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Rating:

Price: $5.99 (Get It)
Version: 1.0
Developer: Freeverse

Wingnuts Moto Chaser has the honor of being the very first iPhone game I purchased from the App Store. Since there was very little reviews, I took a huge gamble with this game and its $9.99 price. Considering I’ve played it a grand total of 3 times in the two weeks that the App Store has been open for business, I’d say I have a bit of buyer’s remorse.

One of the issues I’ve had with the game is the sensitive controls, and the terrible camera angle preventing you from seeing the road ahead of your properly. You’ll spend half a game wondering where the road is going to turn at any given moment, and the other half cursing at all the oversteering and overcompensation you’ll be experiencing. You hold down on the lower-left corner of the screen over the Gas button to accelerate. When an opponent gets within view and range, a button pops up in the upper-left corner of the screen that you press to punch the opponent, which puts it in an uncomfortable and awkward place.

The idea behind this evokes fond memories of Road Rash on the Sega Genesis (Dude! Road Rash on the iPhone would be huge!) Except the combat is weak, and doesn’t really do much at all except get an opponent out of your view.

The graphics are sharp enough, providing a nice game to show off the iPhone’s prowess, even though we’ve yet to see games take full advantage of the iPhone just yet. The sound effects are a hit and miss affair. At the beginning of the race, the engine idling sounds like a meaty lion, but when you start racing, the engine turns into a castrated kitten. The music is pretty riveting, and helps set the mood and tone of the game, but it doesn’t let you play your own library’s music, as it fades it out when you start the game (and doesn’t fade it back in when you quit the game.)

Tags: accelerometer, motoracer, Racing, touch