Red Bull Air Racing Championship

Red Bull is a company that has sponsored pretty much everything imaginable. From Nascar to break dancing they’ve covered the spectrum. I’ve even gone to San Francisco for their crazy Flugtog event (look that up if you don’t know what it is… pretty cool stuff). But I have to admit that if there was one sport that Red Bull should be involved in, it has to be air racing. I mean, Red Bull does give you wings, does it not?So the wild world of Air Racing got it’s big sponsor, and now we get a new game to go along with it. So the question that has to be answered is whether or not we’ve got a game that will last longer than a can of Red Bull’s rush.

But before I look at the game I need to address the elephant in the room. This game is a “Lite” version but still has a $1 (USD) price tag to go along with it. This isn’t a huge amount, and I’ll tell you the game is worth the price, but it’s very odd to find a price for a game that you’re being told is not the game you should be playing.

I’m going to come out and say that I’m not a fan of this. You’ve already got what is basically an ad throughout this game and if it’s good (which it is) you’ll want the full version. Artificial Life will need to come up with something to make you forget that you’ve already paid them for something incomplete in order to get the bigger pay day? It’s not the money, it’s a principle. How may people have been upset after buying a game that wasn’t complete and had to wait for updates to get it right? With this game you have to not only wait… you’ll have to pay for the complete game.

Okay… Off the soapbox. Let’s take a look at the game as it stands.

An Air Race is almost like running an obstacle course with a super fast plane. A course is laid out and you have to complete it in the fastest times possible. And for the most part they’ve done a good job of getting it all packed into the game.

Graphically the game looks good. Everything is easy to see (though a bit pixilated) and you get a good feeling of flying while playing. But I have to say that I never got the feeling of speed that I was expecting in the game. You can push a “turbo” button but it never gets as fast as you’d want.

You can, however, see the race in a very nice replay. It is here where you get a little better feel for what could have been. It’s also the only way to really see the cool part of hitting one of the pylons. In game it happens behind you, but in the replay you can watch them go down. Oddly, there are no crashes in the game… and believe me, I tried.

The controls are probably the best part of the game, which is a good thing. Simple tilts of the device will get you where you need to be and you’ve got the turbo button I just mentioned as well as a button that will have you adjust 90 degrees so that you can knife through thin openings. You can also adjust all sensitivity and will find exactly the right fit for you.

Another plus is the sound in the game. All music and effects fit the game very nicely. The music almost gives the speed feeling that the graphics miss… almost.

As you can tell by now, I’m not overly impressed with the game. Along with the lack speed feeling in the game, there is also a lot of slowness with the loading of every screen. There is also the issue of the “game track” that leads you through the course that can be a little frustrating. At times I thought I was on the path only to find that I wasn’t going quite the right way. The game would have been better served with smaller markers that actually point a direction.

Now I’ve said that the game is worth it’s price and I still believe it… only because a dollar isn’t that much money. But as it stands now I think that the game will need a lot more to make it worth paying extra money to get a “full” version.

There are both good and bad things with this game, but for me it all comes down to the feeling of speed. Speed is what the actual event is all about, but sadly it’s the biggest thing missing here right now. I’ve seen it in many games so I know it can be done… let’s just hope that they find a way to get it in the Full Version. If that happens, I’d be happy to pay more.

The Good

Graphics Are Very Nice
Replay From Four Angles
Controls Are Easy To Use

The Bad

“Lite” Version For A Dollar? (Though It’s Worth It)
Where’s The Crashes?
Game “Path” Can Be Confusing
No Feeling Of Speed

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Tags: iPhone, Red Bull Air racing

Category: Games