Game Reviews

Low Grav Racer (iPhone)

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Low Grav Racer (iPhone)

WipEout.

WipEout WipEout WipEout WipEout. WipEout. It's the elephant in the room, so we might as well mention it now, feed it a few peanuts, and then go about our business.

Yes, Low Grav Racer is heavily inspired by Sony's futuristic racing franchise. You race hovering vehicles on a succession of interplanetary tracks, using air brakes to avoid hitting the sides, while picking up missiles, shields, mines, and speed boosts.

It means Cobra Mobile's title will feel instantly familiar to millions of gamers, but it also means it'll be compared to the WipEout games - tough to live up to, even with the advantages brought by accelerometer controls. Thankfully, Low Grav Racer is excellent enough to shoulder those comparisons.

The game features a dozen tracks set at galactic locations such as the planet Mars and moon Titan, as well as asteroid belts and space junk.

There are four classes of ship to race - Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta - with progressively higher top-speeds, but trickier handling. At the start, only the Alpha and Beta classes are available, so you have to unlock the next two by progressing through all 12 tracks in the game's Competition mode. As long as finish in the top three, you can progress through each race.

Each class has three different ships to choose from too. Arrowhawk ships are good all-rounders, Scarabs focus on speed, and Iron Horses are tough old buggers with heavy armour.

The controls are easy: you tilt to steer left or right, while tapping a virtual button on the left of the screen to air-brake (acceleration is automatic). When you get a missile or mine power-up, another button appears on the right, which when tapped fires it.

The ships handle like a dream thanks to stellar use of the accelerometer. The steering feels over-sensitive at first, but you soon get used to the way your ship bobs and weaves in response to your tilting.

Low Grav Racer is genuinely fast, too, with the atmosphere amped up by the obligatory (for this genre) pounding techno. At its best - when you're streaking through the field nailing every speed boost while blowing foes up with missiles - Low Grav Racer is truly thrilling.

It can be frustrating though, too, with an uneven difficulty curve. We were stuck for ages on the fourth track, for example, but found the eleventh quite easy. At times, usually after falling from second to sixth in a matter of seconds just before the finish line, you'll be swearing like a trooper.

That aside, the only other criticism we have is more of a suggestion: it would be nice to see some connectivity. Either online rankings of some kind or even a local multiplayer option would round out the package. Even so, Low Grav Racer is one of the standout racing games on iPhone.

Nobody would say the concept is original, but the execution is excellent.

Low Grav Racer (iPhone)

Looks like Wipeout and plays nearly as well. This futuristic racer is a blast.
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Stuart Dredge
Stuart Dredge
Stuart is a freelance journalist and blogger who's been getting paid to write stuff since 1998. In that time, he's focused on topics ranging from Sega's Dreamcast console to robots. That's what you call versatility. (Or a short attention span.)