There was a time when pretty much every movie tie-in game was just plain awful, but for some reason in the mobile gaming world there have been quite a few really good ones. Games like Temple Run Oz or Fruit Ninja Puss in Boots take an already proven formula for a game and weave the movie theme around it to make a natural fit.

One of the newest movie tie-in games released is a joint venture between PikPok and Dreamworks Studios for the upcoming movie Turbo. The movie is about a snail named Turbo who dreams of being a race car driver, and following a freak accident involving a nitrous oxide spill that gives him turbo speed he sets out to make his dream come true.

PikPok's take on the movie is called Turbo Racing League [Free], and follows Turbo's escapades on his way to becoming the fastest snail in the universe. Is that even something to be proud of? That's like being called the smartest dumb person in the world. But I digress.

Turbo Racing League itself is actually a very fun kart-style racing game. By that I mean it's very casual and arcadey, with a heavy emphasis on drifting and hitting turbo pads spread along the track. The game's 9 courses are all made out of real-life mini locations like a kitchen table or a garage, and you can trick Turbo out with spoilers for his shell that give him improved attributes.

It's all pretty standard racing game stuff, but it's very well done, like most PikPok games. What sort of blew my mind is that in conjunction with the release of Turbo Racing League, Verizon has stepped in to throw a competition called the $1,000,000 Shell Out and are giving away a million dollars in prize money. For the next 8 weeks the top 10 racers per week will each win prizes from a $500,000 pool, then all 8 of the 1st place winners will fly out to Los Angeles for the finals and a chance to win the grand prize which is the other half of the million.

A million dollar prize for a mobile movie tie-in game seems nuts to me, but here we are. You can get the full rules and all that jazz from the official $1,000,000 Shell Out website if you're interested in entering, but even if not, Turbo Racing League is a pretty neat racing game that's free to check out. People in our forums have been enjoying it as well, and as for the actual movie, that'll be opening in theaters in July.

Djinn Works are like the Kings of simplistic "stickman" games. They've put out some incredibly popular titles over the years, like the Rope'n'Fly and Line Runner series, as well as various sports that these stickmen compete in like Stickman Games or Stickman Base Jumper. Stickmen have all the fun, I guess. It's hard to pinpoint exactly why these games continue to do so well in the charts, as the App Store is filled with such similar titles, but for whatever reason people can't seem to get enough stickman action.

Their latest release is Stick Stunt Biker 2 [Free], a sequel to the 2010 original. This new version eschews the doodle and graph paper look of the first game and instead goes with a silhouette visual style not totally unlike games like Limbo or Badland [$3.99]. It looks pretty nice, and a lot more professional than the original's doodle style.

Gameplay is similar to the first, placing you on a little dirt bike and tasking you with making it through a series of jumps and obstacles as you motor towards the finish line of each level. Simply touch the right side of the screen to accelerate, touch the left side to brake, and tilt your device to rotate in the air. It's the same formula used in plenty of these kinds of games, and it works just fine.

One of the coolest features of Stick Stunt Biker 2 is the ability to unlock new kinds of bikes, like a burly Chopper, a Police Motorcycle, or the hovering Future Bike. Each new vehicle comes equipped with their own unique set of attributes and physics behavior, giving you a bit of a different experience playing through the levels with them.

There is an insane amount of side-scrolling motorcycle games on the App Store, but if you're dying for a new one or you were a fan of the first game, Stick Stunt Biker 2 seems like a competent new entry in the genre. More impressions can be found in our forums, and the game is available worldwide right now if you want to check it out with the link below.

Last week we told you that a new update was heading to Real Racing 3 [Free] which added two new vehicles from Chevrolet, a new "Hunter" mode, and more than 100 new events to play through. Today that update has gone live in the App Store.

If you hang around TouchArcade with any kind of regularity then you should be familiar with Real Racing 3. It's the third entry in the popular racing sim series that has made hugely positive waves with its jaw-dropping visuals and presentation, but has also made waves in the opposite direction with its decision to be free-to-play rather than a premium title.

