VW's most recent collaboration was just released today, this time working with Fish Labs to bring us what appears to be some kind of crazy economical driving edutainment game that appears to share a similar game engine to their previously released Rally Master Pro 3D [$4.99]. In Volkswagen Think Blue. Challenge [Free], instead of racing as quickly as you can, players are forced to drive economically.

As silly as this sounds for a video game, doing well is actually quite challenging. You start the game with a small amount of gas, and with each checkpoint you come to, you're asked an often obvious question about fuel efficiency to get more fuel. You then try to drive as far as you can with the amount of gas the game gives you. This means intelligent throttle management, coasting down hills, taking turns properly to not lose speed, and other economical driving techniques the game explains for you.

When you finally run out of gas, your distance is submitted to a global online leaderboard showing how far the world's most economical drivers have gotten in the game. Initially I just wrote Volkswagen Think Blue. Challenge off as a marketing gimmick, but after playing a few games it's really kind of neat how the game encourages highly technical driving. So often in driving games you're able to just go all out, bounce through corners and off other cars with little if any penalty at all and this is a nice, albeit fairly odd, change of pace.

Volkswagen Think Blue. Challenge is free, and who knows, you might even learn something about economical driving that could end up saving you money on gas in your own car. If you like the graphics in the game and how it calls out turns for you, be sure to check out Fish Labs' game this seems to be based on, Rally Master Pro which we posted a review on when it was first released.

App Store Link: Volkswagen Think Blue. Challenge, Free

Though our early impressions of Raging Thunder 2 were very positive, it already seems Deliverace is set to impress us just as much, if not more. Pixelbite recently released a trailer that showcases an amazingly rich and extraordinarily detailed graphic engine that seems to trounce nearly anything we've seen on the AppStore to date. The developers have provided a summary of the game's features in our forums as follows:

"The game is a classic top-down racer, but with modern physics and amazing graphics. Naturally we also have multiplayer support over Lan and Internet, online leaderboards, several control options, ghost cars and much more."

Though the trailer convincingly sells itself, the impressive list of features available right off the bat has cemented Deliverace as one of our more anticipated titles. Deliverace is slated as 'coming soon' in early 2010 with no price point currently fixed. Pixelbite really seem to be making a name for themselves in the racing genre, and we can't wait to see what they have in store for us this time around.

Be sure to keep abreast of our Deliverace discussion thread for further updates and media releases by the developer.

The sensation of speed is great, there's a boost system, tons of jumps, and even a car damage system. Five game modes are included ranging from the standard time trials and career mode to an "arcade" mode where you play through as many races as possible without the timer reaching zero. In total there are six cars and twelve different tracks, although most will need to be unlocked through career mode. It even has internet multiplayer.

Amazingly enough even with all the stuff packed in this game, Raging Thunder 2 only weighs in at the 3G download friendly 15MB. We're going to be spending some more time with the game, but after burning through a few races our initial impressions are very positive.

App Store Link: Raging Thunder 2, $4.99

The object of the game is simple, you drive your little car across a track drawn out on a chalkboard to reach the finish flag. Buttons on each side of the screen control your movement and the rotation of your car for landing properly off jumps. You can also make your car bounce by tapping the screen. The included maps start out extremely easy, and slowly introduce more gameplay elements such as loops, ramps, and objects you can ram or otherwise interact with using your car.

Much like the JellyCar games, it doesn't take long for these courses to get amazingly difficult and you experience the same sense of satisfaction when you finally beat a level with your car spinning out of control and just barely crossing the finish flag. The levels you can download online vary in quality, but I've had a good time playing through the ones I've tried.

These silly physics puzzle racing games are among my favorite kind of iPhone games, and I've been having a great time exploring the various user submitted levels in Chalkboard Stunts. So much so that this review was delayed by nearly a week because every time I'd sit down planning to write something about it I'd fire up the game and lose an hour to it.

I still prefer the original JellyCar (Mostly because of the awesome music) but if the community generated content in Chalkboard Stunts keeps up, I can easily see it living a long and happy life on my iPhone.

App Store Links:

• Chalkboard Stunts, 99¢
• Chalkboard Stunts Lite, Free

If that wasn't enough reason to give this game a shot already, it was just awarded OpenFeint gold status. When Fieldrunners went gold, we explained exactly what this meant:

Similar to our monthly game ratings, the OpenFeint Gold program aims to pick out games which are not only of the highest quality, but also make excellent use of the OpenFeint service. They seem to be setting the bar fairly high in nominating Fieldrunners as the first game to get their gold rating, and it should be interesting to see what games they choose in the future.

The latest Jet Car Stunts update that was released this evening includes even more OpenFeint functionality. You can now send and receive ghost challenges, along with download replays associated to the various entries of the online leaderboards. On top of that, they also tweaked the menu system and rolled in some bug fixes.

