Developer Fractiv just introduced a new mechanic and a new character in a free and fresh update to its arcade racing game Lane Splitter [$.99]. New version 2.0 -- which the studio says is the game’s most comprehensive update yet -- adds Ricky, a character “who looks cooler than you because of his sweet [blue] chopper. Also, police. Yep! For the first time ever, you’ll be asked to avoid the long arm of the law as you switch lanes to and fro at silly speeds. From our tests thus far, escaping the police seems to simply boil down to "just keep driving fast," a conceit that jives with the whole game.
New animations, tweaks, and optimizations are also a part of the free update. Interestingly, the studio has also added four more characters, but only as IAP. You can grab them one a piece for $.99 or in a bundle for $1.99. The latter is an introductory price for the moment.
Lane Splitter is stupid fun and we certainly got into it earlier this March. If you’d like to learn a little bit more about the crotch-rocketry that fuels this game, you should definitely give our review a read.
jAggy Race [99¢] arrived on the App Store without much fanfare, but this kart-racing game is an impressive debut release from Swiss developers SevenOnly. The goal is to race your little kart around the track within the allotted time. That sounds pretty easy, except the tracks are totally crazy.
They curve down-and-under, so your vehicle ends up racing upside down with 360-degree gravity. You can do massive jumps on the track which send you flying for ages, even around corners, or to other sections of track. If you've ever played the snowboarding game iStunt 2 Insane Hills [Free] the tracks are just as crazy, but here you're on wheels.
There's no other karts in this game, as you're solely racing against the clock and trying to avoid crashing. A timer starts beeping if you're running out of time, which really gets the adrenaline going, but If you take the corners too quickly you'll fly off the track altogether. Fortunately, there's mandatory checkpoints which illuminate as you pass and act as a re-spawn point if you wipe-out. This is a game of skill and timing as you can't simply hold down the accelerator.
Kairosoft’s Grand Prix Story [$2.99] feels more like Game Dev Story [$3.99 / Lite] than any of the other studio’s subsequent releases following the launch of the overly-cutesy and absorbing simulation game about making games. In both games, there’s a lot of overhead before you can see any practical applications or meaningful progress. There are also a ton of hidden systems and mechanics to find and discover as the game moves you along with its forty foot stick with a dangling carrot on the end. Also, in both games your race to be the best is often determined by the time you put in being the worst. You have to click with and then master both games’ mechanics in order to see profit and, yeah, that can be a tall order for mobile.
Grand Prix Story specifically is a painfully slow-burning simulation with a familiar set of problems that plague almost every Kairosoft release -- lack of feedback, too many hidden or unexplained systems or mechanics, a bad tutorial, and a steep difficulty curve -- but it’s also a fun title that hits all the notes that it needs to. Its systems are deep and defined enough, the racing is oddly entertaining even though its just a conglomeration of dice rolls, it’s burst-y, and the overall atmosphere, action, and theme play well off each other. (more...)
RedLynx's original DrawRace [$2.99] sucked up a large amount of my time, so when DrawRace 2 [99¢ / HD] was first announced, I had a small panic attack thinking of the amount of time it would kill in my day. Turns out, the attack was well warranted, because the sequel steps it up in every way imaginable.
The first game introduced us to the mechanic and it hasn't changed much this time around. You draw a line around a track, moving your finger quickly or slowly depending on how fast you want to go during that time, then you watch your car try to follow the line. The only difference is an added turbo button, which helps keep you engaged while you watch. (more...)
Forever Drive, Supermono Studio’s insane-ambitious racing game where you, pals, and total e-strangers will compose and create the game’s uber-highway, is still coming “soon.” No hard date has been set, in other words, but while the studio crunches, it’s been churning out a beauty of a teaser trailer that I think does an awesome job in expressing the game’s core mechanics and fleshes out what sets it apart from other top-down racers.
In brief, this is Supermono’s attempt to shake-up the racing model. Most racing games give you an assortment of well-designed, though never-changing tracks to compete on. Forever Drive will attempt to always provide something new via the sorcery of user creation. Basically, you'll be charged with constructing pieces of tracks with others that'll be combined into one huge highway. It's a cool idea.
Will this work out? I dunno, man! But I guess that's what makes following this game so fun. It looks great and has a ton of promise. Definitely stay tuned to us as we follow it.
Last month, developers Polarbit and Pixelbite Games delivered Reckless Getaway [$2.99] into the App Store, a game we liked a lot in our review. In Reckless Getaway, you play as a bank robber who is desperately trying to evade a police pursuit immediately following a bank heist. The goal is to make it past the police barricade that marks the end of each level while racking up as many points as possible along the way, and avoiding taking too much damage in the process.
Firemint sales used to be a much more rare occurrence, but they still have an electricity to them that other creators can’t capture with their own price-slashing parties. I’m guessing it has more to do with the quality of the wares, than it does with dramatic price shifts. While I pointlessly ponder this, go ahead and grab Real Racing and Real Racing 2 for the iPhone or iPad. All four games have been dramatically reduced in price for this weekend in celebration of… well, nothing that we can discern. Still! They’re cheaper!
