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.

Another area that receives an overhaul in Reckless Racing 2 is its core gameplay formula. A comprehensive career mode takes center stage in this sequel, complete with 18 different cars to purchase and a plethora of upgrades available for each individual vehicle. The career mode is actually pretty standard - players race through a variety of cups containing several courses. Money is awarded after each race, with a larger monetary bonus depending on your final position at the end of the cup.

Rather than forcing players to complete cups in a sequential fashion, Reckless Racing 2 employs a Performance Index (P.I.) restriction. The higher a P.I. rating is on a car, the ‘better’ it is stats-wise. Modify your car with new parts and its P.I. rating increases. Cups have a P.I. range that your car must fit into in order to play. While it is possible to upgrade your car so it can participate in progressively harder cups, eventually its P.I. max will be reached and you’ll have to buy a new car with a higher range in order to advance to more difficulty cups. It’s a disappointing restriction for folks that become attached to cars, but I thought it was an excellent way to balance upgrades and difficulty while nudging players towards trying new vehicles.

In addition to career mode, Reckless Racing 2 features an excellent challenge mode that supplies the player with a pre-determined car and track. Race against the A.I., place third or higher, and you advance to the next challenge. I found it a great distraction from career, as it allows you to quickly race while still having goals to work towards. Rounding out the modes are single race and wifi-enabled multiplayer. While online multiplayer was pretty fun, the lobby system was a bit rough around the edges (lots of players holding up games from actually starting). An auto-join with P.I. balancing would have been nice, as well as some improvement to the ‘ready’ system.

Racing mechanics also receive substantial changes in Reckless Racing 2, exchanging the ‘floaty’ and hectic feel of the original for a driving system that imbues much more control to the player. This is also reflective in the physics system which feels more suited towards a system requiring actual driving technique. The controls work well enough within this system, but not all control schemes are equal in this sequel. The new dynamic difficulty system, which raises and lowers the overall difficulty based on performance, is another addition that moves the game towards a semblance of realism (you can turn this off if it doesn’t work for you). In some ways, you can argue that these changes make Reckless Racing 2 a bit less, well, reckless. Despite this step away from its predecessor, I think the changes have created a game with more depth and challenge than the original. The upgrade system, for instance, allows you to customize your car to suit your driving style, somewhat preserving the original Reckless Racing style of play.

One of the areas Reckless Racing excelled in was its incredibly detailed visuals. Reckless Racing 2 ups the ante with an improved graphics system that just looks pretty damn amazing. Tracks are meticulously detailed and even effects like the dirt kicking up from your wheels on the off-road portions of the track are well done. Maneuvering my car around a curve with a giant gorge at the bottom or driving along an oceanfront watching the beautiful water effects are some of the nicest graphics I’ve seen on my iPhone 4S. Add in the fact that the game runs fast and smooth (at least on the latest hardware generation), and Reckless Racing 2 would give any game a run for its money in the visual department.

I've got to give kudos to Pixelbite – it’s pretty rare for a developer to take a chance and mix up the elements of a successful game in its sequel. However, in the case of Reckless Racing 2, that risk has paid off tremendously. The comprehensive career mode, wealth of maps, and tweaks to the arcade racing formula has made this game more enjoyable in the long term. Add in the amazing visuals and music, and there’s not much to dislike here. Folks have sounded off in our forums in regards to the significant changes to the core gameplay. Personally, if these changes result in an incredibly fun to play game, then what more can you ask for?

Smash Cops

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.

While driving, tapping the screen anywhere causes your police vehicle to lunge forward in a ramming maneuver. Smacking into the side or front of a fleeing vehicle is the most effective and can lead to the criminal's car smashing, rolling and possibly catching fire. There's no warnings, issuing tickets or police diplomacy, you just smash into the criminals as hard as possible each time your RAM meter has fully recharged.

Smash Cops has 22 missions to unlock, with each mission worth six stars. The missions include pursuits, emergency response calls and driving challenges. Pursuits involve racing alone or working with other cops to take down a suspect's vehicle, like multiple sports cars, stolen security trucks or an ATV, before the criminals escape across the state line. However, the other cops are actually more of a hinderance as they drive badly, swerve around, get in your way and appear to purposely take you out. Basically they're more frustrating than the bad guys and civilian drivers themselves.

Responding to emergency dispatch calls involves following a series of markers to the crime-scene within a time limit, speeding around the neighborhood while dodging traffic and bad guys. But the driving challenges proved hardest, like staying between the traffic cones - which is when you realize how poor your driving is. If only the goal was to knock down as many cones as possible! Completing a challenge mission earns you a "Super-Cop" vehicle power-up for one mission, to "Drive faster. Hit harder. Last longer".

