Fun iOS Racing Games

Here are a variety of racing based apps for your Apple devices that may fulfil your rev-head needs whilst on the go.  The following games highlight the good, the bad and the beautiful side of touch generation car racing games.

I'm pretty sure when faced with the ruination of our civilization that one thing we won’t be doing is going out and racing vehicles fitted with machine guns for fun and profit.  Still, if that is the way things pan out in the future, players of this title will be well educated in post-apocalyptic vehicular armament costs.

After kitting out your rusty car of choice with armour, weapons and boost options, it's time to hit the 2D side scrolling terrain in a bid to be first across the line. No accelerator here though - the controls consist of brake, gun trigger and car flipping buttons. The key to the game is performing flips, as it provides turbo boosts, and you can perform every from a single, to double triple and even "ultra" flips. All of the time you can blast away at opponents and pretty much everything you do results in a monetary reward at race end.

The game is free and has been downloaded by several million iPhone and iPod touch owners, but it's not an in-depth game by any means. If the game is good, then the free-play model will work great, with people more than happy to support the developers work, but in this case the game is just too bland, frustrating and comparatively featureless to make the required investment to progress deeper.

Unlike Road Warrior, bustling around the fully 3D tracks of RR2 feels worthy of the time investment. The viewpoint is top down, but with a generally intelligent automatic camera the action is followed in a dynamic and entertaining way. Just be careful to remember your left from right as the camera angle sweeps from the rear of the car to front on, which can confuse matters from time to time.

The 3D tracks are alive with detail, and from the large (flying pig balloons) to the small (individualised witch hats), the graphical presentation and level of interaction is impressive. Cars roar around the different multi tiered terrain, all the while leaving skid marks or gravel ruts in their wake.  Brilliant.

One of the best things about this game is that the cars are all real-life branded vehicles.
Like Road Warrior there is no accelerator button to press, but unlike that game the controls are however well designed for iOS gaming - tilt to steer, press vaguely on the left side of the screen for the brake and to the right for nitro-boost.

With boost power ups and monetary pick-ups this game looks and plays very much like a Mid-Town Madness or, more recently, Blur on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. As neat twist, you can Tweet your success between events, customise your car or pick up a strategic power-up from a sponsor.

Developer Gameloft has become a big-name in game development thanks to the mobile platform, and this title, along with game like Reckless Racing 2, show just how much polish and power can be brought to the mobile iOS platforms.

The problem is finding the sultanas amongst the bran, as there are a lot of average racing out there in in the App store. A great place to start would be Reckless Racing 2, but Asphalt 7 is also worth a look, and because it's free. Road Warrior is certainly worth trying out.