Real Racing 2 is, we reckon, the best racing game Firemint has produced. That doesn’t mean the original Real Racing is a slouch, though. Fans of simulation racing games can and will enjoy both; it’s just that Real Racing 2 is a fantastic iteration on that original foundation. If you want to know way more about either of these titles, we’ve got your back. You can check out a review of the follow-up here and a review of Real Racinghere. Non-spoiler: they’re good.
One thing about Shift 2: Unleashed [$5.99/HD], just real quick: Don't bother. If I had to summarize EA's latest Need for Speed sim, it certainly wouldn't involve the word "unleashed." This is about as misleading a subtitle you could attach to something so tame and afraid to do anything outside its comfort zone.
I'm still high off the faster, crazier NFS: Hot Pursuitand the dialed back Real Racing 2, I think. Shift 2 exists in a limbo-like spot somewhere in between those titles, with a slightly heavier weight toward the realistic racing, which is something the franchise has only recently started dabbling in. We loved the first Need for Speed: Shift because it nailed what we wanted from a console approximation and it was a convincing, competitive iOS sim-racer. This sequel hits those same notes, but the standard, and thus what I expect, has raised since.
We got a look at a few screenshots of Speedway GP 2011last month, and while we're still incredibly light on details regarding what's going to be in the actual game, they shot us over a new trailer today which features an entire six seconds of gameplay footage.
As I write this, you could be designing your own Snuggle Truck [$.99 / HD] levels in the brand new update to the physics-based driving game. Owlchemy Labs’ dropped us an e-letter this morning stating that Apple had blessed the titanic update, and it also revealed that, in celebration, Snuggle Truck will be sold at 30-50 percent off the normal price. For the next 24 hours, you can grab the game on iPhone and iPod for $.99, or on the iPad for $1.99. That’s a cool deal! I think!
Just as a light re-cap if you missed our previous coverage, the level editor is a drag-and-drop deal, similar to the one in LittleBigPlanet. Also, like LBP, you’ll be able to upload your creators or play, share, and rate other peoples’ levels through a new web portal. This update also rolls in a much-needed UI flip, some balance tweaks, and other little fixes.
We’ve seen a lot of crazy updates in our time, but rare are the ones that change the face of a game. Granted, Snuggle Truck will continue to be a title about cute animals that you need to escort back to the zoo, but now it can also boast a previously unexplored sandbox aspect that really tries to tickle the creation itch. What’s next? A built-in text editor?
Supermono Studio, the same studio who achievement-ized standard non-game tasks like chores and scrubbing behind your ears in the stupendous Epic Win [$2.99], are close to releasing its next game, Forever Drive.
Forever Drive, if you didn't know, is a futuristic racing game, complete with track building and neat customization elements, sorta like ModNation Racers. The coolest element, on paper at least, is its online, perpetual city. Supermono describes the game as “Outrun-meets-SimCity-in-the-future-online,” if you need some analogues.
Of course, it also dropped some screenshots. There’s probably a great word for this kind of art style, but because my brain doesn't work so great all the time, I’ll just say it looks great (in a TRON kind of way) and let you tell me my business in the comments.
If you’re familiar with this project, you might be wondering why it’s now called Forever Drive instead of "Drive Forever." According to Supermono, there’s a legal reason for the flip. It didn't go into the details in the official blog's latest post, probably because the story would be REALLY boring.
It also didn't discuss release date. We've got in touch and hope to bring you that information and more in the near future.
Ever since the success of Death Rally [99¢] earlier this year, there has been somewhat of a resurgence in isometric racing titles with an emphasis on weapons and destruction. And why not? There’s nothing cooler than setting up a shot in your souped-up racer and blowing apart the leader right before taking the checkered flag. Mad Wheels [99¢/Lite/HD] attempts to ride on this wave of enthusiasm and success and, while the title does a decent job nailing the core gameplay, its lack of any real customization definitely hurts replayability.
Simply put, many aspects of Mad Wheels are, well, simple. There are only two single player modes: a ‘Championship’ mode that has the player race through 25 tracks across four “regions,” and a randomized Quick Race option. In addition, there is no story to speak of; the only motivation to continue playing is a progression bar that goes up every time a race is won or objective is met. While Mad Wheels offers a half dozen cars to choose from (with three more as IAP), each vehicle has fixed weapons and stats, with no options for upgrades or improvements. This drastically decreases any potential replayability, as once you go through each track and nail all the objectives, there’s nothing else to play towards.
In addition to the concerns above, there are some glaring omissions in Mad Wheels that definitely detract from the overall experience. For example, there are no save states or ‘multitasking’ support within this game. In other words, if you’re playing on your iPad, and you decide to exit out to check your email, you’ve just lost any progress you had on your current race and need to start over. This lack of any save state is almost unacceptable in this day and age. In addition, Mad Wheels only uses the Crystal social network system and doesn’t even integrate Game Center. This isn’t necessarily a big deal, but still surprising considering how Game Center is poised to be the primary gaming service once the next version of iOS comes out.