The game tries to sell you "Super Cop" upgrades as an in-app purchase, with IAP messages in the game over screen, upgrade notification screen, in the tips and on the main menu screen. And when you restart the game, a red "buy all" button appears. This felt a little pushy, however the IAP is not necessary as you can unlock everything without too much grinding. And when you do replay missions, it's often with a new vehicle so it's still fun.

The graphics are excellent, with the game presented as if being filmed from an overhead police chopper for a live television feed. Check out the trailer below, for a taste of the sweet graphics used for the vehicles and city setting. Smash Cops scores high marks for being visually appealing.

You start out as a new police cadet, in a regular police car, but by completing levels and earning stars you can unlock four other vehicles like the speedy 'Interceptor' or the aggressive 'Brutus'. Vehicle upgrades make it easier to replay levels for more stars, plus because the mission routes don't appear to change, you can learn the route and identify short-cuts for better ramming opportunities. This helps you gain promotions up the five ranks to "Captain."

Smash Cops is a great-looking police-pursuit game, with an innovative "push" control system that's a refreshing variation from regular car racing controls. Opinions on the push controls are polarized, but if they click with you they actually offer a simple and fun way to control the game. It's nice to see developers using touch controls in new and innovative ways, especially when it involves car chases, 360 degree burn-outs, ramming, and slow motion vehicle smashes.

Mole Kart

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:

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.

If you still haven't been introduced to Smash Cops, check out its trailer. It's a Burnout-style game with an fresh virtual control scheme that should, actually, make for something special. We're definitely stoked to get our hands on a final build.

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.

You might choose Woody on a skate board launching missiles, Winnie Woodpecker on skis spraying perfume or perhaps Buzz Buzzard on his motorcycle splashing around black oil to slow down the opposition. Each character has slightly different attributes for speed, acceleration and handling, but this doesn't make much difference, as it's pretty easy to win races. This game would definitely benefit from more challenging difficulty levels.

The main controls are based on one finger, much like Tiny Wings. You hold your finger down to accelerate while descending and lift your finger when moving up-hill. Buttons are available to activate your character's special weapon or for speed-boosts, both of which re-charge before re-use.  There are options for left/right hand controls, although strangely, you must display "left hand" for right handed taps.

Two game modes are provided: Single-player race, or online multiplayer via Game Center. The multiplayer mode randomly matches you with one opponent. My first race was Woody versus someone else playing as Woody. Since then it's been difficult to find a random online opponent (there's no option to play a specific friend).

The thirty single-player levels are spread across three locations. You start on the golf course, but can unlock the snow-covered slopes of the Arctic and Circus levels by winning races and earning "thumbs-up" awards, which is essentially the 3-star achievement system used in many games. On the golf course, there are sand-traps to slow you down and lightning clouds to shock you. While in the Arctic levels, the characters are given skis. You can switch characters between races as it doesn't matter which character you use to beat each level.

Scores are based on the number of slides, tricks, mayhem (swooping on non-race characters), time and points gained during the race, all of which contribute to your "thumbs-up" rating. But if you don't place in the top three, you don't receive a score. High score leaderboards are provided in both Game Center and Crystal, with a separate leaderboard listed for each of the three race locations. But don't rely on the on-screen progress indicators to see how you're doing, as they frequently misreport your position.

Woody Woodpecker is an easy game to enjoy (like Tiny Wings) and has a special nostalgic appeal. However, whereas Tiny Wings had islands to reach and evolving objectives to satisfy, this game has neither. Sure, there's levels and worlds to unlock and a few Game Center objectives, but the character attributes aren't upgradable and the wins come too easily. It would be more satisfying if the various characters, means of transport, and weapons were unlocked along the way, rather than all provided from the start. Overall, a good game, but just for a couple of days or for the kids.

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.

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.

Once you're airborne, tilting the device left or right does a backwards or forwards flip. These flips are essential as each flip replenishes your nitro tanks, allowing you to pass opponents, jump higher, flip more and hopefully win. But if you don't land safely on your wheels, you'll crash, incurring a slight delay. The further you turn the device, the faster your racer spins and the more nitro you earn. There are also coins (MoonBux) to collect, both on the ground and floating, which is another incentive to go aerial.

You can use the MoonBux you collect to unlock 16 different vehicle chassis and a similar number of wheels, canopy colors or nitro styles (eg: perhaps you want pretty stars or a green flame shooting out when you turbo?). I believe that adds up to 16 x 16 x 16 x 16 possible combinations, which equals… a lot! The customizations don't actually improve the attributes or performance of your vehicle, but it allows you to personalize its appearance.

