Way back in the spring of 2010, when No Can Win'sCubed Rally Racer [$0.99] hit the scene, the lay of the land was a little different. Retina graphics weren't yet a thing, everyone was using the now-shuttered OpenFeint, and there were all sorts of game genres that didn't begin with "endless."
Cubed Rally Redline [Free] is a game for the modern era, and that's really not a bad thing. It has the same charming retro-blocky look, the same overly aggressive cows and the same boxy little cars, but the rest of the game is a different animal. In Racer, the car was completely in your control. In Redline, it's a bit more of a slot-car situation, stuck in five lanes, hopping between grooves.
As a result, Redline is less of a game of steering skill and more about razor-sharp reflexes. You have three buttons: left, right, and emergency time brake. The first two hop you between lanes, the third slows down time to give you just the slightest chance to maneuver. At any given moment, each lane can be full of obstacles or power-ups. Scattered throughout each run are fuel canisters, coins, and tokens that cause you to drift around curves Tokyo-style. There are also rocks, tunnels, cows and more to contend with.
This morning, Eli and I spent checked out Hill Climb Racing [Free], the number one free app on the App Store. It's another one of those physics-based "racing" games that task you with driving a crappy car up and down 2D hills on an eternal hunt for coins and a high score. With these coins, you can upgrade your car. You can also buy two other vehicles: an F1-looking racing car and a monster truck. Both feel faster and more stable than the first car you get.
So, what makes Hill Climb Racing so special? Why is it sitting on top of the App Store? We're not too sure. It doesn't have a cool look or icon and it's not even the best take on this genre within the top ten free apps. It's kinda mystery.
Our guess was that we'd be able to say "oh, I get it" after taking a look at it, but here we are, still wondering. Maybe it'll click with you, though:
Earlier this morning, Eli and I dug into Extreme Roadtrip 2 [Free]. Chances are you've heard of this one if you have Game Center friends. For whatever reason, it allows players to spam challenges, even to people that don't have the game. Talk about annoying. Also, gross.
The spamming made us assume that Roadtrip 2 was equally gross, but it's not. It's a rad endless racing game that tasks you with going as far as you can across a hilly level. As you drive, you'll get bonus points for doing all sorts of tricks, including flips. Solid controls and a good sense of speed keep the game entertaining, and car upgrades add that layer of persistence that we love in endless games.
Anyway, if you haven't actually seen this thing in motion, check it out below.
It's crazy to think that in a couple of years we'll be celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Need for Speed series. The games have come a shockingly long way since the original 3DO release in 1994, and while Need For Speed Most Wanted [$4.99] definitely has that highly-iterative EA feel to it, they're getting closer and closer to perfection.
I'd find it hard to believe that anyone reading TouchArcade hasn't played a Need For Speed game, but assuming you're part of that confusing demographic, here's the gist: If the title wasn't a big enough hint, all the racing games in the series hinge around the idea of going really, really fast. That sensation of speed is a cornerstone of any racer, and Need For Speed Most Wanted is no slouch in that department. In fact, I'd say Most Wanted provides the best sensation of speed I've experienced on an iOS device- particularly when played on the wide screen of the iPhone 5.
Like other games in the series, Need For Speed Most Wanted is home to a whole bunch of licensed cars. There's 35 in all and they range from boring starter cars like the Ford Focus moving right on up to exotics like the Bugatti Veyron. The Tesla Roadster is also included, and, amusingly enough, hitting the nitrous doesn't cause flames to come out the back. Joining these licensed cars is a host of licensed music which seems to fit the overall mood of the game quite well. Most Wanted also offers both touch and tilt control options, and though I don't normally prefer them for most games, I found the default tilt option to be far superior to touch in allowing precision and subtlety in movement.
Like so many of the most ingenious gaming concepts, the endless runner is so simple and effective that it’s hard – if not impossible – to bring anything fresh to the concept once it’s been out there in the digital wild for a little while.
Tetris, Bejeweled, Flight Control and so many other genre-founding titles provided such tight and engaging mechanics that they effectively sealed the door behind them, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been some highly entertaining derivatives that followed. Save Them All [$0.99] is just that kind of respectful homage to the brilliant – if limited – Canabalt. The real question isn’t where it gets its inspiration from, of course. It’s whether you need this game if you already own an endless runner collection.
Save Them All promises you a story mode, which is very rare in this niche genre. But don’t get too excited about that aspect; for the most part the plot boils down to occasional and shabby comic book cut scenes and a trio of objectives for each level before you progress to the next one. The lackluster story mode isn't a deal breaker, as this isn’t a game style that really lends itself to storytelling, but neither is it a particularly strong selling point.
