One of the most anticipated top down racing games in iOS history finally dropped on the iPhone/iPad last night. The game was announced months ago, but the developer ended up selling publishing rights to EA which for some reason led to the delay of the freakin century. So for months I’ve been waiting and watching the app store, not literally holding my breath but still. Well, last night it finally showed up and I immediately plunked down my $2.99. So, far it lacks some content but its quite a bit of fun and the online multiplayer definitely helps.
The main screen really doesn’t do a whole heck of a lot for you – just what game type to play, options and the about info. Don’t let the About fool you, the tutorial is buried under that menu and trust me, you’ll want to use the tutorial since you basically get some free laps to test out the 5 different control options and find what works best for you. If at any point you want to change those controls just hit the options button and click on controls. You can also turn off the in game music from the options menu should you want to fire up your own tunes.
There’s 3 single player game modes – Dirt Rally (Racing), Hot Lap (ghost timed lap) and Delivery which pits you against the clock in an effort to pickup and deliver packages across the map. You also get to chose between 6 different vehicles to mob around in. Each has (at least it appears to) have its own little tweaks for speed and control so one some tracks you may find that the Jeep out performs the Semi. Don’t let that Semi fool you though – its one fast mama-jama!
In total there’s 5 tracks. It gets doubled however since they also run those tracks in reverse. Believe me when I say just because its the same track in reverse doesn’t mean you’re going to drive it the same way. I suck on one track the regular way, but I can rock it out going reverse. This is honestly one of the weakest parts of the game though… need more tracks!
The game DOES NOT support game center. Which kinda sucks. It also does not keep track of multiple player stats – so you really aren’t going to have a world leader in wins/losses which is too bad. But there are leader boards so you can at least see how your times are ranking.
Finally, the graphics are nothing less than incredible. Seriously this is one of the best looking games I’ve played so far. The vehicles look amazing, they throw dirt around the corners, tire marks on the concrete, smoke from the tires… a lot of attention to detail was put into not only the cars but the tracks. If you land in a lake (sucks!) you can watch the vehicle slowly sink into the water – and it looks fan-frickin-tastic!
Wrap-up:
Look, I don’t know if it was worth the wait or not, but I can say I spent about 2 hours after I bought it last night playing and playing and playing. I completed almost all the tracks on gold level, and have beat them all on bronze and silver. I think with a few more tracks the replay value of the single player could definitely go up quite a bit. The multiplayer though is where I think where the replay value from this game is going to come from since the single player just doesn’t have the content that a game like NFS Shift has. I can see myself (as long as there’s people to play against) hopping on the channels during some downtime to have a little fun, but you’re just not going to get a feeling of accomplishment (or need to fulfill goals) like you do with NFS or Real Racing and without a global ranking system there’s no big push to outperform. With that said – Reckless Racing is more of a quicky/quirky arcade action racing game where you kinda feel the need to high speed drift around the corner in a semi, slam into the other guy and clench victory from the jaws of defeat.
Quick Decision: Buy it now if you’ve been waiting for a fun racing game that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Wait for a sale if you’re not a racing junkie or prefer to have a goal oriented game like NFS Shift.
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