'Real Racing' Final Analysis: Best Racing Game On the iPhone?

Firemint is one of the top selling iPhone developers on the App Store, thanks to a simple little game called FlightControl. It's only a dollar, features cartoon-style graphics and pretty basic (but fiendishly addictive) gameplay. It's light years away from their latest title, Real Racing. Despite the painfully generic title, the game is more detailed and fully-featured as any other iPhone racing game before it.

At heart it's a racing sim in the style of "Forza" or "Gran Turismo", with an extraordinary level of depth and variety. Here are the pertinent stats that people tend to care about:
-36 cars (split across hatchbacks, sedans and muscle cars)
-12 tracks
-6 car races
-Touch and accelerometer controls

There's a lot more going on here, but that's the top level.

Pros
1. Controls - They're spot on. There are four different control schemes, and one of which is sure to please you. My ideal is Type C, which mixes in tap steering on the left and right side of the screen, and a brake in the center. Accelerometer controls are excellent, as well, though, and are as responsive as Mario Kart Wii (when you're playing with the wheel).

2. Huge online support - Firemint's free online service, CloudCell tracks everything you do in "Real Racing", even automatically recording and uploading your replays to YouTube. Then there's league play. There's a new "season" every 30 minutes or so, and you're basically competing against anyone that's playing at the same time, fighting for the top spot over 3 races. After those 30 minutes the top 3 earn league points which help in your overall rankings. You can check out your progress on the website, or you can see the leaderboards for the current season right in the game. No one has done better asynchronous multiplayer on the iPhone yet.

3. Graphics - While not better than the recent release of "Need for Speed" on the iPhone, the framerate in "Real Racing" is much smoother, and from a gameplay perspective it makes a huge difference.

Cons
1. Hard for newcomers - Despite the inclusion of newbie aids like brake assist, the difficulty in "Real Racing" ramps up super fast. If you're new to the genre, you'll have a tough time getting gold trophies in a lot of the early events.

2. No map - Unless I'm missing it, there's no way to see what turns are coming up, so you really need to know the tracks well to get good times. There are cues, like markers and arrows, but they're pretty tough to see on the iPhone screen.

Verdict
Despite the 10 dollar entree fee, "Real Racing" is well worth cash. It's an incredibly deep game and will offer hours of value for your money. Oh, and definitely use CloudCell. It's easily the most interesting aspect of the game and sets "Real Racing" apart from any other iPhone racing titles before it.

Tags firemint, racing, real racing