When Reckless Racing [$0.99 / HD] hit the scene back in October 2010, we praised it for the incredible top-down racing experience it offered. Now, the folks at Pixelbite Games are back again with Reckless Racing 2 [$4.99], the long awaited sequel to this arcade racer. Improving on nearly every facet of its predecessor, Reckless Racing 2 is hands-down one of the top arcade racers I’ve ever played and is well worth the price of admission.
From a presentation standpoint, Reckless Racing 2 makes some significant changes in comparison to its predecessor. Gone are the country themes present in the music and characters (although the latter still remains somewhat in the avatars and names of your AI opponents). In its place is a stylized, clean motif complete with fast-paced music reminiscent of 80s action movies (think Top Gun). Some folks may argue Reckless Racing 2 loses some of the ‘charm’ found in the original, but I think this is a great move that moves towards a more universal appeal.
Smash Cops [$2.99] from Hutch reminds me of Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, as the main objective is to take bad guys off the road by catching up with them and then ramming their vehicles until they catch fire and roll in slow-motion. Sounds good, right? In Smash Cops the police pursuit is set in an urban neighborhood more like Grand Theft Auto, so there's heaps of intersections and front lawns to skid around.
The most distinctive feature of Smash Cops are the controls, which have become a talking point in our discussion thread. The default touch controls involve placing one finger behind your police car and using it to "push" your vehicle along, like a toy car, with acceleration being automatic. This "push" mechanism has received mixed feedback, with some absolutely loving it and others loathing it and preferring the alternate virtual joystick option. Personally, I enjoyed the new push controls, but found the virtual joystick jerky and awkward for steering.
Mole Kart[Free], the world's most blatant Mario Kart clone, is now free for a "limited time," on the App Store according to the game's developer. As we've covered in the past, Mole Kart lacks a lot of Mario Kart's feature set, but what it include, it charges for piece by piece as IAP unlocks. So, when we say free, we mean that pretty loosely; in this case the cover charge is the only price barrier that has been removed.
If anything, now you've got a chance to see just how blatant of a rip-off that Mole Kart is without dropping three bucks beforehand. You could also watch this trailer or read this thread, though, and save yourself some time:
So, there you were. Looking at our upcoming games list and getting psyched about Smash Cops. And then the game was pulled before you could buy it. Good news: it's re-hitting the App Store this week, and reviews should be follow it on January 19th or so. Yay!
What was up with the delay? Licensing issues. In a statement sent to us at the time of the postponement, developer Hutch explained soberly that it hoped to "get [its] forms straightened out" and get back into the App Store this week. And, hey, it did -- but not before about 5,000 lucky dudes purchased the game.
Woody Woodpecker has his own star on the Hollywood walk of fame, his own famous theme song and a distinctive laugh (ha-ha-HA-ha!  Ha-ha-HA-ha!), but old Woody hasn't had much press coverage in recent years. So he's trying to make a comeback, with his new iOS game published by Chillingo.
Woody Woodpecker [99¢] is basically Tiny Wings [99¢] turned into a side-scrolling race between five cartoon characters across a curvaceous landscape. And like most Chillingo releases, it's nicely presented. You choose which of the five characters to race as, with each having their own "vehicle" and special weapon.
If iOS clones are your cup of tea, strap in for the clone-iest clone yet. The Shanghai Taomee Network Technology company just released Mole Kart [$2.99], a universal kart racer that makes no attempt at hiding the fact that just about everything in the game is lifted directly from Mario Kart. Take a look at the trailer:
It's lacking a championship mode, as well as the different engine sizes found in Mario Kart. Also, to fully unlock everything in the game you're looking at spending ten bucks between the initial purchase price and all the various DLC unlockables for tracks and additional karts. Forum members are going crazy for the game, and are encouraging everyone that's interested to get in on Mole Kart before it gets pulled from the App Store.
Whether or not it'll actually get pulled is another matter entirely. There are a lot of Mario Kart inspired games out there, but this one is by far the most blatant.
