Appletell reviews SlotZ Racer game for iPhone, iPod touch

Category: Games
Seller: Freeverse, Inc.
Requirements: iPhone 2.2 software
Compatibility: iPhone and iPod Touch
File Size: 7.9MB
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Price: $2.99
Age Rating: 4+

Undoubtedly, many reviews you may find of SlotZ Racer will start with some kind of comment about the great memories the reviewer has of racing slot cars against friends in his or their basement when he was young. My review won’t, because I had no friends. I mean because I had no slot car track. I did have a basement, though. When someone releases BasementZ for iPhone, oh the anecdotes I’ll conjur up!

Now, I’m not disparaging the nostalgia element. I’ve enjoyed many games for many systems simply because they take me back to a different place and time. But with SlotZ Racers for the iPhone and iPod touch, it just seems that too much of the joy is in what it reminds you of playing as opposed to what you’re actually playing.

I can start off by saying, though, that the design is nearly perfect. SlotZ Racers is developed by Strange Flavour, who developed the fantastic games Airburst Extreme and Toy Sight for the Mac. Most recently, they’ve offered us Plank and Flick Sports Fishing for the iPhone. Strange Flavour has a sharp eye for design, and they never fail to make their games—above all else—fun. You smile while playing their games.

The joyful design work is carried over to SlotZ Racer, mainly because they play up the nostalgia element. It wasn’t enough to create a game that just plays like slot car racing, it had to look like it, too. Yes, the tracks and cars, but how about the setting? Done. As the camera spins around the track, you notice that you’re on a rec room floor or table with various items scattered about (board games, furniture…even outlets on the walls). The are multiple locations, some of which have to be unlocked as you progress through the game. Strange Flavour even threw in a track editor so you can set up your own race courses, just like the real thing. It’s the kind of touch that indicates the developers were more concerned with creating a total gaming experience than they were about throwing something up into the App Store for some quick money.

Your cars are kind of customizable, too. The styles are given to you, but you can alter the color, and more cars are unlocked as you progress. The same goes for the tracks. You start out with a couple traditional ones (oval, figure eight, etc.), but you can unlock some pretty insane track layouts as you earn trophies. In one bad development choice, though, SlotZ Racer will sometimes pull up a track on the selection you haven’t unlocked, and therefore can’t race. Why make me shuffle through a bunch of tracks I can’t use before I’m even able to start the game?

There are three different types of races in SlotZ Racer. A Quick Race will just throw you on a track and get you started. Single Player allows you either practice, race once or run a championship circuit. Multiplayer allows up to four people to race on the same phone. Single and multiplayer both come with myriad options of their own, such as the number of laps you can race (100? I’ll miss Airwolf!), the track design, and even whether you want to race at night. You’d think in a basement that night/day wouldn’t matter, but it does. The night races are lights out, with only your cars headlights, lit guardrails on the turns, and some ambient light to help you find your way. It’s pretty cool, and something real slot tracks should’ve had (I seem to recall glow-in-the-dark guardrails, so maybe there were slot cars for racing in the dark?).

So, the design is great, and the options are great, but the actual act of racing? Meh. Strange Flavour made it as basic as possible; you push a button to accelerate, you stop pushing the button to decelerate. It’s just like real slot racing, but maybe the real thing isn’t all that fun without having a great big track in front of you. The challenge of slot car racing was to keep your car on the track, which meant not blasting into turns at full speed. On the screen, where the cars seem to move much faster than in real life, this becomes quite a challenge, especially on some of the more elaborate courses. When you’re racing the computer, if you fall off the track once, there’s just about no way at all that you can win. It’s very unforgiving. And because there’s no way to exit out of a race once it’s started, you’re stuck there until you lumber across the finish line one final time.

In single player races, the camera can swoops down to follow your car for some nice effects. This makes it hard to anticipate turns, though, so you’re given the option to shut this off. It’s always off in multiplayer races, where the camera remains fixed over the entire track. Seeing your tiny little car amongst all the other cars when you’ve got a complex track below you can prove quite difficult, especially when you’ve got four heads trying to view the iPhone screen at the same time. Multiplayer can only happen on the same phone, after all, with each racer hitting a button in a corner of the screen. It’s fun for a few moments, but race more than three to five laps and the novelty quickly wears off.

That, ultimately, is the problem with SlotZ Racer. It’s a novelty game. Racing fans have much better options (including Freeverse’s own Wingnuts Moto Chaser), and those looking for a quick gaming fix have much better options. SlotZ Racer does have an immediate, “Hey, that’s really cool!” kind-of-thing going on, but when that wears off, you’re not left with enough to make you want to keep racing. That’s probably for the best, though. Airwolf’s starting.

Appletell Rating:

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