Not everything is bad, however. Mad Wheels has decent graphics with a stable, fast framerate (with a visual style that makes me wish Blast Corp was on iOS). In addition, the game controls pretty well, emulating Death Rally and providing an overall decent gameplay experience. While the weapons are predictable, they are implemented nicely and preserve the enjoyment of blasting apart your opponents. Furthermore, Mad Wheels also incorporates a Wi-Fi multiplayer mode, allowing gamers to join and host multiplayer races.
Despite its issues, Mad Wheels still manages to preserve some of the fun involved with these types of weapon racers. If you’re looking for a simple, weapons-based racer with multiplayer and don’t care about customizability or excessive replayability, then Mad Wheels may be a title worthy of your attention. If you’re looking for a game with more substance and depth, then Death Rally still remains the perennial favorite and recommended title.
Arnold and Jared's obsession over the last six months saw another update this afternoon. If you haven't heard of Disc Drivin [Free / $1.99 / HD] yet, you should really check out our review. It's a really slick asynchronous online multiplayer racing game. Think of it as shuffleboard meets Mario Kart meets Words With Friends.
Anyway, Disc Drivin 1.7 is here, which brings a number of new tracks and obstacles that we detailed a few days ago:
This newest update adds another 3 brand new tracks, for a total of 18, as well as a new track element called the Flipper. You can see the overhead design of each of the tracks in the icons below:
As for the Flipper, pictured at the top of this post, you’ll come across this obstacle placed in various parts of the ground in each of the 3 new tracks. When you slide over it, it propels you forwards and upwards, catapult style. This can either be a very good thing or a very bad thing, mostly depending on where you end up finally landing. The faster you’re going when you hit the Flipper, the farther you’ll get launched, so there should be some good strategic uses of the new object if utilized correctly.
So what are you waiting for? You can play the game for free, and the update is now live. Go start some games on the new tracks and let us know what you think of them.
All of my two-wheel racing experience resides in that one Moto GP game that came on the Xbox Live demo disc. Because I couldn’t compete, I drove backwards around the tracks while making funny noises over the microphone. I’m not so sure that I’ll be able to rekindle those times in Polish developer Vivid Games’ Speedway GP 2011 for iOS, but it sure does look like a sharp title that strokes all the right notes of a proper simulation racing game.
That was all build-up to get to the point of telling you that Vivid shot us over some fresh images of the racing title. Also, I wanted to give you a release date: August 25th for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and the iPad.
As its namesake implies, Speedway GP 2011 is a BSI Speeday game, kinda like how Madden is an NFL game. It’ll launch with, as you see, some pretty hot visuals and, of course, realistic physics. The craziest thing I’ve learned so far while checking out the pre-release intel is that these racers don’t use brakes, nor will you be able to. Yeah, I know. Wild!
Speedway GP 2011 will also launch with 11 stadiums, a “full roster of statistics” and real-time stat-tracking of the Speedway Grand Prix. There’s another app on the App Store that appears to have your back on that, too, if you’re especially interested.
Stay tuned for some more in-depth coverage as the game races (huh, huh!?) to the App Store a little later next month.
We've been keeping an eye on Dream Track Nation [$0.99] since we caught a peek of it on Chillingo's YouTube channel earlier this year. Even back in the depths of April, it looked like a leader in the 2D physics racing genre. Now that it's reached the finish line, the question remains -- is it a winner? Well, it's complicated.
If you're really into games like the Jelly Car [Free] series, then you're going to want this game. It has familiar 2D cars and levels, similarly wacky physics and a lot of content to enjoy. A ridiculous amount of content for its $0.99 price tag, in fact.
The sheer volume of content is Dream Track Nation's main selling point. The game includes 60 levels that can be played in star collect mode. Then you can play them again in time trial mode, which is a notably different experience. Throughout these modes you'll unlock vehicles to play with. You can also play the official levels against another racer in multiplayer mode. If you get bored of the built-in content, you can download new levels made by other players. Any time you don't feel like racing, you can work on building your own masterpiece of a level, which you can then upload to share with the world at large. It's frankly unreasonable that a game with so much content should be so cheap. It's basically Sony's whole "Play. Create. Share" model wrapped up in a one dollar package.
Developer Fractiv just introduced a new mechanic and a new character in a free and fresh update to its arcade racing game Lane Splitter [$.99]. New version 2.0 -- which the studio says is the game’s most comprehensive update yet -- adds Ricky, a character “who looks cooler than you because of his sweet [blue] chopper. Also, police. Yep! For the first time ever, you’ll be asked to avoid the long arm of the law as you switch lanes to and fro at silly speeds. From our tests thus far, escaping the police seems to simply boil down to "just keep driving fast," a conceit that jives with the whole game.
RedLynx's original DrawRace [
Firemint
One thing about Shift 2: Unleashed [
As I write this, you could be designing your own 
Supermono Studio, the same studio who achievement-ized standard non-game tasks like chores and scrubbing behind your ears in the stupendous Epic Win [$
