Slotz – slot car racing for iPhone

Posted by Mr K in Applications, Games on February 14, 2009 | no responses yet

There are a growing number of car racing style games appearing in the iTunes store. You have 4×4, offroad, street racing, drifting and many many more styles. This is great for a petrol head like me (although a tad hard on the wallet), as I love cars, love racing (see some of my recent pics from the Taupo leg of the A1GP ). I quite enjoy taking 5 or 10 mins out of my day to sit and race a virtual car around a track.

Then there is Slotz – a racing game that takes me for a trip down memory lane. I must admit I’m not sure how many are around now, but as a kid growing up slot cars were hugely popular. There were race arcades set up you could take your car down, they’d have huge tracks set up and you’d race.

Slotz Loading Screen

Bought to us by the guys & girls from Freeverse this game is well thought out, well created and hugely addictive.

Main Menu

The main menu presents you with 4 base options, from which you can select Race , Edit Tracks, Options & Trophies.

Race: there are 3 types of race options quick race, single player (championship) and multiplayer (up to 4 player).

Edit Tracks: this is a great feature of this game, you can build your own 2 or 4 lane tracks right on the iPhone.

Options: the customisation that is available in this game is huge. All your usuals are here, sound, music etc, then you have grip type and more.

Trophies: go on, gloat

Game Play Screen

Playing this game couldn’t be easier. You have a simple control in the lower right of the screen. Press it to go, lift off to stop – just like the trigger on the original slot car racers. You pretty much can nail it around many of the tracks, however you have to watch it or your car will flip off the track as you go.

The computer players can be a bit – meh … but still, with the options being so flexible you can tweak your car to make it harder.

The championship is huge, I’ve still not completed it as the races get longer and longer and harder. Some are purely time/lap based and some have the added fun of pit stops – you gotta watch that fuel gauge or you’ll end up running out 1/4 of the way into a lap.

When playing in multi player each player controls a corner of the iPhone & the race view is top down only. This makes it quite fun for 4 folks (or two controlling two cars) on a Friday afternoon with a beer or two.

Cons

There are a couple of strange things, on some tracks as you race through the start/finish line you’ll swap lanes. This can be good as taking the corners from different lanes makes them harder/easier, however it can also put you on the track with a slower car in front. When you hit them, you get thrown off the track. Kinda annoying.

The graphics are good and pretty smooth, but I think there is room for refinement here. I also found doing 20+ laps of some tracks in the championship a tad boring.

Summary

In a world of same-same car racing games Slotz is a breath of fresh air and is at one time simple, yet complex enough to generally keep it entertaining. The sounds are great, graphics are solid, and game play reminds me a lot of the original slot car games.

Overall, it’s a fun way to enjoy your iPhone.