Stainless Games has updated its free-roam murder simulator Carmageddon [$3.99 / Free] with an actual technical fix for the save data loss issue, presumably making it safe to play again.
Earlier the other week, users started complaining about losing all their save data in Carmageddon. Stainless quickly identified the issue as a Game Center bug and offered a doozy of a fix that involved having the game's users doing Airplane Mode and task bar voodoo.
This update theoretically has just solved the problem straight-up, but we're not so sure if people are getting their lost data back as they update. Signs seem to point to "no," which is probably a bummer for anyone that really attacked the game in the wee hours of its release. At least you had fun, though, right?
There's nothing quite like speed-based reactionary games on iOS. Smooth framerates combined with fast-reflexes and responsive controls usually make for a title well-suited for the touchscreen. Skyriders [$0.99], with its futuristic feel hits on all these points and then some. Add in great level design and some subtle RPG mechanics, and Skyriders rises above the rest as a great example of challenging and fast arcade fun.
From a basic gameplay perspective, Skyriders is relatively simple. Each level has the player racing from start to finish on a track filled with boosts, stars, barriers and chasms. Besides simply making it to the finish line (which isn't as easy as it may sound), players are also tasked with trying to get as high a score as possible, which is centered around earning and maintaining a high multiplier. Multipliers are gained by collecting stars and hitting boosts consistently (a meter at the top of the screen acts as a timer for how long you have to boost or collect a star before the multiplier dies). Meanwhile, hitting barriers (you can jump or dodge them) instantly kills your multiplier, while falling off the racetrack ends the run.
Earlier this morning, Eli and I spent some time with the iPhone and iPad version of the 1997 "cult" classic Carmageddon [$3.99]. For the most part, it appears to be a straight-up port with just a few modern visual and technical tweaks and trimmings. As a result, it looks like an old game and it feels like one, too. Check your expectations at the door.
Carmageddon, for those of you not in the loop, is a free-form racing game where you're rewarded points for killing civilians. The goal of each race isn't necessarily to come in first place, but to cause the most... destruction as possible. It's weird like that.
Nostalgia is powerful, so we encourage any of the series' fans to give this a shot. If you're unfamiliar, check out this video and see if the game clicks with you:
This past June Stainless Games announced that they would be releasing the cult-classic vehicular combat game Carmageddon to the App Store this year as a side bonus of their successful Kickstarter campaign for the upcoming franchise reboot Carmageddon: Reincarnation. We went hands-on with an early version of Carmageddon for iOS just last month, and felt that it was a faithful port of a game that hasn't exactly aged gracefully in many ways, but is still highly entertaining.
Well, Carmageddon [$3.99] launched internationally earlier today and has just become available in the US App Store. As promised, to say thank you to all the supporters of the Carmageddon: Reincarnation campaign, Stainless Games has made the iOS version completely FREE for the first 24 hours.
They're doing it right with this Carmageddon release too, as the app supports the iPhone 5 and 5th generation iPod touch widescreen Retina Display, iCloud save syncing, and is Universal. It also comes equipped with Game Center leaderboards and achievements, a slick YouTube replay exporting feature, and tons of control options. That's all on top of the fairly comprehensive content of the game itself, and oh yeah, it's FREE.
If you were a big fan of Carmageddon back in the day, then you are no doubt smashing the download button with furious vigor. If you missed out on it originally, there's no reason not to give it a try for free to see if senselessly killing pedestrians with your car in order to better your performance is your cup of tea. Hey, it isn't for everybody.
Also, our forums have been filling up with impressions throughout the day, which are skewing towards the positive, so be sure to check that out as well.
Earlier this morning, Eli and I spent some time with Skyriders [$0.99]. It's a cool, 3D vehicle-based platforming game that tasks you with speeding through tunnels and picking up stars for modifiers that lead to huge scores. Built with the gamer in mind, it also has a neat RPG-like system. Get enough points and you'll be able to bump up stats like acceleration and other stuff, like, say, the distance in which you can pick up stars.
This is one of our more off-beat commentaries, so we'll say it here: this game is solid. The level design in particular is outstanding. Without making the game feel too frantic, it pushes a breakneak tempo and constantly introduces interesting choices.
Skyriders has been on our Hot Games list for a bit because our community digs it, too. It's available now as a Universal app for $1.99.