Where you fall on the whole pay model drama largely depends on your own personal preference and gaming habits. If you just want to jump in and take part in a few races throughout your day then Real Racing 3 is an impressive experience on your phone that you'll likely never feel the need to throw any money at at all. If you want to sit down and spend hours with the game at a time, well, you pretty much can't without doling out premium currency in some way.

Anyway, if you're among those who have been enjoying Real Racing 3 since its launch last February then you'll want to give this new update a look for the new vehicles and events. If you don't enjoy Real Racing 3 then there's nothing here that's going to change your mind, but at the very least if you haven't given the game a try it's worth the free download to check it out.

Just last week we posted a new trailer for the Phase 3 update for the futuristic racer Repulze [$2.99], and it seems the Apple approval process went rather smoothly as the update popped up in the App Store today.

To quickly summarize, Repulze is a racing game with a focus on speed and a futuristic look, something akin to the Wipeout series. We enjoyed the original game as well as the Phase 2 update earlier in the year, but the action was focused on single car time-trial style racing rather than actually racing against opponents or battling with weaponry like in the Wipeout games.

Not a bad thing by any means, because Repulze did what it intended to do very well, but it wasn't exactly what some fans were looking for from the game. Today's update takes Repulze closer in the direction of what those fans were asking for with the introduction of AI opponents and a new weapon system to use during races.

I've been saying this for a while, but Repulze is one of my favorite racing games to come along in a while. I enjoyed its original iteration, the Phase 2 update, and I'm looking forward to spending some time with the new Phase 3. Check out our forums for some more impressions of the new update and be sure to give Repulze a look if you're looking to quench your need for speed (and vehicular combat).

When Pixelbite launched their futuristic racer Repulze [$2.99] at the beginning of the year, they had something of a one trick pony on their hands. We really enjoyed it in our review, but it turned out to be more of a time trial type game rather than a full-blown traditional racer. It focused on doing just one kind of thing, and it did it really well. Still, there was a good portion of interested gamers that loved the look and feel of Repulze but yearned for something more substantial.

Pixelbite delivered on their promise to expand the experience by releasing a huge Phase 2 update in early February, which added a set of new tracks in a whole new environment as well as a few new mechanics and upgrades for your vehicles. It was a great update to be sure, but it didn't address the two biggest requests fans had been making – AI opponents and some form of vehicular combat.

Again Pixelbite is looking to answer those calls as they announced new details about an upcoming Phase 3 update which would add opponents and weapons. The weapon system sounds really cool too, using the same colored gate system that's used for boosts and sharing its same meter, meaning you'll have to strategically balance the use of both. Recently Pixelbite released the first trailer showcasing the new Repulze Phase 3 in motion, and it looks really fantastic.

The update is basically completed and in the final testing phases, so should be getting sent off to Apple and hopefully approved without issue in the very near future. I'm really looking forward to it, and I'm surprised by just how much I've gotten hooked on Repulze since I'm not usually that into this style of racer. The solo-focused time trial nature of the first two Phases has been a blast, and I'm very curious to see how the game plays with AI opponents and a weapon system in the mix. If you're excited too, be sure to check out the forum discussion and we'll let you know when we get word of a release date.

Quick, to the speculation station! Our pals across the pond at Pocket Gamer spotted something curious while surfing the Chinese App Store: A new-ish version of Need For Speed Most Wanted [$0.99] titled "Need For Speed Most Wanted OL" has launched (and is currently their #1 free app) which not only has all sorts of free to play trimmings but also sports the same time shifted multiplayer found in Real Racing 3 [Free].

The game's web site [Translated] mentions a career mode, daily challenges, and more. What has us scratching our heads is that Real Racing 3 doesn't appear to be on the Chinese app store, making us wonder if this is just their version of that game? If that's the case, why is it so different instead of just a quick and easy re-skin/re-branding? Hmmmm...

We're reaching out to EA to see what (if anything) we can find out. Stay tuned.

