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Rating: 
- Price: $5.99 (Get It)
- Version: 1.1
- Official Site: Cobra Mobile
I’ve been thinking about the — perhaps not obvious — comparison between the Wii and the iPhone/iPod Touch a lot recently, and I think racing games are one of the best examples of their similarities (and differences). You see, I’ve never really got on with racing games on either system, with one vital exception – Mario Kart Wii.
The title has this clever design in that when you’re turning, you can “catch” the turn by hitting a button to drift. It essentially “locks” you to a turning circle which you can then adjust ever so slightly; helpful, as in all other cases when it comes to accelerometer-based turning I tend to find myself failing wildly trying to make sure my turn is right – which it never is.
Sadly, Low Grav Racer continues this trend.
Of course, there are several other control benefits inherent to the Wii that make it not an entirely fair comparison — so perhaps we should just ignore it, but I’m really just trying to make the point that I’ve yet to play an iPhone racer that gives me any solid sense of control.
But talking specifically of controls, in Low Grav Racer you automatically accelerate, and can brake or fire weapons/power-ups by touching on-screen buttons.
Of course, you’re trying to do this while also tilting the system about to turn, which like most other iPhone/iPod Touch racers is very sensitive indeed. I don’t know about you, but I tend to play most of these games with my arms so rigidly it’s almost painful.
So the controls aren’t great — not that I’m convinced it’s Cobra Mobile’s fault, this kind of complaint is farily standard across racing titles — but they haven’t exactly helped their case at all with Low Grav Racer’s frankly unacceptable difficulty curve. While it’s never easy — the opponent racers fight you every step of the way – some levels, most notably the most twisty ones, are like hitting a brick wall, one that repeated plays do little to help with.
In addition, there’s a dearth of options — you can only really play a tournament or single races — so if you get stuck there’s not much else to do, which is a shame as the engine seems more than strong enough to allow more fun than just straightforward racing.
In its favour, Low Grav Racer is attractive and animates incredibly smoothly (though for some reason it makes me think of Bullfrog’s Hi-Octane rather than, say, the Wipeout series that it’s trying to ape) and when the difficulty isn’t at its most extreme racing around the levels can be very fun indeed.
If you’ve exhausted the iPhone/iPod Touch’s racer catalogue and are confident in your skills this is an competent and challenging futuristic racer, but there’s very little unique or special about it to make it the kind of game you’re going to return to again and again.
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