Audiosurf was the very first PC game I ever owned, and it still holds up as well now as it did back in 2008. Having a game that turned my obscure punk music into playable tracks was revolutionary, and ever since the App Store launched, I have been looking for a similar alternative to play on the go. Riddim Ribbon, from the makers of App Store relic Tap Tap Revenge, was the only one that got close, yet the restriction of only a few R&B tracks lessened the experience for myself personally. An Audiosurf game was also announced in 2012, but unfortunately never came to fruition. 7 long years later, Riff Racer ($0.99), from developers FOAM Entertainment, has not only filled this void but utterly smashed my expectations, because as well as including the musically-generated tracks to follow, they have also turned the Audiosurf formula into a complete stunt racing title, which looks as unfathomably awesome as it sounds.
For anyone unfamiliar with the mechanics of Riff Racer, what the game does is turn any song on your iPhone into a specialised music tracks, whereby turns, jumps and obstacles match up with characteristics in that specific song. Best of all, it works with literally any track, so whether you’re more into classical pieces or heavier tracks, the game will do its best to cater to the music. There are also individual leaderboards for each song, so managing to reach the top for a specific track is a fantastic feeling, and becomes extremely compulsive in trying to claim your favourite albums – being able to race ghosts of other racers who have completed the same track only adds to the competition. Riff Racer adds in jumps, drifts and rolls, introducing more traditional driving game elements than similar titles such as Audiosurf offer.
If your music library is low on songs, Riff Racer comes with 25 free tracks that can be played, and also is compatible with Apple Music playlists, which should save some of the hassle for anyone who has signed up for the streaming service – but Spotify support somewhere down the line would be nice, even if I strongly doubt Apple have enabled the infrastructure for such a thing to happen. Regardless, for only $2.99 with only some cosmetic in app purchase options avilable, this is another essential premium iOS experience. I can’t wait to play Riff Racer, and if you’re a fan of racing or rhythm games, I’d definitely recommend giving it a test drive, and letting us know your impressions on our forum thread.
Or it could be legitimate DLC, which is technically an IAP and thus has to be listed as such. I'd pay 99¢ to play as Daisy.
It's likely paid with IAP. Possibly optional characters, skins, "speed unlocks", a coin doubler, who knows. It's Nintendo so I imagine they are going to try to monetize the shit out of this, instead of capping potential at the price of admission. Why not unlock "Luigi skins and themes" for the title screen for 99 cents? A bad-guy character pack that you can unlock after tons of play, or pay 2.99 to skip the grind? I'm sure these ideas were not lost on the Nintendo Mobile team.
"Super Mario Run" already has in its title all I need to steer clear of this new offering from Nintendo. Autorunners have been done to death on iOS already and even though speed runs are a necessarily Mario player's portfolio, the option to stop, change direction, and explore is a big part of what made Mario so fun to play. They may somehow redeem this from its namesake autorunner suggestions, but a Mario reskin of a side scrolling autorunner does not sound appealing to me.. Let's hope I'm wrong about this.
I felt the same way about autorunners. But after seeing how good lost socks was, I have an open mind about them now. And to be honest, the trailer looked really good.
With Pokemon GO being #1 grossing game worldwide, dominant in both iOS/Android since its release, Nintendo would be stupid to not make this freemium.
I'm all in. Mario got me into gaming back in the day. Il buy even if I don't play it lol
Game is free to download with a demo to play but then with an IAP to unlock full game.
Premium title ? Don't count on it... freemium is the inevitable fate of all things in the app store...
When the guy said its going to be pay once and play forever kind of deal you shouldn't take his words too literally... I mean we all know what happened to runners like sonic and the like that launched with a price tag only to become freemium down the road.
As long as the game is balanced to where you can get a decent amount of coins by just playing without IAP, I'm fine with it. Looks pretty fun too, although a full free movement platformer would've been awesome.
IAP is OK by me--just not ephemeral consumables.
Or predatory "gambling" mechanics and VIP levels lol
Ill call it. 4.99 for the game. 9.99 for the whole unlock of other mario costumes
Free to Try
Nintendo have been talking about this for years.
They have had a few games like this for the 3DS.
This will be fine, even very good, by auto runner standards. Lost Socks has kind of restored my faith that auto runners can still be interesting, when the production values are high enough. And it will make a shedload of money, no matter how it is monetised. Also, Nintendo have worked so hard to present themselves as the family-friendly gaming company, they know their reputation might take a hit if there are dozens of stories about little Emily or little Ichiro accidentally spending thousands on pappa's credit card with consumable IAP.
The only thing Nintendo has left in terms of differentiation from competitors is that its games are allegedly and occasionally of such high production values that they stand shoulder to shoulder with any triple-A title on any other platform. Problem is, Nintendo releases those tentpole games less and less. Now seemingly releasing one or two every three years or so. And then often just an "HD" reboot/remake/upgrade/reimagining (or whatever BS way the marketing team cares to sell it) of an old game (er... I mean CLASSIC game).
This game obviously is not that. It's a cheap rehash of a tired mobile genre with the obnoxious plumber pasted on top. Nintendo doesn't get it. There are so many exceptional, creative, and rapidly evolving games on iOS, and their character development, narrative themes, production values across the board are as good or better than Nintendo.
Nintendo seems squarely determined to keep reskinning tired genres with their never-really-that-compelling characters. Their best chance is to release something like a Legend of Zelda game that is a reflection of their very best talent, is original, optimized for iOS.
They won't do that though, because they are still under the mistaken impression that their janky, Frankenstein devices with odd stylus, 3D, 4D, touch screens, knobs, shoulder button, and motion control can beat back the inevitable tide of global mobile and tablet gaming.
They're wrong.
By the time they finally get serious and release a true triple-A game on iOS, some three or four years hence, the waves will long since have swept away their castle.
That's the kind of IAP that toucharcade likes! Personally I like the gems and stuff, because you can either choose to pay or choose to enjoy the game for free. With this "lite version" thing, you can't unlock much of the game for free, instead you have to pay. Hope they are successful with this model. It usually does worse financially than the model I favor, but the allure of Mario will surely pull at people's wallets, so I have no doubt that the game will be successful either way.