Hot Rod Game is Smoking

There’s nothing worse than clipping a wall or running over a patch of grass and losing control right at a critical moment in a race, so being given a degree of lenience when it comes to minor tings like this makes the game much more enjoyable. There are a number of ways to score points throughout the race including overtaking, drifting through turns and landing safely over any jumps. All the cars are supped-up with nitrous oxide (NOS) and if you use it wisely it can give you a timely boost and gain you a few extra yards on your race rivals. The game also centres on the idea of “pink slipping” or winning your rivals rides.

You have the option of staking your car against one of the other racers’ cars and if you win then you get their car, if not then you can kiss goodbye to your old faithful. The range of cars is good and the graphics are very well crafted. The controls are easy to use: touch the screen to brake, tilt to turn either left or right and don’t touch the screen accelerate. Overall, the game is one of the most exciting and easiest to operate and it without doubt in pole position in terms of the other racing games available. You’ll want to revisit the game time and time again and, in my opinion, it will be one of the best purchases you’ll make for your iPhone.

Firemint, the developer of cool mobile games such as The Fast & the Furious: Pink Slip and FIA World Rally Championship, has announced some released new details on its upcoming iPhone racegame Real Racing. The game is currently in pre-beta and is looking awesome:

Features

* Up to 6 cars on screen
* Animated cockpit with driver and instruments showing race data
* Touch on right to accelerate. on Left to brake
* Licensed songs, different types of vehicle types
* Realistic physics and collision response
* Camera button to switch views
* Different AI personalities

Source: Touch Arcade

Black Mamba Racer harks back to those days of old and invokes memories of classic bygone titles such as Super Sprint, Spy Hunter and APB. The game is a simple top down racing game that takes place across nine different tracks and 25 missions. Included are power-ups and the ability to damage your car which adds to the replay-value and variety of the game.

Upon starting the game it’s clear that Black Mamba Racer isn’t going to win any awards for its visual appearance. This is not to say the graphics are particularly bad, they do capture a retro feel quite convincingly, but rather in today’s’ world of high presentation values and professionally designed games BMR looks a little too ‘homemade’.

It is a testament to iPhone gamers that BMR has been a success despite of its looks. It’s one of those games that you must play to really appreciate; static screen shots just don’t do it justice! The release of a lite version has certainly aided sales and enabled the title to stay in the higher echelons of the iPhone games chart for many weeks. It shows that small developers can create a successful title without having to match the big boys in terms of production values just as long as the game-play is good.

In this case the game-play is good. Your car skids and slides like crazy and feels very retro in the way it handles, a far cry from the ultra realistic car handling mechanics found in most racing games today. In the early stages of play you feel as if you’re driving on ice. The over played momentum and drift provide a frustrating experience and then, as in all great games, something clicks and you find yourself gliding majestically round the tracks like Lewis Hamilton – only better! BMR uses on screen pseudo buttons rather than using motion control and is better for it. You do lack the tangible feel of press down on a mechanical switch but after a little play even novice players will be timing their cornering to perfection.

BMR features only 9 tracks which are unlocked in a linear manner, first you take part in time trials for the right to face the drone cars and then ultimately face off against the black mamba herself. The game features 25 missions or challenges in total and once you have learnt the track layouts most players won’t have too many issues completing them fairly easily. Indeed if we were to find fault in Black Mamba Racer it would be in the poorly balanced difficulty and progression. The times do get more challenging and the drones faster but once you’ve beaten the first three tracks the rest are fairly straightforward. The drones also don’t display the same vehicle behaviour as your car which does look rather strange.

One added bonus is the option to play against a friend using local WiFi and this does add a degree of longevity to the title although I’m sure most players won’t use this feature. The game would have benefited from having a number of racing cars to select from and an upgrade path with new parts purchased from a shop or garage to allow each player to tweak their vehicle to their own individual driving style. Starbyte might well be planning to add these features to forthcoming updates, a wise move if they did!

In summary Black Mamba Racer delivers exactly what you would expect. It’s a game that harks back to a bygone era where game-play mattered more than fancy visuals. If you like top down racing games and are prepared to spend some time getting used to the ‘feel’ of your racing car and enjoy the retro feel then you won’t be disappointed. If you prefer your racing in a more serious, realistic manner then you’ll probably struggle to get to grips with it. It’s a lot of fun, offers great value for money and is a good example of substance triumphing over style.

Score:

Ferrari GT: Evolution is another great iPhone game developed by Gameloft. This $9.99 game has an awesome feature list and will definitely be one of the top selling App Store games. Everyone who saw the cinematic trailer of the game might be a little disappointed by the graphics in-game, but it’s by far one of the best-looking iPhone and iPod Touch games out on the market. With future updates it will be possible to race gamers from all over the world. Ferrari GT: Evolution will be available tonight.

The most recent iPhone SDK’s allow developers to output apps via Video Out to a screen. Freeverse has modified its iPhone and iPod Touch game Moto Chaser so that it can be played on a TV screen. Normally the game runs at 26 FPS, but the TV-version of the game runs at only 20 FPS. Let’s hope that Apple will allow developers to use this cool feature in all of their games.

via Ars Technica

Today developer Polarbit has dropped the price of Wave Blazer, a fun boat racer for iPhone and iPod Touch. The original price of the game was $4.99, but now the game has been dropped to just $0.99. The game features a single player and a multiplayer mode.

Gameloft has released another cinematic trailer of its upcoming iPhone and iPod Touch game Ferrari GT Evolution. Just like in the other video, the game looks graphically stunning in the trailer. But don’t expect the game itself to be graphically this good. Ferrari GT Evolution is coming out in December.

Fuel Industries, a Canadian interactive company and iPhone developer, has developed its second iPhone game. In Zombie Drive you’re the only left in a quarantined zone sectioned off by the army. If you’re doomed to get nuked, you might as well take out some zombies on the way—by driving them over. The game is a full 3D driving game built in Unity and will soon be available for just $0.99 in the App Store.

In Low Grav Racer for the iPhone and iPod Touch you control a ship flying on low gravity circuits. By picking up special items and lightning bolts you can get to the finish even faster. Fans of futuristic racegames will immediately think of WipeOut when they see the video of the game. Low Grav Racer is developed by CobraMobile, the studio behind Mouse About and Numba. The game should come out soon.