Hovercrash review - Wipeout for a new generation?
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iOS
| Hovercrash

There's a simple elegance to Hovercrash that belies its garish neon style. It's a one finger, twitchy endless runner, but it's also slightly more than that.

It dares you to push your luck. And that makes everything a little bit more interesting. It's not a reinvention by any means, but it's a solid iteration that will make you look twice at a genre you thought was maybe played out.

And that's something to have a bit of a shout about in these days of identikit clones and slightly shifted copies.

Hover it

The game takes its cues from the likes of WipeOut. You're a lone hovercraft swooshing through a chunky neon track, dodging through obstacles and chasing a high score.

The more obstacles you miss, the higher your multiplier gets. And once it's full you'll zoom forwards, racking up your score with some death-defying dodges.

There's a twist though. Lift your finger off the screen and your multiplier goes up quicker. But obviously you've got no control over what's happening.

It's a simple mechanic but it works remarkably well. You're always testing your luck, your finger hovering over the screen ready to smash down when an obstacle comes into view.

There are different ships to collect with the money you earn from playing, and while they only give an aesthetic change, it's nice to have something to aim for.

Some challenges wouldn't go amiss either, but there's still a flashy rush when you dive back into the action and get a little bit farther along the track.

Race war

As you can tell from the name there's a lot of crashing here. But the game always tosses you back into the fray quickly, so you don't end up fuming over an accident.

It might lose its sheen after a while, but while you're rushing through its corners and tunnels you're going to be doing it with a big smile on your face.

Hovercrash review - Wipeout for a new generation?

A fast and sometimes furious game of dodging, weaving, and pushing your luck
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.