Firemint Real Racing Review
Polarise Position.
Version tested: iPhone
When was the last time Eurogamer praised a game for its lens flare? The visual flourish so beloved of the late 1990s became a cheap trick; once a sign of contemporary graphical frisson, it was fast turned into a cliché through incessant use. But as you clutch your iPhone like a miniature steering wheel, tipping your body left and right to negotiate high-speed chicanes, the flash of Real Racing's lens flare is almost an epiphany.
Like the very first time you set eyes on the PlayStation's Gran Turismo, it's a vision of the impossible: evidence that videogames may surpass even the wildest imaginings of our youth, squeezing worlds into pockets. From Nokia's primordial Snake, the mobile phone game's evolutionary trajectory has soared like no other. In Real Racing's skies it breaks the stratosphere, and the dazzle is blinding.
So, Firemint's car game presents a towering technical achievement. A fully 3D racing game with the superstructure of a full-price console release, it packs time trials, global leaderboards, online championships and custom soundtracks into a £5.99 suckerpunch. In-game, racing against the plucky, challenging AI of five other vehicles, it comfortably represents the pinnacle of technological accomplishment on the iPhone and iPod Touch, the driving model much more robust than its immediate competitors.

Braking is achieved by simply touching anywhere on the screen, something you'll want to do in conjunction with the AI-controlled auto-brake initially.
And yet, for these very same reasons, this is a game that sits somewhat awkwardly on Apple's machine. It takes an orthodox, blockbuster console game approach, pushing the boundaries of what's possible on the platform, aping the greats of the racing genre in form and function, demanding that serious gamers take it seriously. But, in the context of a platform that prides and defines itself on low-priced, throwaway entertainment, it seems like too much - a showboating embarrassment of riches that, in its vainglory, almost misses the point.
The democratic publishing system of the App Store encourages the sort of low-budget, high-impact productions that defined the bedroom coding days of the 1980s. And these are the games that directly appeal to iPhone's gamers, those in their late twenties and thirties for whom bombastic visuals and technological accomplishments play second fiddle to brevity, efficiency and, dare we say, reheated nostalgia. As such the economic style of Space Invaders: Infinity Gene is far more likely to produce a groundswell of support from iPhone owners than, say, a miniaturised big-hitter such as Resident Evil 4: Mobile Edition. In this universe, the traditional roles are reversed: the 59p arcade-style punts are the headline hits, while the polished blockbusters are the risk-takers.
For that reason, Real Racing's ambitious approach shifts the boundaries somewhat. Whereas the average iPhone game can be stacked up favourably against any number of throwaway webgames, Real Racing's rivals are handheld heavyweights such as Ridge Racers and the forthcoming Gran Turismo PSP. Compared to a webgame, Real Racing is the future inpixellate, an experience of such awesome depth and breadth as to render the competition redundant. But set against Sony and Namco's greatest, is it really anything more than a polished but uninspired racer, high on showboating graphical pizzazz, short on innovation and second-tier features?
Judged by the former criteria, there's certainly a lot of game here for your money. Career mode has you playing through 18 championships, each playable at three different difficulty classes (the higher divisions unlocked by placing first in the previous ones). The main cup races, which consist of three consecutive races, require qualification in preceding events, ensuring that the game opens up in a staggered and sensible step with its difficulty. Taking its cue from Forza and Gran Turismo, time trails across the game's 12 courses are offered as a sideshow to the main career, and with synching to the game's leaderboards at the touch of a button, competition with peers and strangers is both straightforward and compelling.
The out-of-car camera is selected by default but, by tapping the top right of the screen at any point during a race, you can switch to an impressive cockpit view, where the vehicle's dials and displays act as a HUD, framing the smooth and lifelike driver's animations. Firemint offers five control schemes, none of which are perfect, but all of which have been carefully thought through. The default and optimal option has the car accelerate automatically, while tilting the iPhone from side to side steers it. Control is sensitive and the punishment when you veer off the road, by way of instant deceleration, is harsh. As a result, learning to make small, smooth precise movements is of paramount importance. Playing the game on public transport is risky: the rocking of a bus or train carriage will inevitably knock crucial seconds from your lap times.
None of the game's cars are licensed, so you've little to direct your pre-race choice beyond engine size and its number of doors. Neither are there any customisation options, either superficially (in terms of liveries) or in terms of the cars' performance. This omission, alongside the limited damage modelling, weakens the game's impact as a simulation racer as well as its standing against rivals on other handhelds, even as it effortlessly tears past its immediate competition on the iPhone
After prolonged play, other concessions Firemint has made become apparent. For instance, your car is always significantly overpowered in comparison to your rivals, so, while races are tight, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat is possible even when you enter the final lap in last place. Without a handbrake, drifting around corners isn't possible and, if you do slide at a right angle off a hairpin, the game will usually keep you from spinning out, so correcting mistakes is far easier than it is in Forza et al. As a result, despite the austere presentation, the game occupies a spot somewhere between arcade flamboyance and earnest realism, a happy compromise considering its platform but one that will no doubt disappoint more serious racing game fans.
If these criticisms seem overly harsh for a game of such relatively low cost and such hulking ambition, that's only because Real Racing's achievements have propelled it into the big league. In these early days of iPhone development critics and consumers alike are still feeling out the boundaries of the machine's capabilities, and as new territory is revealed, so the scales of judgment are adjusted. Make no mistake, this is the best racing game on the iPhone by a drag-racing mile. But set against the other handheld stars of the genre, as it so clearly desires to be, its brilliance is somewhat diminished.