Chinese App Store Link: Need For Speed Most Wanted OL, Free

[via Pocket Gamer]

In the life of the App Store, the original 2009 release of Real Racing [$0.99 / $0.99 (HD)] was a massive turning point. As mentioned in our review, both the graphical quality and the "feel" of the game were unlike anything else available at the time. Almost a year and a half later when Real Racing 2 [$0.99 / $0.99 (HD)] hit, we questioned whether or not it was "the perfect iPhone game" in our review. Fast forward two more years and tonight Real Racing has officially turned into a trilogy with the release of Real Racing 3 [Free]. Everything in the game is better than its predecessors, except how much you'll need to fork out if you want to play it like you may have played previous installments in the series- Or essentially any racing game you've ever played before.

Real Racing 3 by far has the best "out of the box" experience of any iOS game I've played. After a totally free download which is going to suck up close to 2GB of free space on your device once it's installed you're thrown into what initially seems to be a typical pre-rendered intro cut scene of a Porsche zooming around a track- But then you quickly realize this isn't pre-rendered at all, this is running in real-time, on your phone. This first race serves as a brief tutorial of sorts on how the game works, and if you're online, you'll come to the second amazing realization that these other cars in the tutorial were actually driven by real people via Firemonkeys' new "Time Shifted Multiplayer" system. The whole thing is ridiculously impressive, particularly if you're used to the typical free to play offerings on the App Store which normally consist of basic arcade style games or endlessly reskinned cow clickers.

From there, you buy your first car (Per our tips post we recommend the Silvia!) and you're off to the races. I cannot stress enough just how great the graphics are in Real Racing 3. "Console quality" seems to be a buzzword often thrown around, but if there's any game that deserves that distinction it's this one. The game screams on the iPhone 5, with high resolution textures, amazing looking models, incredibly detailed car interiors, and mirrors that actually work. The sound design is great too, and with a good pair of headphones it's crazy just how immersive the game can feel- Even on the 4" screen of your phone.

Like previous Real Racing games, RR3 sports enough control configurations to satiate everyone regardless of how crazy you want the setup to be. There's options for tilt controls, on-screen controls, and every mixture of the two you can think of. There's also assistive systems for practically everything. If you're a super casual player that isn't very good at racing games, leave steering assist, brake assist, and traction control on and all you'll need to worry about is tilting your phone to drive around the track. If you're a experienced racer, you can take full control of everything (except shifting gears, oddly enough) and likely see way better results as you're not subjected to the overly-cautious automatic systems.

I've really been enjoying how the new Time Shifted Multiplayer works in Real Racing 3. Racing against ghosts has been around for what feels like forever, where you're playing against a car that you cannot interact with, recorded from a previous racing attempt. In this game, Firemonkeys have taken similar data and melded it with an AI racer. If you play into the social features and have friends who are also playing the game, you'll be actively racing against them, potentially hours after they completed the same race. The experience is particularly cool once you link up your Facebook account and randomly see friends on the track that you didn't even know had the game. What's even better is catching up to one of these friends, and actively being able to ram them out of the way to take first and beat their time.

After playing a few races, you'll quickly come to the harsh realization of just how much of a timer-based free to play game Real Racing is. You'll start the game out with a small initial load of premium currency, and periodically unlock smaller amounts in game, but Real Racing 3 is as much a waiting game as it is a racing game. You'll eventually find yourself waiting for the weirdest things stopping you from racing again, covering everything from installing performance upgrades to repairing your suspension. Of course you can skip all these time sinks by making it rain real-world dollars, making the actual price of Real Racing 3 anywhere between free to infinitely expensive depending on how often you open your proverbial wallet.

The up side, if there is one, is that these timers can be somewhat mitigated by playing intelligently and may not be an issue for you at all depending on how you play iOS games. Racing conservatively and actively trying to avoid wear and tear on your car can allow you to squeeze out a few more races before you need to repair, but you could also make the argument that what's fun about these sorts of games is aggressively taking corners, slamming into cars, and barely squeezing out a first place finish. You can't do that in Real Racing 3 unless you want to wait, potentially a very long time.

