Early last month we posted about a newly soft-launched game called NASCAR Heat Mobile (Free) from developer 704 Games, and over the weekend that game has now gone live worldwide. You may know 704 Games under their previous name Dusenberry Martin Racing, who acquired the NASCAR license in January 2015 in order to develop NASCAR games exclusively. They teamed up with Monster Games, developers of the original NASCAR Heat series of the early 2000s, to create NASCAR Heat Evolution for consoles and PCs, which released in September of last year to poor reviews. NASCAR Heat Mobile is a collaboration between 704 and long-time handheld racing game makers Firebrand Games.
Along with racing in the official Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series on the 23 officially sanctioned NASCAR tracks around the USA, NASCAR Heat Mobile also features a selection of real-life NASCAR drivers and officially licensed vehicles from companies like Toyota, Ford, and Chevrolet. I’m not someone who follows or even knows much about the world of NASCAR, but from where I’m sitting this seems like a really authentic way to simulate being in the world of NASCAR. Besides racing, there’s also an interesting-sounding city-building sort of mode that has you building various attractions to lure in racegoers in a Fan Zone mode, which seems especially mobile game-y.
Unfortunately, that also means there’s a lot of other mobile game-y elements in NASCAR Heat Mobile like a fuel-based energy meter, in-game currencies, opt-in ads, a gacha-style reward system, and pretty much all the other stuff you’d find in a typical free to play mobile game. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as that’s by far the preferred method of mobile gaming by the vast majority of mobile gamers, and if you’re used to dealing with that sort of thing in games you whip out of your pocket for a few minutes at a time throughout the day it likely won’t be a problem. If you REALLY were hoping for a pay-once premium NASCAR-branded racing game though, then this isn’t that. However, NASCAR Heat Mobile does seem pretty fun just in the few minutes I’ve diddled around with it so far and since it is free you can at least give it a download risk free and leave your thoughts about the game in our forums.