The racing, jumping, flipping and customizations are all fun, but there are also weapons. You can use mines or missiles to attack your three opponents and deploy bubble-shields to protect yourself from their attacks. Once you pass over a generic power-up icon, a specific upgrade is randomly chosen and appears as a button to activate. Some users found this button uncomfortable to reach on the larger iPad screen, but it works fine on the iPod touch or iPhone.

The first race occurs on a space-station near Earth, but by winning races you gain the stars needed to unlock additional moons around Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The developers plan to release more moons in future, to cover off the rest of our Solar System. The last two moons currently require local multiplayer wins to unlock, which isn't ideal for those playing alone, but the developers plan to remedy this in an update, perhaps by allowing those levels to be unlocked by stars just like the other levels.

Lunar Racer currently has single player mode (racing against  3 AI-controlled opponents) and local multiplier mode (Bluetooth or WiFi for up to four players). The developers are already investigating the feasibility of an online multiplayer mode, however there's issues with all the flipping and lag to deal with and NoodleCake told us they won't release it unless it runs flawlessly, so it's still an investigation in progress. They also revealed that they'd like to add an 'endless' arcade racing mode, where the terrain on the moon is generated procedurally.

Once you win a race with three stars, it unlocks a PRO tour mode for that moon with harder competitors.
This gives you an opportunity to earn three more stars for unlocking new moons. There's also three specific goals listed for each moon, like: "Do 10 or more back flips"  or "Get 15 perfect landings". If you complete all three goals for a level, you get to play a special bonus round which focuses on collecting as many MoonBux as you can, without any opponents. Game Center and OpenFeint are both integrated for high scores and achievements.

Lunar Racer is already a fun title which I'll be playing for a while, but it feels like it could be much more. Here's hoping for more levels coming, an extra game mode planned & the possibility of online multiplayer mode. If they've got any spare time, perhaps they can put iCloud synching on their to-do list too.

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

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!

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.

Gameplay-wise, Mini Motor Racing plays great and features tons of content to keep you playing for quite a while. Like most racers, each race is a quest to finish first, with the higher your position, the more money you earn. That money can in turn be used to upgrade your vehicle, giving you a better chance to beat later cups and tracks. While upgrades go a long way towards track success, a lot of the strategy in Mini Motor Racing involves memorizing track patterns and understanding the intricacies of the physics of each map. Of course, you could always just spend some money on IAP cash and immediately upgrade the hell out of your racer.

Mini Motor Racing includes both a quickplay and career mode. The career mode features the vast majority of the content and has dozens of maps separated out into quite a few cups. True, a lot of the tracks are reused with mirroring or different weather conditions, but the game does a great job altering camera angles to make each version look adequately different. This is one of the few racing games I’ve played where I didn’t feel like I was playing the same maps over and over again with little change. There’s also a multiplayer mode, but it is restricted to local play currently (something I hope is addressed in future updates).

One of the biggest elements that can make or break any racing title is its controls. Thankfully, Mini Motor Racing looks to address any potential control issues with a wide variety of options. The default control method is the ‘wheel’ which places a small steering wheel in a corner of the screen that you drag to steer. Other options include simple left/right toggle options and the slider, which is a control method I still can’t get used to. Each control scheme works well enough meaning that it’s really up to the player to choose the one that feels the most comfortable (although I felt the wheel offered the most precise control out of all of them). Regardless, it’s nice to play an arcade racer that offers a variety of controls that work.

While there are plenty of reasons to love Mini Motor Racing, there are a few issues that hold the game back from perfection. While the physics engine adds personality to the gameplay, there are some occasions in which your vehicle will interact with the environment in ways that don’t make sense. This is exasperated somewhat when you get to later levels and the AI begins headhunting for your vehicle, slamming you into walls and into other cars which makes it very hard to take first place. In addition, there have been reports of instability in earlier iPhone/touch and iPad generations, causing lots of crashes. While I personally haven’t had these issues on my 4S, the problems seemed widespread enough to mention. Luckily, The Binary Mill has already begun to address these issues, with a recent update expanding the width of certain tracks as well as addressing the stability problems.

Despite these issues, I love Mini Motor Racing and feel that it’s a worthy candidate for being one of the better arcade racers currently on the App Store. Not only are the gameplay elements sound, there’s tons of worthy maps and content that’ll keep you coming back. Furthermore, recent updates to the game show that the developers are willing to put the effort necessary to smooth out any issues. Simply put, if you’re a fan of top-down racers, definitely check out Mini Motor Racing.

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.

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?