The first batch of new game releases in 2012 last week was relatively quiet, but Lunar Racer [99¢] from NoodleCake Studios (the makers of Super Stickman Golf [99¢/HD] ) have got things off to a positive start by releasing a new lo-gravity racing game with plenty of jumps, heaps of flips and a couple of weapons.
Lunar Racer starts with a basic driving test, to secure your lunar license. During your rookie training, you learn that tapping the left half of the screen activates "gravity assist" to pull your vehicle towards the ground, while tapping the right side activates nitro boosters for a burst of speed. There's no steering controls, as this game is all about timing your speed-boosts and jumps to beat your opponents.
Death Rally [$.99] now officially has multiplayer courtesy a December 16 update. Starting now, you can participate in an online twist to the game's standard single-player campaign, which has been dubbed "Road Wars." In this, you simply race against others and earn a comparable amount of experience points based on your position and performance.
You'd figure this kind of update would make everyone happy, right? Wrong, because this is the Internet. Road Wars is loaded to the gills with IAP guns and cars that you can buy in advance of earning them normally through play. As a result, some are picking up their nearest pitchfork or torch to storm the gates.
We've spent some time with Road Wars and the IAP stuff looks like just that -- an option. Even though it'll be constantly winking at you, the experience seems suitably balance for those of us who just want to rock out and earn additional items through play. Full update notes through this link, by the way.
UPDATE: We've been advised that some higher level items can't be unlocked traditionally. The fact that IAP exists threw off the balance of the mode anyway, so there's not much left to say here.
Bike Baron [$.99] received an update a couple of days ago, but developer Mountain Sheep has managed to fit another rejuvenating splash of content in before the App Store freeze. And this one, guys, is just as cool.
This latest update specifically drops in a total of five brand new ice-themed levels with a new kind of material that allows you to morph objects into breakable ice. More in line with the yuletide spirit, though, Mountain Sheep has also added two new Santa characters equipped with jolly bikes via in-app purchase. You can view both of these before you buy, by the way, which is a welcome design decision. Here's a look:
Bike Baron is a surprisingly good game, and an especially welcome title on the App Store since we didn't have a Trials or anything near its level beforehand. Check it!
I’m a big fan of top-down arcade racers. The short tracks, speed boosts, and tight races create a kind of intensity that I find hard to replicate in other, more traditional racing games. Enter Mini Motor Racing [$1.99 / HD], the latest from The Binary Mill, and a good example of why I love top-down racers. Everything from the visuals to the great presentation and large amount of content outweigh the physics issues and occasional stability problems, making this a highly recommended game for racer fans.
The first thing you’ll notice when you jump into a race in Mini Motor Racing is the high quality visuals. Both the vehicle models as well as the actual tracks look great and it all runs at a fast framerate. Added touches like weather conditions (the rain looks great) do a good job making the game come alive. In addition, Mini Motor Racing also features a rocking soundtrack that I thought added to the feel of the game. All of these elements combine for a smooth and engaging presentation that simply adds to the overall experience while playing.
In August of last year, developer Oyatsukai released Final Freeway [99¢], a retro-racer that was lovingly crafted as an homage to the classic arcade game OutRun. We totally enjoyed the game in our review, and were especially impressed with the high framerate and crazy sense of speed in Final Freeway. This past October, the developer announced that a sequel to Final Freeway was in the works, and right now that sequel is going by the working title of Final Freeway 2: Retro.
Oyatsukai released a new gameplay trailer a few weeks back for Final Freeway 2R which shows the slightly new look of the game. While the first Final Freeway seemed like it was going for a more realistic, digitized look, this second entry has more of a cartoonish feel with hand-drawn sprites and bright colors. I think the result is a more accurate take on OutRun, from the video you can see other tiny new touches like your choice of different characters and the ability to actually crash and flip your ride.
