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Genre: Racing
Developer: Firemint
Minimum Requirements: iPhone OS 2.2+
Compatibility: iPhone and iPod touch
Price: $9.99
Availability: Now
Version Reviewed: 1.01

I know, I know, another racing game.  But any gaming platform has its (fair?) share of racing games, and the iPhone is no exception.  And I think you’ll find that Real Racing is a step ahead of the rest, unless you’re a racing purist, or if you just plain don’t like to go fast.

Real Racing has a laundry list of cool features. You get 36 cars, 12 tracks, 5 game modes, 57 events in career more, and up to 6 cars on screen at any one time.  Those are pretty good numbers for an iPhone game, and with the iPhone 3GS now available, they can only get better.  With recent tech demos, it’s apparent that the iPhone 3GS can handle many more than 6 cars on screen at any time, but it’s unclear if they’ll actually up that number any time soon.

The first thing you’ll notice after you actually start to race is… well, before I tell you, why don’t you just look?

Ok, did you notice how beautiful this game really is?  Thought so; it’s gorgeous!  You might actually forget that you’re gaming on an iPhone, well, until you reach for some buttons at least.  You have two viewpoint choices: cockpit and a trailing cam.  Both are amazing.  It’s really fun to see how the gauges react inside the cockpit, or (my favorite) the race info that’s attached to your car in the trailing viewpoint.

The game controls are superb for a racing game, as long as you aren’t that racing purist I mentioned before.  You have a number of different choices, but it defaults to an incredibly intuitive tilt steering scheme with auto acceleration and auto braking.  This means all you really have to do is steer your vehicle effectively, the game does the rest.  If necessary, you can touch the screen to brake (or reverse if you hold it long enough).

I know what you’re saying; doesn’t that take away at least some of the challenge and some of the fun of playing a racing game?  Yes and no.  Realistically, you’re likely to just hold down the accelerate button about 95% of the time anyway, and with the current state of iPhone gaming, buttons take screen space, and that real estate is significantly more valuable than the housing type of real estate (currently, and in the foreseeable future).  Then again, there is a certain sort of satisfaction involved with being completely in control of every detail of a game.  It’s a trade off, but for an iPhone game, I think it’s a worthwhile trade off—at least for the time being until someone releases a gaming controller than becomes extremely popular.

The game also allows you to play multiplayer locally over WiFI and globally via online leagues.  Local multiplayer is exactly what you’d want: you versus another player in real-time.  The global multiplayer on the other hand, probably isn’t; there is no real-time, head to head racing, but it’s still something I suppose.  What’s significantly cooler than the global racing leagues is the ability to post a video replay to YouTube.  So, the next time you have a ridiculous time, post the replay and prove your skills (or luck).

If you had to narrow down your choices on racing games to just one on the App Store, you certainly could do a lot worse than Real Racing.  Is it ultimately the best?  I’m not sure, I haven’t played them all.  But I can say with relative confidence that it’s likely at the top, and that’s good enough, it’s good enough for me, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.