Personally, I'm so inundated by other things to play that the way I've been enjoying Real Racing 3 is by playing as much as I can, eventually hitting the wall with timers, and then just waiting for the game to send me a push alert telling me my car is repaired and ready to go. Then, when I have time I'll do a few more races before repeating the cycle again. I'm totally OK with this because these short bursts are typically how I play games on my phone. However, if you're the kind of person who wants to download a game like this and blow through it in one massive marathon play session, Real Racing 3 is very much not the game for you.

On the subject of push alerts, in its current iteration having them enabled has some serious drawbacks if you're annoyed by alerts. I'm of the camp of people who like their phone to buzz and beep as little as possible. I'll almost always say no to the popup asking if an app can send you push alerts, and will instantly delete anything that sends me alerts without asking, but I like Real Racing 3 enough that I want to be notified when I can play it again. Unfortunately, by allowing alerts, you're also inviting an endless stream of beeps and vibrates, particularly if you've got lots of friends playing the game. Real Racing 3 will send you an alert whenever someone beats your time in a race.

If you're an active player with friends who are also fairly active, you're in for alert spam like you've never experienced before. This wouldn't be so bad if these alerts actually did something. As it is, when you get an alert that a friend beat your time, you slide it, and the game just loads. It's not like you can swipe the alert to get thrown directly back into that same race to compete against them. The implementation seems really sloppy, and I wish there was a way I could turn this alert spam off while keeping the whole "Hey your car is ready to race again!" alert on.

Firemonkeys have shown that they can tweak these sorts of things on the fly. Since its release in New Zealand two weeks ago, the amount of time players have needed to wait for various things in game have varied wildly, and the solution to my push alert problem is just a checkbox away. It will be interesting to see how these aspects of the game evolve over time, especially considering in its current iteration the way timers work don't make a whole lot of sense. For instance, you can almost mitigate them entirely (or at least get to a point where you can play the game for way longer before stopping) by purchasing multiple cars. Real Racing 3 is actually at its worst for gameplay-stopping timers for new users, as once you hit the point where your car has to be repaired there is absolutely nothing for you to do other than wait or pay. Making new players hit this wall seems very counter-productive when it comes to user retention.

Real Racing 3 is a weird game to review. On one hand, it's free, and is the absolute best looking game available on the App Store right now. You need to experience the sights and sounds of the game as it is downright jaw-dropping to see what Firemonkeys has accomplished on a technical level. On the other, it feels incredibly strange to take a genre that's typically very hardcore and wrapping it in free to play trimmings with hard timer-based stopping points. The juxtaposition between awesome adrenalin-fueled racing and the "Sorry bro, insert coin or come back later" is very, very odd.

If you're a free to play gamer used to the often basic games that litter the Top Free chart on the App Store, Real Racing 3 is going to knock your socks off. Our verdict is to definitely give the game a try, and if you feel the timers are too oppressive, the alerts are too annoying, or it just doesn't otherwise jive with your play style, either download one of the other Real Racing games or check out other great racers on the App Store like Gameloft's Asphalt 7: Heat [$0.99] or EA's Need For Speed: Most Wanted [$0.99] and race the night away.

NOTE: We're not sure what (if any) difference there is between the two Real Racing 3 entries on the App Store. If one link doesn't work in your region, try the other one.

Firemonkeys' Real Racing 3 [Free] is almost upon us, and whether you love that it's free or you hate that it isn't a buy-once-play-forever title, it's going to require a bit of strategy to get the most gameplay out of the title while spending the least amount of money. Managing timers in free to play games can almost be a mini game themselves, and intelligent repair scheduling and car purchasing can significantly mitigate how much time you spend waiting versus how much time you spend racing. While its US release is still a few hours out, now is the time to absorb some strategy on how to spend as little real money as possible while playing the game.

