'Fast & Furious' Racer with YouTube Replays
posted by arn on April 3rd, 2009 10:10 AM EDT in $5.99, Racing, Upcoming Games, iPhone games
I-play and Firemint have released a new Fast & Furious [App Store] iPhone game to the App Store this morning. This racing game is a tie-in to the Fast & Furious movie that is also opening today.
The game is more of an arcade racer than a traditional sim racer. It ties in with scenes inspired by the actual movie and offers a story mode that takes you through the different races. The game offers 36 different vehicles, 18 levels with 4 unique environments.
Most interesting, however, is the fact that Firemint seems to have developed the game with some of the technologies that are also coming in Real Racing. For example: Fast & Furious integrates the CloudCell technology, allowing players to compete against others in online and upload replays of your races to YouTube.
A sample replay video is embedded here. No other cars are shown since you are simply trying for the best time to rank on the leaderboard against others.
The game also offers local Wi-Fi multiplayer races alongside the online leaderboard competitions. As an arcade racer, the controls are somewhat simplified as compared to more traditional racers. Controls are accelerometer based with automatic acceleration. Braking can be performed by tapping on the screen. The game also adds a "nitro" boost to provide that extra bit of acceleration.
The game revolves around specific racing missions that mix up gameplay. These include chasing down other cars and taking them out, checkpoint ("GPS") racing, drag racing, drift racing, and more. Beyond story mode, each mission can also be played in a "Quick Race" that lets you practice whatever race you'd like.
The game ran smoothly on my iPhone 3G, and is visually appealing. Compared to many of the other racers out there, this one offers much more of a "fun" arcade feel.
This gameplay video shows the first mission (with full cut scenes which can be skipped) and a drag race in a tunnel. Beyond these, there are more traditional street races against multiple cars where pink-slips are on the line.
[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]
Update: This official trailer (YouTube) shows a glimpse at all the different gameplay modes.
App Store Link: Fast & Furious The Game, $5.99
looks nice will be picking it up. this is going to be a nice month for gameing on my ipod. can't wait for real racin'!
actually looks pretty good. too expensive though, I've already filled my app budget for the month lol
Its a really good game that every1 schould have
Wow this looks better than NFS………..
I might just pick this up.
Graphics wise no. Fun maybe. Although I've been playing this game over and hour and it's pretty nice. In nfs I think you can take out the cops and here you take out the cars. Anyway nice game crashed twice I think and I don't get crashes often. wish they had a senstivty button the car is too sentivite right now hope they add an update soon.
Here's an official trailer that shows all the different race modes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH0IvmMeW6o&fmt=18
For all those on the fence, not sure if they want to spend $5.99, you can pick up the earlier game from Firemint in the Fast and Furious franchise, The Fast and the Furious: Pink Slip 3D for $2.99 (if you haven't already). That one's a pretty great racer in its own right.
I'll be sure to pick this one up as I really enjoyed Pink Slip.
BTW, I see in the trailer vid from Firemint that the headphone jack is on the bottom right hand side. As I didn't have that issue with Pink Slip on my iPod touch, I can only assume the player in the video is playing on an iPhone.
Here's the problem, and it's something that I noticed with Pink Slip:
There's no screen flip/screen orientation toggle option. While I didn't need it because on the iPod touch the headphone jack wound up on the upper left hand side, due to the different placement of the headphone input on the iPhone, the iPhone users out there might not be comfortable playing this game, same for Pink Slip and, I gather since Firemint is the developer, same for the upcoming Real Racing.
So, if any rep from Firemint happens to be reading this:
Screen flip/toggle option. Your games desperately need them. Gameloft does it for most of their games (particularly the racers), and so too does FishLabs (after I and others urged them to do so). You need to make your racers comfortable for EVERYONE to play, and keep in mind that to do that in a game with landscape mode means a screen flip option is necessary.
Meant to say: Bottom left hand side in the trailer, top right hand side on iPod touch.
Sorry.
Didn't get much sleep last night, heh
So far it may look very good, but the controls are HORRIBLE!
There is no car control, I can barely drive in a straight line.
And in the drifting mode FORGET ABOUT IT!
I will so a review on for this game this weekend.
reviewsbysteve
I don't own the game, but IGN recommends it highly (8,5/10). Here's the review:
http://uk.wireless.ign.com/articles/969/969457p1.html
the game is pretty good, but i hate using an accelerometer in racing games, so developers should make control by screen tapping
Fast & Furious The Game from i-Play is a new game based on the Fast and Furious Pink Slip. The graphics are identical but overall this new one is much better. The game has a lot more features , more interesting cut-scenes and even an interesting story line.
The controls are very intuitive and precise , during a normal race you control the car by tilting your iPhone , and press the NOS button for a limited speed burst. In drag mode the car navigates on its own, you just have to shift gears by tapping on a rev counter that appears on the screen. In tunnel mode you do the same thing the only difference is that you also have to tap a series of traffic lights to choose the right path.
Overall the game is well put together with very little short comings , and even though it has a fairly expensive price tag it is worth the money.
This game is really well done and I'd definitely recommend it. It's a good racer and has quite a bit to do to complete it.