Cava Racing

Cava Racing looks gorgeous. It's painted in intriguing modernist cartoon hues, all retro-futuristic spaceships and minimalist angles.

Unfortunately, it doesn't have the gameplay to back up its visual chops. This is an exercise in rampant frustration that spectacularly fails to balance challenge and accessibility.

It's too floaty, far too cruel, and even the slightest nudge on the track wall will mess up an entire lap.

The game is a top down lap-time chaser set in the future. You control your hover vehicle by tilting your device, accelerate by pushing on the right of the screen, and boost by tapping the left.

You've got a shield that protects your fragile craft from bumps and scrapes, but once it's depleted you'll explode. There are orbs on the track that replenish its energy.

You need to complete three laps each time you play, and if the fastest of the three is quick enough you'll unlock the next track. If it isn't, you get to play the same level again. And again. And again.

Figuring out how to take corners without smashing into almost everything is an exercise in futility. The tilty controls feel too light and floaty, and often you'll helplessly drift into a wall as you try to boost out of its way.

As soon as you unlock the faster cars things get even more unpleasant. The game expects instant mastery, but its controls are too obscure and weightless to allow it. And then you'll get bored of being angry and quit.

It's a real shame, because everything else here is polished to the highest sheen. In a way that makes the game's failings even more frustrating. It just doesn't pop like it looks it should.

There are plenty of solid top-down racers on the App Store, and Cava Racing isn't one of them. It's a frustrating, painfully difficult misstep that has too many problems to recommend.