Yesterday I started a thread in our forums asking for tips from New Zealanders and "New Zealanders" who have been playing the game since its soft launch two weeks ago. What's strange about Real Racing 3 is that it's almost the reverse of your typical free to play game. Titles like Clash of Clans [Free], for instance, have very short timers at the start of the game that slowly ramp up into building upgrades that you have to let run over night, or even multiple days.

Get The Silvia

On the subject of which of the starter cars to get, we agree with Xeyad: "Go for the Nissan Silvia, because it accelerates faster and brakes better than the Focus RS." Additionally, when looking at what to get next your additional car purchases should be from the next tier of cars instead of merely saving up for the Focus RS to have two cars for the same class of races. While you totally can buy the Focus RS as your second car, you won't be able to advance outside of the races that both those cars are eligible to compete in.

Buy A Second Car as Soon as Possible

In its current implementation (which we've already seen can be tweaked on the fly) the game's timers seem to be the most punishing at the start of the game when you only have one car. The overall consensus seems to be to do everything you can to reserve both in-game money and the various premium currency you can scrounge up on rushing to owning multiple cars.

Connector explains how he did it:

The most important tip that I have is try to get 3 cars as soon as possible to counter the wait timers. Don't bother upgrading, repairing, or servicing your car until you get your third car. This way, you can switch cars once the lenghty wait timers hit, and you will enjoy the game alot more when you have 3 or more cars.

As you race your cars, they eventually need various repairs, but with two cars you can essentially play twice as long as you beat up one car, then move on to the other. So, at the start of the game it pays off immensely to be patient with timers and let them run instead of dumping the premium currency to speed those up.

Keep An Eye Out For Deals

Amusing Grace points out that the 3rd, 6th, and 9th race in a particular tier will feature a car that's on sale. You will only get this offer once, so try to plan ahead to take advantage of these offers whenever possible. Also, if you're having trouble with races and need to upgrade your car, try to do it as strategically as possible. If you just need a small edge, go for a inexpensive upgrade like tires. If you're committing to something more substantial, upgrading your drivetrain is the best bang for the buck.

Mitigate Damage Whenever Possible

As mentioned by Hoggy110, a mixture of taking corners conservatively to avoid damage while doing everything you can to get out of the way of the AI racers as soon as possible will keep you in the game longer. More damage equates to the necessity of more repairs, and the first few corners can both make or break your car as well as your positioning in the race itself.

Connector also has had good luck getting creative with shortcuts:

This may sound really stupid, but there are times that you may just want to cut through the grass to pass like 10 cars when the ai cars are getting bundled up. While your car will get a little damage from this, you may actually gain more money cause of placing, a faster time, and possibly less overall damage than actually passing the cars on the track. I know the expert players are gonna cringe from my remarks, but it is an option, and it works, especially for beginners.

Find a Control Method That Suits You

Experiment with the different control options finding the best one for your personal level of driving skill. Real Racing 3 features tons of assists, making the game incredibly easy to manager for players who aren't that experienced with racing games, but these assists can also be detrimental to your performance. For instance, the brake assist seems a little heavy handed compared to how you might brake if you were controlling them entirely yourself.

Turning off these assists can be a double edged sword, however, as once again you come face to face with the balancing game that is your overall racing performance and how damaged your car gets. It's entirely possible to make a greater profit placing lower in multiple races than going all out in one race driving so aggressive you're forced into repairing your car immediately.

Choose Your Repairs Wisely

On the subject of repairing your car, keep an eye on which items actually are impacting your performance. For example, there's not much reason to take your car entirely out of commission to repair your headlights as the performance impact of them being broken is negligible and once they're totally broken it's not like they can get damaged more. Also, JagerBombS mentions that brakes needing servicing isn't that big of a deal either, especially if you get good at controlling them manually and handling corners mainly using deceleration.

Make Social Connections to Maximize Earnings

Multiple forum members have suggested getting involved in the social features of the game, as the more friends of yours that you're racing against, the better the rewards can be. Speaking of rewards, The Stick plays by finding what he calls an "easy win" race that you can race over and over again to grind money quickly. He's partial to doing five laps on Suzuka with the Ford Focus RS and four laps on Mount Panorama with the Audi TT Roadster.