Well Noodlecake must have sensed my curiosity, because recently they sent over some new details and have released a trailer for their new game, now with the slightly adjusted title of Lunar Racer. Gameplay will involve racing against 3 other vehicles on each of our solar system's moons. Each vehicle auto-accelerates at the same speed, so everybody is on equal footing. The key to doing well is performing tricks as you race to fill up your nitro boost, so the racer who can pull off the best stunts and land their jumps the cleanest will have more boost to surge ahead of the pack with.

There will also be a combat element to Lunar Racer, which is another way to gain advantages during a race. You'll be able to collect a selection of powerups like missiles, shields,mines, and then unleash them on your opponents similar to the Mario Kart games. In fact, the select few who have been testing early versions of the game describe Lunar Racer as Tiny Wings meets Mario Kart and Death Rally. Sounds pretty good to me! Check out the trailer below for a glimpse into the gameplay.

At this point, none of the details for Lunar Racer are completely set in stone, so it's possible there's more facets to the gameplay that are still yet to materialize. But what I've seen so far definitely looks cool. With any luck the game will be ready to go in the next month or two, and we'll definitely be keeping tabs on any new details. In related Noodlecake news, the superb Super Stickman Golf has just received a large update that adds 6 brand new courses, a new leaderboard and 100 points worth of achievements, and of course some ever important bug fixes. Make sure to check out the new update to Super Stickman Golf and keep your eyes peeled for some more Lunar Racer news soon.

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.

First thing to point out is that not everything in the store is paid. All users will be able to download a pack of 5 brand new developer-created levels, and there is an additional 5 pack of new levels available for 99¢ as well. Also, a new time freeze power up is available in the store free of charge. Another new addition to the game is different truck skins. The first is a zoo truck skin that is available for a 99¢ IAP, with more skins planned for the future. You can also buy an augmentation for 99¢ that will make your next 100 power up items last 50% longer, and you can pay $1.99 to unlock all of the original 42 levels immediately rather than through normal game progression.

Finally, if you're just down to throw some money at the developers because you like their game a lot, or if you're the type who likes to have prestigious in-game rewards, their are 3 different developer support IAP options you can buy. For 99¢ you'll get the Indie Supporter badge which is prominently displayed on the main menu so you can prove to all of your friends that you dropped an entire dollar on it. Next is a $4.99 Solid Supporter IAP which gives you an even shinier main menu badge to cherish. Finally, the most interesting option is the $9.99 Hardcore Supporter IAP, which not only gives you the shiniest badge of them all, but you can also email in a photo of the badge to Owlchemy Labs and they will give you some sort of customized gift. What is it? I have no idea, but I'm tempted to buy it just to find out.

While the game being free is exciting and there is a bunch of cool new content in this latest update, it does come with a down side. Snuggle Truck is now ad-supported. If you purchased the game previously then don't fret, your game will remain ad-free. If you're new to the game and are just downloading it since the free promotion, then you'll have to deal with a drop-down ad every few levels or so. It's honestly not that annoying considering how much fun the game is, but tolerance to ads is definitely subjective. If you buy the $4.99 or $9.99 developer support IAP, then you can disable the ads, which is nice but it would have been much nicer if that applied to the 99¢ option as well.

At any rate, it's definitely a good thing for people who haven't tried out Snuggle Truck to be able to grab it for free, and given the new IAP options, it sounds like it will remain free for a while, possibly for good. If you're a previous owner, then definitely grab the new update for the additional levels and DLC options, as well as various other tweaks and enhancements. And don't forget the in-game level editor which has already produced hundreds of user created levels, all sorted by rating and easily accessible within the game. If you're new to Snuggle Truck, now is a great time to finally check it out with the new free ad-supported version.

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.

As the name implies, DrawRace 2 Free Multiplayer focuses on the hot seat local multiplayer mode found in the full game. Two players can square off on the same device by each taking their turn drawing their race lines, then when the action starts, each player has their own turbo button situated in one corner of the screen. It's a fun way to get other people in on playing even when you only have one device around. Following a link inside the game which leads to a Facebook "Like" page will unlock the ability to play with 3 or 4 players in this hot seat mode as well.

If you're not really the social type, but just want to give DrawRace 2 a try, then that's not a problem. You can simply play the hot seat mode by yourself, taking the turn for all the players yourself. It's actually a pretty nice way to practice while giving yourself multiple tries to draw the perfect run. At the very least, it gives you a hands-on experience with the unique line-drawing mechanic, which is one of those things that's hard to explain but easy to pick up on when you're actually trying it yourself.

The free version offers 3 different course to try and 3 different vehicles. If you like the gameplay, the full version of DrawRace 2 offers a ton of campaign content to play through, as well as both local and online multiplayer modes, plus many more vehicles and tracks. If you've been sitting on the fence with DrawRace 2, definitely give the free multiplayer version a try to see what you've been missing out on.