I ‘ve played a few racing games on my Sony Ericsson k750 and used the little joystick on the phone to control things, but the experience never really came together. Joysticks are good for certain things, but I always thought racing games needed steering wheels. Then the App Store came out and everything changed. The makers of a fancy pants game called Cro-Mag Rally claimed that we could treat the whole iPhone as a steering wheel. I smiled and frowned (simultaneously “ it looked weird). Would tilting my iPhone left and right make for a better experience, or would I just going to give myself vertigo while sitting still?
Hit the jump for the whole review!
Intro
Before I get to the mechanics of the racing, what kind of races are we taking part in? Well, there are two game modes: race and gather. Race is a 4-car, 3-lap race on one of the nine different tracks, and gather is similar, but requires you to collect as many spear tips on the track as you can during the race to win.
After the game mode choices comes the level selection. The levels are all quite different, and vary greatly in difficulty. The default desert stage is a good starting track with cacti and tornados as obstacles, but later stages such as Giza have you driving through rivers (which slow you down big time!). The last level, Atlantis, actually forgoes cars altogether and has you driving in submarines.
If you ‘re not playing Atlantis, you can offset the difficulty of a level by choosing the right car for the job. Cro-Mag offers 11 cars, each varying in speed, acceleration, traction, and suspension. The Trojan Horse proved to be my favourite model “ not because of its stats, but because it ‘s a freaking Trojan Horse (it ‘s impossible to lose with so many Greek warriors hiding in your car).
One thing that ‘s unusual in Cro-Mag as a racer is that all the levels and cars are unlocked by default. I ‘m used to having to unlock things a la console games, but I guess this setup makes the game feel more open to casual gamers. It can be really frustrating in other games if you just want to try the other levels, but can ‘t beat your current one. On the other hand, having unlockables is a classic game mechanic for giving the player a sense of satisfaction. You know you ‘re doing well, because you got to the next level or a new vehicle.
In any case, when you ‘ve chosen your car the last task you have before the race starts is to pick a driver. The game lets you drive as either Brog or Grag, which is Cro-Mag for boy or girl 😛 And no, there ‘s no gameplay difference between the two.
Gameplay
Let ‘s get down to the racing now. Overall, I have to say I ‘m quite impressed with the iPhone as a means of controlling a car. There is a lot of potential here! At first I thought I ‘d either make myself dizzy, or that I ‘d get confused with the screen tilting so often during gameplay, but after hours of gameplay I can still walk in a straight line and I can still recite the alphabet backwards. In any case, part of the reason you don ‘t get dizzy is because Cro-Mag actually tilts with you. So if you turn left, the game does too. Steering came very naturally to me, and I think Pangea was spot on with the control sensitivity here.
Cro-Mag is a lot like Mario Kart on the various Nintendo consoles. You don ‘t have to worry about gears (who puts gears on a Trojan Horse?!), and you accelerate to full speed very quickly. You controls are forward and back on the left side of the screen, a brake button beside them, and a forward and back button for the weapon pick-ups on the right side. They take up very little screen real estate, which leaves room for the handy mini map on the upper-right corner.
But let me back up for a second. I mentioned weapons. There are level-specific pickups that you can run over and use on yourself (lightning speed boost) or your enemies (bone bombs are just one example). I found myself sticking solely to the lightning as I found the other weapons (which fire in an arc) too difficult to use.
The game was set to the easy difficulty by default, so I won all my races in first place without breaking a sweat. I chuckled to myself and thought myself a pro, so I set the difficulty up to hard. The enemy racers got more competent as drivers, but they got a lot better at using the weapons. I can ‘t count the number of times I ended up driving into walls after getting hit by yet another bone bomb.
Graphics/Sound
One curious thing about Cro-Mag is the tropical island-y (at least to me) music that the game has for the main menu. With something as, uh, cro-magnon-y, as Cro-Mag Rally, I ‘d have expected a tribal drum beat. In any case, all nine levels have their own music appropriate to their location. Sound effects for pickups (except lightning) are just a basic grunt as you use them.
The graphics are pretty good for a handheld game. The models and pickups are all very detailed, and the different levels are chock full of eye candy “ from Viking vessels to medieval towers. Pangea did a good job of giving the different levels a distinct texture, and it ‘s fun to drive through them just to see the sights. Frame rates are usually solid, but they can take a bit of a dive every once in a while, though only for one or two seconds at a time.
Value
Cro-Mag is a good racing game for casual gamers. It ‘s got the Mario Kart-ish mechanics to make it easy to get into, it ‘s got a basic, but solid UI, and it has everything accessible from the start (no unlockables). That said, once you ‘ve played a few hours and finished each level of Cro-Mag, there isn ‘t too much to keep you coming back outside of the driving itself. One of the big draws of racing games on other consoles is a lap and track record so you can see how fast you ‘re going in any particular race. There is no such timer or record system in Cro-Mag Rally. As far as the game is concerned, winning in first place is the same as coming in fourth. Again, for those simply looking for some quick racing action, this game can definitely deliver. But for those who want a bit more depth (as much depth as is reasonable in a $6 game), Cro-Mag could use some improvement.
Conclusion
Cro-Mag Rally was one of the first games out of the App Store door, so it ‘s extra impressive that Pangea nailed the sensitivity of the accelerometer as a steering wheel. I ‘m not a big racing fanatic, but I had a lot of fun with the tilt controls and exploring the various levels. The game usually costs $5.99, but is currently on sale for $1.99. What are you waiting for? Ugh. Get.
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