I don’t know about you, but all I can think about when I mow someone down or blow someone away in Payback² [$4.99 / $59.99] is Jesse Ventura as Blaine in the movie Predator throwing back the cover of his minigun, spitting out his chewing tobacco (real nasty habit he’s got there) and delivering that immortal one-liner, “Payback time!”
It makes you feel tough, big and clever, and it fits Payback²'s action like a boxing glove. I mean, this game’s got to be worth playing for that reason alone, right?
Clearly this is a GTA clone, and makes no real apology for that. Nor should it, given that the GTA franchise took off in a very different direction after the second installment. Payback² borrows – admittedly very heavily – from the original, and not the third-person 3D versions that came later. You decide whether that’s good or bad, but from my perspective it's a wise decision. The bird's-eye-view format clearly still has a lot of life left in it.
GTA chose to tweak the series when it went fully 3D by dropping you into the world of organized crime. But what was so great about the first two games is that they were all about disorganized crime, and that sweet, reckless, chaotic flavor also permeates Payback².
This certainly can’t be accused of being a slave to its inspiration, however. Instead, it makes use of somewhat randomized game modes, so each new mission – or level, or however you want to label the independent vignettes of action – throws you into quite a different arena. For example, you start out in a tank, surrounded by enemies in need of destruction.
Being a tank you don’t have to worry quite so much about self-sustained injury, crashing or enemy gunfire, and you’re free to trundle around blasting like crazy and blowing things up. It’s an intro that demonstrates the rampant destruction Payback² actively encourages, after which it’s time to head out on foot for a team-based death match.
And so it goes from there, with most any kind of shooting, driving or multiplayer-based game structure you can think of haphazardly piled on top of one another as you climb the criminal ranks. It’s true that this dog pile of unsystematic violence might feel rather unstructured as has been noted on the forums, and that’s because it is. Personally I’d appreciate more story and less cherry-picking of game styles, but it’s hard to criticize Payback² too much for committing to the chaos. Disorganized crime probably shouldn't be too constrained by a deliberate plot sequence, but it can also feel quite jarring how the game schizophrenically flips between events. Mini-game fans will find this quite endearing, while GTA aficionados will feel like they're splashing around in the shallow end of the crime-game pool.
At least you’re never lonely when playing through these mentalist missions, as the city is a very busy place. The place is littered with pedestrians and motorists – who provide the vehicles you’ll make considerable use of as weapons and escape options – along with your own AI-controlled team members and a huge number of enemies. On top of this are the cops, who seem fairly oblivious to the carnage until you commit a crime right in front of their faces, when you suddenly find yourself fighting a gang war on two fronts. Escape is your best option when the filth are after you, and considering this robs you of valuable time needed to complete your objectives, you soon learn that it’s better to avoid their involvement by any means necessary.
This adds the same enjoyable aura of anarchy that GTA harnessed so expertly, and gives you something to care about when firing wildly into a crowd or jacking car after car. Keeping your eyes peeled for the peelers is an important obstacle that gives the game a bit of much-needed depth.
And if all these game modes still aren't enough, Payback² comes complete with extensive multiplayer options. The online gaming is quite simple, really; replacing the AI characters with other real-life players. They can be on your team, as members of another gang or every man for themselves, depending on the game mode – of which there are many.
Jump into the matchmaking option, pick your game and get into the blood-soaked action. It’s simple and effortless, once the initial matchmaking wait is over and the round is ready. The delay doesn’t seem to be because of an underpowered multiplayer system, so much as shoring up the number of players, but it’s worth it once the pandemonium is in full swing. Also, even this early on in the game’s life, there seems to be a lot of support for multiplayer games, so there’s usually a queue waiting that you can jump straight into. Custom games can be hosted by you that other players are then invited to join in with, but they're just a way to ensure you're playing the event you want without having to find someone already hosting it. A nice option, but it wouldn't be a deal breaker if it wasn't included.
The controls don’t ask too much of you, and switch depending on whether you’re on foot or in a vehicle. Running and shooting is easy from the top-down viewpoint, with one analog stick for movement, and the other for strafing. It’s a great system that means you can run in one direction and shoot in another, and since you’ll be dead in seconds if you stand still and take careful aim, you’ll make good use of it. Armored vehicles, such as tanks and choppers, also use this control method, while cars free up your fingers for accelerating and breaking by employing tilt-controlled steering.
We tested the Payback² HD version, by the way, which includes support for the iPad as well as iPhone and iPod touch. If you’re definitely only going to play this on an iPhone or iPod touch, the standard (and slightly cheaper) Payback² version is for you. It still supports small screen Retina, but isn’t iPad-native. However, both games are identical in every other way.