7 / 10
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Comments (28) Latest comment 2 years ago
Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!
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Braking is achieved by simply touching anywhere on the screen, something you'll want to do in conjunction with the AI-controlled auto-brake initially.
I've got to admit, I don' quite get how the auto-braking works and turned it off almost immediately as I found it confusing. I either forgot to brake because I thought the game is taking care of it, or braked too much.
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Same goes for F.A.S.T, great game, great graphics...but like Real Racing, it's almost a bit too 'console gaming' for my needs. It's confirmed why I've always been a DS owner rather than a PSP owner, portable gaming - in my opinion - shouldn't just be about console-gaming-on-the-go.
I could praise Real Racing all day, but you're far more likely to find me (still) playing DrawRace, FlightControl, Peggle, iShoot etc, basically simpler games which are more suited to playing on the go. The one game that sits fairly well between the two is Alive4Ever, it looks gorgeous and plays more like a 'traditional' console game, yet it simple enough to have a quick blast on when you get a spare 5 minutes.
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I disgaree. I've bought lots of DS games before, but now haven't bought one for 18 months. Games like Spider, GeoDefense, Return to the Mysterious Island or Space Invaders: IG are easily on par with what the DS has to offer, and often more than that.
The trick is not to buy the Sonics and whatnots, but the games that play to the device's strengths.
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Indeed, so like I said, you can't really compare it to the DS, because the devices have different strengths ;-]
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"you can't really compare it to the DS, because the devices have different strengths"
That's how I justified buying the ipod Touch when I already have far too many portable gaming devices! (and mp3 players for that matter)
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Well worth the price.
Love to see EG's thoughts on Alive4Ever (brilliant fun, especially multiplayer), and Samurai (look on TouchArcade).
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If Real Racing was on the DS, would I have paid £20+ for it? The answer would be yes, I happily spent £25 on Race Driver DS and to be honest this is no better or worse.
The dilemma comes when you consider that most iPhone games are 1/10 the cost of this. For £6 you could buy 6-10 great games that arguably would give you more more playtime than this. £6 bought me Alive4Ever, DrawRace, FlightControl, Ragdoll Blaster, MX Mayhem, iShoot and Peggle...based on that, Real Racing isn't good value.
So, compared to a DS game it's a steal (and in my opinion, it's directly comparable to any DS 'real' racing game), but compared to what is on offer on iTunes it isn't.
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I see where you're coming from, but I find that argument a little dangerous for the platform. Yes, you can buy ten 59c games that will give you more playtime, but RR is clearly a more ambitious title, and I find it only just that more ambitious games cost more. I seriously hope there is a market for such "premium" (still a joke compared to games on real handhelds) games on the platform, or the lesson devs will learn will not be to sell their games cheaper, but only to aim for the 59c market from the beginning (as enjoyable as many of these games are).
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I was on the fence about this until I played it. With control scheme E (thumb controlled steering wheel, manual accelerate and brake), in-car view and brake assist off, it's the most enjoyable, exciting racer I've played in a long time on any platform. Sure, your car is a little over-powered, but this makes for amazing races as the AI is so fantastically aggresive.
Good work, Firemint. Superb game.
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So do the DS and PSP, but that doesn't stop people comparing them...
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It's a weird argument, this one. Who cares about "ambitious"? The ONLY thing that should matter when you're buying a game is whether it's a fun game you'll enjoy playing and get value for money from. Whether the developers are being "ambitious" or not is neither here nor there. They've either made a good game or they haven't, and if Real Racing is less fun than ten 59p games then it doesn't deserve to sell, because it's bad value in its market. It's not that £5.99 is a lot in itself, it's that it's SO much more than most of its competition, and there's so MUCH of that competition, that you have to prioritise what's most deserving of your cash.
I haven't bought it because I'm still not very clear on whether it's Gran Turismo-style racing - in which case I wouldn't give you 20p for it - or arcadey Ridge Racer-style, in which case I'm interested. (The review nudges me more towards being interested.) But either way, it's going to have to be DAMN good to beat what else you can get for £6 before I invest the cash and the time. For example:
Flight Control
Parachute Panic
Kill All Bugs
Mr Driller
Mr AahH
Run
Football U
Racer
Cluck It
Dropsum
Minigore
or
Ferrari GT Evolution
GeoDefense
Arcade Bowling
Pajatzo
Dropship
Let's Golf
Paper Toss World Tour
Shift
Super Marble Roll
or
Kill All Bugs
Pinball Dreams
Must Eat Birds
Pool Rebel
Death Ball
Poker Superstars 3
Giant Metal Robot
Harbor Master
or
3D Vector Ball
Wolfenstein RPG
Droplitz
Sentinel: Mars Defence
Siberian Strike
Papi Jump+
Lux Touch
Cartoon Wars
etc etc. Any of those collections will give you many tens of hours of highly varied fun for the same cost as Real Racing. So unless you think you're going to get more than that out of it, the price (or "ambition"
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Maybe "ambitious" wasn't the right word. It's a game that, in terms of scope, content, presentation etc. is in a different league to most other games on the devices. I've had as much "fun" playing Plants vs. Zombies as I had playing Okami or Bioshock, but that doesn't make the latter two bad value for money in comparison in my book.
To answer your question: It's definitely more Gran Turismo than Ridge Racer.
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[link url=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/plants-vs-zombies-re view
]http://ww w.eurogamer.net/articles/plants...[/link]
If you mean a review of the iPod version, that's not out yet.
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