Also, like many free to play games, keep an eye out for bonus offers to get additional premium currency. These games almost always have offers you can complete such as liking Facebook pages, checking out other apps, and more simple things to get a small boost.

Queue Up Timers Before Bed

Meanwhile, both JagerBombS and FilipAGuy are mitigating the timers by trying to be a bit more proactive with when you actually execute your various repairs and upgrades. For example, if you're going to bed or aren't going to be able to play for a while, queue up a ton of timers. When you come back, everything will be ready to roll.

If you've got any similar tips, feel free to drop them in the comments here, in the forum thread, or both.

New Zealand App Store Link: Real Racing 3, Free

I always end up surprising myself with what games I end up really clicking with on iOS. Despite not even being a full-blown racing game, I've been dumping a ton of time into Pixelbite's Repulze [$2.99]. It was more a time trial game than anything, but with its killer sense of speed, fantastic visuals and great controls it was one game I had a hard time passing up on when I'd be flipping through my iPhone's home screens. I actually kind of appreciated the fact that Repulze was so laser-focused on doing just one thing, and doing it well. It's the same reasons I keep coming back to games like Temple Run 2 [Free] or Doodle Jump [$0.99], even though games in similar genres might offer more features or content. I think I'm just an arcade gamer at heart.

However, Repulze looked an awful lot like Sony's beloved futurisitc racing series Wipeout, and a lot of people were expecting a whole lot more out of the game. At the very least, actual opponents on the track along with you which you could race against. Pixelbite did add a bunch of new tracks and features in their most recent update, but people were still clamoring for actual racing opponents, and maybe even some weapons to blast them off the track with. You know, a little more Wipeout-style.

Well, ask and you shall receive as the upcoming Phase 3 update to Repulze will add both on-track opponents as well as a new weapon system. Pixelbite has detailed some of this update on their blog, and the weapon system actually sounds really ingenious. It uses the 3-tier gate system that's already built into the game, which we've detailed in our review. Filling up the first tier of the meter will allow you to launch a light weapon, the middle tier gives you a medium powered weapon, and the third tier gives you a powerful weapon like rockets to launch at your enemy.

Of course, because they use the same system, you'll need to decide if you'd rather keep some boost around to try and win the race or use up your reserves as weapons to take out your opponent. It seems like a really smart system. The screen above is from an early version of Phase 3, and Pixelbite stresses that it's not final yet, but you can see the added level of mayhem that having opponents and weapons tossed into the mix should provide. We'll let you know when the Phase 3 update to Repulze hits, which hopefully should be in the fairly near future.

Are you just so mad that the new Real Racing 3 is a free-to-play title? Well, if you're in the market for a racing game for your iPad but aren't interested in putting up with freemium shenanigans, then now is a good time to check out Real Racing 2 HD [$0.99 (HD)] as it's just been put on sale for 99¢.

Real Racing 2 HD is literally on sale every week or two, but if you didn't already own it for your iPad it's certainly worth picking up. We thought the iPhone version was about as perfect as a mobile game can be when we reviewed it in December of 2010, and it's only gotten better since then with many updates and it feels great on the iPad as well. Despite being more than 2 years old, Real Racing 2 still feels like it can hang with any current AAA release.

It seems like an eternity since SlotZ Racer initially debuted on the App Store. Back then, its attention to detail coupled with a (eventually added) vast track editor and multiple modes made it not only a great slot car title but also a fun racer. Fast-forward to today and SlotZ Racer 2 HD [Free] looks to bring back the enjoyment that its predecessor (now no longer on the App Store) once touted. While SlotZ Racer 2 is a bit disappointing as far as new things it brings to the series, the core gameplay returns untouched, bringing newcomers an enjoyable experience.

