Pretty awesome game; I'm second overall in my "career", the gameplay seems pretty cool to me (thus far). Although there is some good points identified in how the AI or gameplay doesn't quite size up to current generation racers, this is called "8-bit Rally" for a reason. If a lot of those recommendations were implemented, then they'd need to change the name of the game to "32-bit Rally". I think for the target audience they had in mind, so far, this is pretty much a homerun. (though personally? This is more 16bit than 8 bit... but I'm just being picky ).
1) I'll look into the collision detection & D-Pad. I'm currently adding support for the Joypad app, which will help too. 2) The endless cycle of failing to upgrade is the biggest issue we found. I added the retry screen if you finished worse than 5/6th, but it can still be an issue. I'm not too sure how to really solve it without dumbing down the game. I might improve the cash reward for 3rd & worse placings.
I think you do it by lessening the difference between the normal car and the upgrades and adjusting the AI cars accordingly...or you just lengthen the difficulty curve by increasing the speed of the AI cars every 2-3 races instead of every race, particularly in that critical time when people want to save for the good car. Another thing you could do that will make people psychologically more likely to upgrade is to show in the menu that there are only 3 upgrades in each area. The graphic makes it look like there are much more, and many people will not upgrade as they don't want to invest in that car but would rather save up for the good car...and they are at a point in the game where they physically cannot win without upgrading. Anyway, the game is good...just trying to be constructive. Thanks for making it free, and good luck.
It's fine as long as you upgrade. If you don't, no matter how well you drive, you just don't have a chance. I don't remember racers ever working that way.
Perhaps just a bit of boost via the cash, it would be pretty cool to see on the races you do finish first, to get extra $ for every car you double-up. Those extra bucks could prove helpful for some later. As a suggestion on a future update, I would certainly like to see some kind of time trial mode (and leaderboard) for each of the tracks. Would add longevity to the title.
Hmmm, I've won many a race without upgrading for a few races, you don't always have to upgrade. For those needing some assistance, here's some hints centered on one major part of the gameplay, that has proved successful for me. There may be a better way to race, but this seems to work pretty good. 1 - Turbo's are cheap, $20 a pop, so buy them and use them 2 - Turbo doesn't last just a few seconds. I'm not sure if there's a time limit, but it looks like it unless your speed slows down a bit, it will keep going. I'm not 100% sure but I'm pretty sure I've done almost half a track a couple of times on full turbo. I must have passed 8 cars at least on that one turbo. 3 - It's important to use Turbo at the right location on the track. If a track has long straightaways, then yeah, that's a good time to turbo. 4 - You can keep a turbo going through slight curves no problem, as long as you're keeping to the inside of the curve. Heavy curves will force you to either hit the breaks or ease up on gas so yeah, you'll lose your turbo there. 5 - If the track starts off on a long straight or with small corners, using turbo near the beginning of the race (once you've rev'ed up enough) can be very beneficial, allowing you to pass many a car. One final recommendation for the devs. Someone else mentioned it, Frank should not always be winning. I HATE Frank. Perhaps a bit of randomness on the AI winner would be cool and less frustrating so I don't have to win EVERY time because the same AI dude always wins. It's been a long time that I've played a racer that puts me "in the zone". I think the last time may have been Road Rash on the 3DO.
Thanks for the feedback guys. The game is only free for a limited time by the way The original aim was to make AI cars only get better every 2nd/3rd race. Each track has it's AI top speed manually set, so along the way the AI just turned out getting better each track. As for Frank: The game picks the AI players randomly each time you start a career & saves that. If you start a new career, someone else will be battling you for 1st position.
I kind of figured that, but just saying its frustrating if its only one guy because: A) You almost want to never finish below 2, because points wise it's almost impossible to catch up unless you win most of the races. B) if winning is that important, you may want to set up the "retry?" message when coming in 3rd or worse!!! C) This basically becomes a race between 2 people, you and one CPU character. This doesn't take that much away from the game, its still great, just this part could be adjusted to make the game a bit more enjoyable. If you change nothing, I'm still a happy dude.
I think the easiest way to get out of upgrade hell would be to put objectives into the races that help you get extra cash. Like extra cash for being in the top, or bottom three. Extra cash for not coming off the track or not colliding with other racers or not relying on nitro etc
OK, I've come full circle on this game after playing the heck out of it today. The curve really evens out about 10 races in, and after you get the Mark III, you feel unbeatable for a good bit there. Great great game...and HOLY CRAP does it have a lot of tracks! Still recommend looking at a few things: 1. Bigger D-pad or more area on the right. I hate missing that thing by a pixel and crashing. 2. Look at collision detection from the side...frustrating when cars phase through you or when getting bumped from the side has the same impact as rear ending a car. 3. Alternate winners between 2-3 racers so you don't feel obliged to restart if you aren't in first. 4. There's a little stretch somewhere in races 5-10 where you can't win without upgrading, and it takes some frustrating races to figure that out. Once you realize that you have to upgrade, the difficulty curve is pretty good overall.
This game really surprised me. I own the fancy racers, NFS, RR2 etc. But this game is really fun. In some ways, maybe more fun than the modern racers.
I've been experiencing crashes. If I delete the game off my multitask bar, I will not be able to start the game anymore unless I restart the phone.
FYI, completed the easy difficulty level, it was a freaking awesome 40 tracks. Well done, take a bow devs! More stuff I'd like to see: - one of the tracks had different environmental conditions within the same race, ie: snow and green hills. Would love to have seen that used more often than I did (I think only one track was like that) - more tracks. Yes, I'm kidding, jeez, that was awesome. The only suggestion maybe not sure how hard it would be to implement, but maybe mirrored or reverse tracks. - A special request, ignore my earlier recommendation to add a "time trial" mode that would keep score of your best times on each of the 40 tracks. Seriously, you add that and I'm sure the wife will get pissed off since I'll never be doing the "house" chores. It's important to understand ones priorities, taking out the garbage would NOT come ahead of playing time trials in this game