Jet Car Stunts is a great game, and this new replay download system is extremely cool. Since the update was just released, you have to search around for new scores that have replays attached to them, but it's really fun to watch how good (or poorly) other people do in the game.

For more information on Jet Car Stunts, check out our review.

App Store Link: Jet Car Stunts, $1.99

The objective of Riddim Ribbon is to guide a ball down a track, and tilt your device to follow a green line that moves left and right to one of the three songs you select on the main screen. When you stray from the track, the music begins to fade out until you're only hearing the faint backbeat to the song. Laid out on the green line are silver spheres to pick up, ramps to jump over, and hoops to jump through. All of these different pickups and obstacles are arranged so you're hitting them with the beat of the song, an experience that's actually pretty cool if you haven't played a similar racing rhythm game before.

As you're rolling down the tracks in Riddim Ribbon, you will be faced with both forks in the road and ramps that lead to secondary portions of track that allow you to mix the song by turning or jumping up on to the same portion of the song remixed by one of a number of different DJ's included in the game. By replaying individual songs and choosing different paths to take, you can come up with a number of different remixes of the same song.

Riddim Ribbon is a game that sounds really cool when you describe it, yet it somehow manages to be not that fun at all when you're playing it. The way the music is visualized is great, and the tracks are laid out very well to match each song. Unfortunately, it doesn't take long to get bored of the three included songs, and the tilt controls are frustrating.

Instead of like most racing games where you tilt to move right or left, then hold your device level straight to go straight, the amount you tilt directly translates to your position on the track. This causes you to spend most of your time holding your device at an awkward angle instead of making small tilting movements to steer as you're probably used to if you've played many racing games on the platform.

As mentioned previously, the way you interact with the music in the game is really neat but by default an announcer is almost constantly talking over it telling you how "dope" and "ill" your performance is along with announcing the many checkpoints on each song. It likely won't take you long to turn this off in the options.

Riddim Ribbon is a great idea for a game that ultimately is ruined by frustrating controls and gameplay which is too easy to get bored of.

App Store Link: Riddim Ribbon feat. The Black Eyed Peas, $2.99

About a week back I had a chance to visit Gameloft's Manhattan studios and have a look at their upcoming racing simulator GT Racing: Motor Academy [App Store] for iPhone. Tonight, GT Racing has gone live in the App Store and we've got a chance to take a closer look.

GT Racing is a driving simulation as opposed to an arcade racer. Gameloft likens the title to Real Racing, which it considers the only other driving simulation in the App Store. Being a simulation-style racer, it starts off much like the definitive driving sim, Gran Turismo. You are presented with a few initial challenges (accelerate to maximum speed and then come to a stop between the lines, etc.) that must be completed before your achieve your first racing license. From there it's a Campaign journey through a variety of tracks around the world. Though, I will say the game is rather more forgiving than Gran Turismo, partially due to the integrated Break Assist system (like Real Racing), but more due to the overall control scenario.

The game features over 100 cars from 24 different manufacturers to choose from for a race to the finish against up to nine on-track opponents. There are 14 different worldwide tracks in all, comprised of raceway, urban, and rally-style runs. The better you rank, the more credits you accumulate, and the fancier cars and equipment you can purchase. Progressive tracks are unlocked in Campaign mode, and any unlocked track can be used for a quick spin in the game's Arcade mode.

GT Racing features three different control methods: accelerometer (default), screen keys (think Vector Tanks – kinda), and wheel. I find accelerometer to be my preferred method that, for what it is, really leaves little room for control improvement. Score tracking is handled through the integrated Gameloft LIVE network. Like Asphalt 5, Gameloft also offers an online multi-player component that we were unable to test at launch, but it's an important feature we're certainly glad to see.

GT Racing is one of the most visually impressive racers in the App Store. On my iPhone 3GS test unit, the game exhibits an impressive, but subtle, HDR effect to the rendered scene and runs at a very smooth frame rate. Six different driving views are provided — three outside, three inside — to allow for the view that bests fits your driving sensibilities. All races can be seen in Replay mode which is, as well, an impressive thing to behold, and videos can also be uploaded to YouTube (example video). One notable issue with the visuals, however, is a noticeably short draw distance resulting in buildings abruptly popping into view which can be distracting.

There are a few other issues we ran across with the initial version. On occasion, my car appeared to aburbtly jolt into a nose-up position, half embedded in the track, with a warning of "wrong way" presented. (One of these incidents is recorded in our demo video.) As well, in-game language suggested that I had access to a particular track before it was supposed to be unlocked. Neither game breaking, but notable for early adopters.

See our brief gameplay video for a closer look.

Overall, GT Racer is probably one of the best racers on the App Store. In particular, racing fans looking for a realistic racer that offers nicely varied racing action wrapped up in a very pretty package should enjoy Gameloft's latest offering.