If you never had the opportunity of checking out the original, SlotZ Racer 2's gameplay is based on the incredibly simple premise of its physical namesake. Players participate in a variety of races that take place on slot tracks. As you might expect, controls are limited to simply acceleration, with a simple tap-and-hold controlling speed. Thus, the key to success is to time your vehicle's acceleration by speeding up on straightaways and managing speed and drifting on turns. It sounds simple, but SlotZ plays fast enough and has enough variety in its tracks to be enjoyable.

(more...)

Earlier this morning, Eli and I spent some time with Real Racing 3, which is available now in some international App Stores. As you probably already know, this is a free-to-play game and this little factoid is kinda rubbing dudes the wrong way. The fear is that EA has tuned the game to be no more than an IAP machine that forces users to pay at every corner, turn, and twist. In the interest of SCIENCE, we decided to see if this was, in fact, the case. Spoiler: it isn't.

In the following, we spend around 30 minutes in the game in a rush to hit paywall. We eventually do, but it wasn't one that felt gross. You'll see what we mean, if you take a look. Check it out:

It looks like The Firemonkeys are giving people in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada a early Valentines Day present with the release of Real Racing 3 in these international territories. We've already got a thread going for the game on our forums, and if you're resourceful enough to Google instructions on how to create an iTunes account in one of these three regions, you can be playing Real Racing 3 right now. Being a "New Zealander," I already snagged the game, and despite all the comment rage over the game being free to play- It knocks it out of the park from an initial impressions standpoint.

In fact, Real Racing 3 is the only iOS game in recent memory that has invoked an audible "holy sh*t" from me the first time the actual in-game graphics make an appearance. It immediately throws you into a race, with visuals that are pushing the boundaries of unbelievable for mobile devices against real people pulled from Game Center. Ridiculously impressive.

We'll be plowing through the game today, so expect a full-fledged TA Plays in the not too distant future where we'll try to explore everything the game has to offer- Including its controversial payment system. Stay tuned for that, and the official US launch on the 28th.

International App Store Link: Real Racing 3, Free

Buckle up: Real Racing 3 is coming to iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad this coming February 28. Interestingly, the Android version of the game is also expected to hit the same day across Google Play and the Amazon Appstore. So, there's that.

If you're not in the loop, Real Racing 3 certainly has the look of a next-level racing simulation game -- real cars, accurate physics, photorealistic tracks, and online multiplayer, this thing appears to have it all. No wonder it's one of our users' most anticipated games of 2013.

We'll be going hands-on with it soon, so stay tuned if you're thinking about clicking the download button as soon as possible on the 28th.

[via TouchGen]

In early January, Pixelbite Games released Repulze [$2.99], a futuristic style racer that – visually at least – evoked feelings of the classic Wipeout series. However, it played quite differently than Sony's beloved racers and rather than being a full-blown racing title Repulze was more akin to a time-trial arcade game. It was a simplified but very well done experience, one that we enjoyed a lot in our review, but for some racing game fans it didn't quite feel like enough.

That was part of Pixelbite's plan though, as the initial release of Repulze was just "Phase 1" and more content would be rolled out via updates based on player feedback and response to the game. That plan was set in motion today with the release of the Phase 2 update to Repulze. It adds 7 new tracks set in a new industrial wasteland environment, as well as new meta-challenge for each level to complete while you play.

In addition, there are now golden Toolkits spread around each track which can be collected and used to buy upgrades for your hovercraft. The first of these upgrades is called a Power Ripper and, when triggered with a boost, will let you rip through any craft that might be in your way or blast through the new barriers that block certain parts of the track that may lead to shortcuts or hidden items. There's also a new magnetic field track element that can boost you in the air and help you reach new areas of a track if you're rocking the proper polarity when you drive through it.

This update also adds the ability to save and replay ghosts of your lap times, a new bonnet camera view (basically a first-person bumper camera), and a fantastic new slide control option in addition to the normal tap and tilt options that are available. If you were not sure if there was enough to Repulze before to satisfy you, then maybe the new Phase 2 content will push you over the edge. A third Phase called Backlash is being teased as well, and has something to do with rockets, so even more Repulze goodness should be coming our way in the future.