Do you like racing games? Do you love hearing the sound of race cars at 200km/h burning past a finish line? Then check out Brawn GP Racing!
Brawn GP reminds me of sitting inside a race car at a local arcade while steering my speed machine down a track. Except now it’s with my iPhone.
Brawn GP is everything you would expect from a racing game except for tactile controls, but considering the platform, it goes with the territory. The game includes four high-speed circuits from around the world including London, Australian, European International and Las Vegas. Each circuit comes with its own unique runs and turns and it is the turns where I seem to always fail at.
The game has various orientation options and camera controls that can be set before you start to play and once you are in the race, you can still double-tap the screen to change from the follow view to the cockpit view. Your accelerator is in the bottom right and brake in the bottom left and you hold your thumb down on either to activate. To turn your car, simply tilt the iPhone left or right.
The controls are quite intuitive and easy to use, but just remember that around those turns, let up on the gas so to avoid a 200km/h head-on collision with the wall.
The 3D graphics of the game are beautiful and the sounds are exciting. The race car has that authentic “whine” sound as you break about 75km/h and once you get up to top speeds, game play gets really exciting. Speeding up, slowing down or crashes into the wall all include their own epic sounds that immerse you into the game. You can check out the game trailer here.
As you complete your track, your goal is to finish as fast as possible and then rate yourself among the global leaderboard. The only thing missing from the game it seems was the ability to race against a friend or even an AI. I play a lot of console-based racers and the game is always more intense when you are up against other human or even AI controlled cars. Unfortunately, Brawn GP seems to only include solo races where the only goal is to reduce your time against the leaderboard.
Overall, Brawn GP Racing delivers intuitive controls, amazing graphics, top-notch sound and immerse game play, but the immersion only lasts so long when you are essentially playing against yourself. The game lacks any immediate human or AI opponents, so the replayability value will diminish quickly. However if you enjoy racing against the clock to beat a global leaderboard, this may be your racing game.
Brawn GP Racing is scored a 4 out of 5.
Brawn GP Racing is available in the iTunes App Store for $2.99 (regular price $3.99).