Impressions from early adopters on the forum have been similarly positive, but similar caveats:

• tadad1 – lots of control adjustments, including driving aids, amazingly crisp graphics, but short draw distance, no crash damage, massive content
• morphman – Lots of options, good but not stellar framerate on 3GS, pop-in apparent, graphics look amazing
• iPhondTouch3G – screenshots from iPod Touch 3G
• Diablohead – huge difference in FWD, RWD and oversteer is a big factor here, can do doughnuts very easily if you power out of corners
• nizy – nice graphics, real life tracks recognizable, pop-in noticeable but not too annoying. early AI not challenging
• howiedeano – handling and controls good, tracks better than NFS shift, best realistic type racing game on platform

App Store Link: GT Racing: Motor Academy, $6.99

Each level in Comet Racer opens with the unveiling of your ship on a launch pad, and an old-school traffic light slides in from the left to give a three second launch countdown. Using a thruster button on the right side of the screen and the two left/right directional buttons on the left, controlling your ships around hairpin turns and through slim corridors is an easily-acquired skill. Crashing into a wall will cost you one of your "lives" (displayed in the form of tiny spaceships at the top left corner of the screen) and cause a significant drop in speed, making it more difficult to finish the level under the given qualification time.

I normally don't like games that require players to unlock all of its levels by beating every level in order (as this can cause players to get stuck on one particular level and become frustrated) but I feel that it's not a real issue in Comet Racer since players will rarely have much difficulty finishing levels. The game is tuned so that levels aren't difficult to complete, but so that it's challenging for players to attain a three-star ranking (the highest possible ranking).

Comet Racer uses a fairly unique leaderboard system that I particularly enjoyed. Instead of setting a separate leaderboard for each level, the game combines all your track times into one total score, where each hundredth of a second that you beat the qualification time by is worth 1 point. For example, if a certain track has a qualification time of 20 seconds, and you finish it in 19.50 seconds, you'll be awarded with 50 points. Naturally, it'll only be possible to max out your potential score once you've unlocked all the tracks, but the real focus of the game is going back through and improving just marginally on your times in each level. To aid with this visually, the game even keeps a "ghost" version of your best time in each level that you can race against later.

As you unlock more levels, you'll begin to encounter more and more unique obstacles and pickups that give some needed variety to the tracks. You'll encounter boost pads, temporary shields, dangrous tracking missles, and walls that must be opened by running over nearby switches. One of my few complaints with the game is that the missiles almost never pose any sort of threat, and will usually be avoided with ease. Even if you fail to avoid the missiles, shield pickups are so common that the useless missiles will bounce right off of you.

I love the way the global leaderboards for this game work, and I will soon start up a major effort to make my way to the top of the boards. Comet Racer is easy to get into and fun to try to master. It's one of those games that can draw you in for hours at a time for the simple chance to improve your high score, and yet it can be picked up and put down in two minutes, a quality shared by the best of iPhone games.

App Store Link: Comet Racer, 99¢

Game developer 2XL Games recently teamed up with ESPN to release X Games SnoCross, a Winter X Games branded snowmobile racing game. Fans of 2XL ATV Offroad will find the game quite familiar as it seems much like a snowmobile reskin of that game.

X Games SnoCross offers 6 SnoCross race tracks, 2 freestyle tracks including daytime and nighttime events. Winter X Games branding comes in with the ability to play as medalists Levi LaVallee and Heath Frisby. The game comes with tricks buttons, local multi-player, career mode and arcade modes.

We've only spent a brief amount of time with it, but the game layout and feel is quite similar to 2XL ATV Offroad, a game we quite enjoyed. Early reactions have been limited though the the early feedback indicating the game has little new to offer for those who already own 2XL's other games — aside, of course, from the Winter X Games touches.

App Store Link: X Games SnoCross, $4.99

From our preview:

Gameloft is putting a lot of effort in to providing a realistic racing experience, and in the demo I was able to get my hands on, my '67 Shelby GT was wonderfully challenging to control around Leguna Seca. It was actually refreshing to play an iPhone racing game where you actually have to precisely control your car instead of just mashing down the gas and flying down the track.

Like all Gameloft games, they aim to make GT Racing as accessible as possible, with both brake assist and traction control that can be turned on for casual players, or disabled entirely for racing veterans. As you play through events in the game you earn money to buy upgrades for your cars, as you tune every aspect of your car by adding these aftermarket parts you will be given the opportunity to test track (just like Gran Turismo) before going back to competition races.

Gameloft also released a brief gameplay trailer last month:

The iPhone's tilt controls seem to be a natural fit for racing games, and while there are already quite a few amazing racers on the platform, it sounds like GT Racing will feature by far the most included licensed content between both real tracks and cars. The release date of GT Racing is uncertain, but we'll be keeping an eye out for news from Gameloft regarding its status.