Admittedly I’m a little torn between the absolute absence of story– which leaves you feeling hungry even after wolfing down the rich feast of violence – and the guilty pleasure of random acts of destruction. Payback² would land itself an extra star if it had found some middle ground between the two, but there’s still a lot to enjoy and it requires very little commitment on your part to play. Load it up, go mental with a machine gun during your coffee break, turn it off and forget. Sounds like pretty good escapism to me.
It makes you wonder sometimes how a developer decides which franchises to remake. Not that 1999’s Re-Volt for the PC and consoles of the day is less deserving of a remake than any other game, but I can’t help asking why this one, and why now?
Any why do remake in the mega-popular racing genre? Games like Real Racing are setting a dizzyingly high bar from the outset, and with our minds ready to be thrice-blown by that series' latest installment, it stands to reason that any studio hoping to compete in this niche has to do something outstanding.
Re-Volt Classic [$5.99] probably does have the potential to at least cruise in the Real Racing shadow, but that potential hasn’t been realized in this version. The further thought occurs, however, that maybe the original has been tamed by time, so any direct conversion is destined to suffer a lukewarm reception, even from fans of the original.
Score-oriented 'racers' seem to have a decent following on iOS, with hits such as Mad Skills BMX [$0.99] and MotoHeroz [$0.99 / $0.99 (HD)] garnering fans with their emphasis on speed, precision, and high scores. Stunt Star: The Hollywood Years [$2.99], continues the trend in terms of trial-and-error side scrolling racers. However, while other titles focus entirely on race, Stunt Star does a great job adding personality and presentation with its premise. Sure, Stunt Star's difficulty is exceedingly tough, and its limited-use power-ups don't help the matter, but the game's trick-based gameplay is deep, lengthy and simply fun.
Stunt Star puts you in the role of a prospective stuntman as he gets his start in Hollywood films. Levels are categorized into different films, with each individual mission charging you with performing a specific trick. Players are tasked with getting their vehicle from one point to another in a level, with the goal being to land as close as possible to a checkered flag. Each mission also provides supplemental objectives (typically grabbing a star and using a certain vehicle) which award added points for completion. At the end of each mission players are scored, money is earned, and trophies are awarded based on score.
Today Brad and I buckle up and take the classic arcade game Crazy Taxi for a spin, a game we just learned was coming to iOS earlier this week. Crazy Taxi was one of those games that back in 1999, when 3D games were still fairly new in arcades and on consoles, was impressive for not just its visuals but its over-the-top style and driving mechanics.
Your goal was to pick up passengers and zip them to their desired location as quickly as possible at all costs. That means that any pedestrians or traffic that happen to be in your path better watch out, because the slower you are at shuttling passengers around the less money you'll earn for your fare.
Crazy Taxi on iOS is a fairly straight port of the game that came to consoles beginning with the Dreamcast in 2000. You have the original Arcade level to play as well as an additional Original level that was part of the home console releases. Both environments look about the same, with similarities to San Francisco and Southern California, but each has slightly different layouts. You also get the Crazy Box mode which is a set of challenges to complete to break up the normal fare-toting play of the main mode.
If you have warm fuzzy feelings towards the original Crazy Taxi then this iOS version should make you feel right at home. It even features the soundtrack from the original game, which was strangely absent from the most recent re-releases of the game. Crazy Taxi should be hitting the US App Store along with the rest of this week's scheduled releases tomorrow night, so keep your eyes peeled for it.
In a much-too breezy blog post this morning, Sega of America revealed that Crazy Taxi is hitting iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch at some point this month. It also dished out a neat teaser for this version of the game that features the original game's Offspring track -- a track that Crazy Taxi's other digital re-releases didn't include for whatever reason. It remains to be seen if licensed locations are in or out, but our guess is the latter.
It'll be interesting to see how Sega is going to tackle the controls for this version. Crazy Taxi is a game about driving and sliding wildly through a city while delivering people to a destination in increasingly short time frames. Precision seems like a must-have. Anyway, here's that trailer:
We'll get more on this as soon as we can, so stay tuned.
Way back in the spring of 2010, when No Can Win's Cubed Rally Racer [$0.99] hit the scene, the lay of the land was a little different. Retina graphics weren't yet a thing, everyone was using the now-shuttered OpenFeint, and there were all sorts of game genres that didn't begin with "endless." 
