Reckless Racing Review (iPhone)

 

Developed by Swedish company Pixelbite and only a few days ago was released by EA and Polarbit, Reckless Racing is a game that we've been following since it was known as "Deliverace" at the beginning of this year--and frankly, there was a spell where we had gone so long without hearing anything about it that we had kind of assumed that the great-looking project was cancelled.

Fortunately, that wasn't the case-it is now available on the iPhone, iPad and Android--, so we decided to take it for a quick spin. After all, top-down racers dhaven't really made much noise since the heady days of R.C. pro-am and lasting arcade favorite Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off Road ... and after playing Recklessly Racing for just a few minutes, we're not sure why that is.

Simply put, these guys put together a stellar game that immediately put a smile on your face from the moment you fire. The ironic Hillbilly theme (complete with bluegrass background music) is a good start, but more importantly, the control and gameplay are simple and immediately engaging with very little processing time. Reckless Racing allows you to choose between some five different styles: standard (rotate buttons on the left, in front of the accelerator and brake on the right), tank (gas is automatically applied, rotate buttons in both corners), Tilt, and both half and full wheel (drag the wheel to switch). We found we were quickest and most agile in the tank mode, but your mileage may vary. You'll probably spend most of your time playing a single-player mode Dirt Rally where you compete against five CPU-controlled cars in three levels of difficulty (along with two levels of difficulty of steering wheel), but you also have the Hot Lap and Delivery mode. Hot Lap is a simple solo mode where you're just trying to get the best time, but Delivery is quite interesting: the idea is to pick up packages around the course and deliver them as soon as possible to various destinations. It is pretty funny, and the special delivery course is complicated enough to keep you on your toes.

The graphics are pristine-it looks seriously amazing on the display of the iPhone--and it runs smooth as silk without a hiccup to find, but we have a few complaints. Firstly, there is no Game Center support; that is probably partly due to the fact that it is a cross-platform game and development started before Game Center was even announced, but Reckless Racing format really lends itself to the Game Center multiplayer matchmaking capacities and performance tracking (such as it is now, the game has no performance of any kind). Secondly, there is no vehicle damage; if you're in a wreck or you get stuck, you just respawn (and there is a special button in the upper-right corner to respawn manually if you want to). Given the on-course barriers and the ever-present danger of coming into contact with the competing cars, the damage would be a nice complication. Also, there are not any power-ups or upgrades--we kept looking for Super Off Road-style nitro bottles, but no luck.

All that said, Reckless has proven that the top-down size is brilliant on the phone with a touchscreen display. We would like to see more than five rally courses (ten, if you reverse the unlockable courses count)--but we would recommend that is a good problem to have, because it just drives home the point that this is already a gas to play and at $2.99, it's a steal.

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