Appletell | Apple, Mac, iPhone, iPod | News, Rumors, Reviews, How-Tos

Genre: Racing
Developer: Freeverse
File Size: 15.1MB
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Requirements: iPhone 2.0 software
Compatibility: iPhone and iPod touch
Rating: 9+ (infrequent/mild cartoon or fantasy violence)
Price $9.99

Was there ever a doubt Freeverse would be right there on the launch of Apple’s App Store? I imagine they had their iPhone games programmed and ready to go before the iPhone was even announced. The original iPhone. I picture a closet full of games in boxes marked, “Waiting for Accelerometer,” “Waiting for Mac OS Touch,” “Waiting for Post-Robot Apocalypse Transference Gaming.”

For today’s technology, Freeverse had two games in the App Store on launch day: Big Bang Sudoku is based on the Sudoku game in their Big Bang Brain Games package for the Macintosh, but the subject of this review—Wingnuts Moto Racer—is built from the ground up for the iPhone, despite the Wingnuts name. In fact, that’s a bit confusing, as Wingnuts Moto Racer seemingly bears little resemblance with its namesake, either in gameplay or characters. In fact, the only connection I can find is that they’re both tremendously fun.

Wingnuts Moto Racer is a racing game, of sorts. It’s actually more of a time trial game, as the point is to race through checkpoints in order to…save a cat? Let’s consider this again; a cat has been stolen, and it’s up to one of three motorcyclists to race through various locales around the world, avoiding traffic, biker thugs and nature in order to save the day. Why’s this cat so important? I guess it doesn’t matter, just as long as it gives you an excuse to race.

The controls are easy to pick up and play, but quite hard to get comfortable with. I suppose there’ll come a point when we’ll all be masters of using the iPhone as a steering wheel, but right now it’s a study in overcompensation and frustration in just about every game that uses the accelerometer. I constantly found myself steering too hard to avoid an object, only to quickly find myself doing the same on the other side of the road. It doesn’t help that there’s no course map on the screen, nor that the road is often not presented until you’re right on top of it. In other words, hills behave like hills, and it’s only after numerous attempts that you’ll have memorized turns and be prepared to handle them. Perhaps it’s a good thing, then, that crashing into rocks and buildings barely even slows you down.

It’s only after you get comfortable with the controls that you can appreciate the cinematic flair to the game. It’s a perfect choice for showing off your iPhone’s capabilities. Yes, the graphics are sweet, but it’s more important that Freeverse knows what do with them than how to program for them. So, we get pretty cool cut scenes of your biker’s hang time, slick shots of the bikers before the race (so dramatic are they in their poses that I have to assume they’re European; let’s say…Toulouse, just because it sounds sexy in that exotic, 1960s sort of way), and environments that are more about the “cool” factor than about logic. (Building roads through trees? Viva Toulouse!)

Sadly, it’s not all action and fun, as the game does hit a couple of snags along the way. First off, as mentioned above, it’s terribly frustrating at first as you learn to master the accelerometer. I made it through the first level in one shot, but not even three hours of standing in line for an iPhone 3G for my wife was enough for me get past level two. Perhaps I was distracted by all the complaining. Regardless, be prepared to invest some time in the game, especially since you can’t pause the action. The only way out of it is to hit the Home Button, which ends the game completely. You can hop back into any course you’ve unlocked, but if you were having a particularly good run before you were interrupted, you’ll lose it.

Second, the ability to punch other bikers is really cool, but it doesn’t work as it should. You accelerate by pressing the “Gas” button on the lower left of the screen, and you’re supposed to punch when the “Fist” icon appears in the upper left. I tried reaching this with my finger so I wouldn’t have to let up on the gas, but that didn’t seem to work. So, I pull my thumb off the gas to hit the fist, which causes me to slow down, which causes me to fall out of range with the guy I’m trying to hit. It seems to me the fist would’ve been better placed on the lower right of the screen. Or, maybe Freeverse really wanted this to be has hard as it is to punch someone while you’re actually driving a motorcycle. This isn’t a racing game, it’s a racing sim!

And if there’s one thing Moto Racer made perfectly clear to me, it’s that iPhone case developers are going to have to start including headphone compartments. Moto Racer sounds great, especially the music, but you don’t get this from the tiny speakers in the iPhone. You really need to play the game with headphones to get the full effect, so be sure to have some handy.

Wingnuts Moto Racer is a fantastic introduction to iPhone gaming. I imagine a plague of racing games will soon sweep across the iPhone, at which point Moto Racer may get lost amongst the masses. Right now, though, it’s exactly what an iPhone game should be; quick, fun, and great for showing off. Who knew that as early as iPhone 2.0 launch day we’d have games like this to make it quite clear iPhone gaming his here to stay?

I mean, other than the gang at Freeverse, of course.