Once again, the framerate and sense of speed in this new Final Freeway sequel are just crazy. Despite being so simplistic and a bit short, I still regularly bust out the original Final Freeway for my retro arcade racing fix, so I'm definitely looking forward to a new entry that offers a refined experience. Development seems to be slow but steady, and when the game was announced in October the developer was hopeful that it was about 3 months off from being finished, which would put it at an early 2012 release. Hopefully they are on track for this still, and Oyatsukai has started a campaign at the Kickstarter-like Appbackr in the hopes of crowd funding the cost for the final push towards completion.
We'll keep tabs on Final Freeway 2R and will hopefully see it in the not too distant future, and until then you can join the discussion of the game taking place in our forums.
Despite is charmingly designed appearance, Bike Baron [$.99] is a cold and cruel game made for those of us who like to fail and feel rewarded whenever we do manage to land a pixel-perfect jump. The game's developer, Mountain Sheep, on the other hand... it seems a lot more open and friendlier than its product. Case in point: it's giving users a brand new, insane-big free update and it's asking for nothing, not even a beating, in return.
At the top, Bike Baron 1.3 sees the introduction of Domovoi Biker playability in every one of the game's levels. Mountain Sheep reckons that he's "just as cool as" Baron, but notes that he's a tad easier to play with. The fact that he gets more checkpoints, basically proves that.
But that's not all -- Mountain Sheep is featuring 22 of the 'best' user levels with new goals. This update also adds a "retry from beginning" button, more sound effects, and "various small fixes in level flow and structure," including those new Domovoi checkpoints we just mentioned. Oh! And Twitter integration is now a thing. Try not to spew to many profanities across the world wide web, eh?
You might remember that way back in June we took a look atSuper Stickman Golf [99¢] developer Noodlecake Studios' current project, called Lunar Racing at the time. This multiplayer-centric 2D side-scrolling racing game looked like it had all sorts of promise, especially considering how well Noodlecake nailed the multiplayer aspect of Super Stickman Golf. But, it's been nearly six months and I'd started wondering just what the heck was going on with the development.
This past April, Owlchemy Labs was set to release Smuggle Truck to the App Store, a game about transporting illegal immigrants across the border in a rusty old pickup truck. Due to Apple's sensitivity to the subject matter, however, what we ended up seeing released was Snuggle Truck [Free/HD], a game about transporting fuzzy stuffed animals across the border into the zoo. While initially being disappointed in the sudden theme switch, I actually found the colorful characters and complete silliness of the premise to be a bigger success than the originally intended idea. And as we noted in our review, Snuggle Truck was so damn fun anyway that the theme really didn't matter much at all.
Now for the first time, the developers of Snuggle Truck are offering both the iPhone/iPod touch and iPad versions of their game for free. While the decision to go free was to get more players trying the game and building their own levels using the excellent built-in level editor that was released in August, Owlchemy Labs does hope to be monetizing this freebie promotion by offering a selection of items in the new in-game DLC store.
In early September, RedLynx brought us the sequel to 2009's innovative line-drawing racer DrawRace [$2.99] with the Chillingo published DrawRace 2 [99¢/HD]. This new entry in the series brought an extra level of sophistication with its realistic visuals and physics system, but kept the unique line-drawing aspect that made the original such a standout title.
You can read all about this in our review of DrawRace 2, but if you've still had reservations about if this unique type of game was for you or not, then today you have another alternative. RedLynx and Chillingo have just released DrawRace 2 Free Multiplayer [Free/HD] as a way to let you take the game for a test drive before deciding if it's your cup of tea.
When Reckless Racing [$0.99 / HD] hit the scene back in October 2010, we praised it for the incredible top-down racing experience it offered. Now, the folks at Pixelbite Games are back again with Reckless Racing 2 [$4.99], the long awaited sequel to this arcade racer. Improving on nearly every facet of its predecessor, Reckless Racing 2 is hands-down one of the top arcade racers I’ve ever played and is well worth the price of admission.
Mole Kart
The first batch of new game releases in 2012 last week was relatively quiet, but Lunar Racer [
Bike Baron
Despite is charmingly designed appearance, 
