer
• Poly RacerRacing