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Daily iPad App: Reckless Racing 2
Gaming company Polarbit is the grandfather of iPhone racers. Raging Thunder was among the first racers to hit the iPhone. Reckless Racing was released soon after and now it's back as Reckless Racing 2. This is a full update to the isometric driving title. The gameplay is similar to other top-down titles like Death Rally, though more realistic. Think of a fun game with a hardcore driving elements to set your expectations. Career mode lets you climb the competitive ladder, upgrade parts and advance in the the Performance Index. The driving is more traditional than Reckless Racing. You'll still make powerslides and jumps, but you can also follow the driving lines closely and advance technically. Online and offline multiplayer modes are available, as are ghost runs and leaderboards. Reckless Racing 2 is an excellent update from a developer who loves racing games. It's currently US$4.99 for a universal version, which might be more than you're willing to spend. Fortunately, Polarbit is generous with the sales, so keep an eye out for a price drop.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Reckless Getaway
Reckless Getaway is a fun little arcade/physics stunt racer from Polarbit and Pixelbite that's been climbing the App Store charts recently. The premise is that you're in a getaway chase from a crime, but rather than just escaping, your goal is to cause as much chaos and collect as high as score as possible. There are coins to guide your route, but the real scoring comes in creating major pileups and really finding solid routes through the game's 16 different maps. Things can get crazy, and there's a little bit of track learning involved (there are quite a few dead ends that you'll only figure out when you've played a certain track more than once), but the game is fun to control and the physics are very entertaining. Each level has a star rating to chase after, and Game Center is included for leaderboards and achievements. Polarbit promises more content in the future, and even some new game modes to play with as well, so that'll be exciting to see. But even right now, Reckless Getaway is a fun cops vs. robbers jaunt, available as a universal version for US $2.99 in the App Store right now.
HP TouchPad shoots down planes, shows off next-gen Snapdragon's GPU (video)
We're willing to bet Qualcomm's Adreno 220 GPU is an abstract concept to most readers, but we can put it into perspective real quick -- here it is in the HP TouchPad, pumping pixels and mapping textures to a seriously stunning little air combat game. We got our hands on the webOS 3.0 tablet and gave Polarbit's Armageddon Squadron II a whirl at GDC 2011, and the experience felt pretty solid overall, framerate only dipping significantly when unleashing a hefty barrage of rockets upon your foes. What's more, the tablet easily -- and automatically -- paused our game when flexing webOS's multitasking muscle to check a text message that had just come in. What's that you say? You're wondering how the HP TouchPad does text messages? Well, it doesn't quite -- it requires a webOS smartphone paired via Bluetooth to share the cellular modem for texts and calls. But you knew that already, right? Armageddon Squadron wasn't the only title Qualcomm had handy to show off the power of the Adreno 220, though, as SouthEnd Interactive's Desert Winds seems to be the feather in the company's cap. It's a 3D action-adventure title starring some very fancy lighting effects for a mobile game -- not to mention a buxom female swordslinger who dredges up memories of ATI's Ruby. See that after the break! Update: Adreno 220 is actually a single-core GPU, part of the dual-core Snapdragon 8x60 system-on-a-chip.
App review: Reckless Racing (iPhone)
Developed by Swedish firm Pixelbite and released just a few days ago by EA and Polarbit, Reckless Racing is a game we've been following since it was known as "Deliverace" early this year -- and honestly, there was a spell where we'd gone so long without having heard anything about it that we'd kind of assumed the awesome-looking project had been canceled. Fortunately, that wasn't the case -- it's now available on iPhone, iPad, and Android -- so we decided to take it for a quick spin. After all, top-down racers haven't really made much noise since the heady days of R.C. Pro-Am and perennial arcade favorite Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off Road... and after playing Reckless Racing for just a few minutes, we're not sure why that is. %Gallery-105883%
TUAW's Daily App: Raging Thunder 2
Polarbit released Raging Thunder 2 a while back -- it's the sequel to their App Store launch title that's serving up solid racing on both the iPhone and the iPad. It's not the best pure racing game out there (Real Racing HD has gotten exposure, even in Apple stores, for that), but Raging Thunder has quite a bit of fun and depth added to it, allowing you to upgrade cars and even go for some Burnout and Mario Kart-style arcade action. And the latest update to the title, released about a week ago, adds online leader boards and touch controls for racing (in case you don't want to tilt your iPad or iPhone around as you play). Raging Thunder 2 is definitely a respectable racing title, especially good if you're an arcade racing fan, and the price is just as temptingl: US$2.99 on both the iPhone and the iPad. If you're in the mood for a little action with your racing, and a deeper experience than some of the pick-up-and-play racing titles, Raging Thunder 2 is worth checking out.
Raging Thunder tries online multiplayer
Raging Thunder is one of those games we've been watching since the App Store was first announced, and now it may have reached another milestone. Polarbit says that with version 1.0.3, which is in the App Store now, they've released online, real-time competitive multiplayer. They say it's an App Store first, and I think they're right -- a few games have offered wifi multiplayer before (Apple's Hold'em does, and Raging Thunder did previously), and some games have done some non-real time multiplayer (Loot Wars is interesting in that way) but allowing players to play competitively online in real-time is something that hasn't been done much.It's not quite on the level of Xbox Live yet -- Polarbit is offering a free beta of their server software on the website, so you've apparently got to have your own server running (or sign on to someone else's) to race against your friends online. I just gave it a shot, and it worked well. The lobby system is a little awkward and without voice chat (strange how much I've just taken it for granted in multiplayer nowadays), it's hard to tell whether people are playing or just waiting in a room (or why they're dropping out of the race, as a few players did while I played). But once you get into the game, it's Raging Thunder with other people driving the cars. Well done.It would be nice to see player names above cars. Easier to do trash talking when you know who you're talking about. This is only the beginning, however -- here's to many, many great online multiplayer experiences on the iPhone.Update: Commenters have piped up (thanks!) with some other games that have attempted online multiplayer, including Tap Tap, Galcon, and Adrenaline Pool. Keep in mind that we're not talking about wifi multiplayer here, though that's cool, too -- this is real-time multiplayer with other people who are around the world.
Raging Thunder in the App Store
We've come full circle on the Thunder that Rages -- after first releasing their game on a jailbroken iPhone, and then switching off to do a Crash Kart game, developer Polarbit has now brought it out onto the official store for release. It rings in at a relatively pricey $7.99, but it does look terrific with a little physics built in and (and here's the kicker) features WiFi multiplayer (Polarbit said they were working on it in our interview with them a while back). Multiplayer is one place that iPhone games haven't quite reached their potential yet, and if Raging Thunder delivers as nice a multiplayer experience as it claims to, it's worth the price of admission.Once again, this is a title that could definitely use a demo, but if you're already sold, you know the drill: hit up the App Store, download away, and use the accelerometer to race off into the Raging Thunder.
Polarbit makes Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D for the iPhone
Of all the racers we've seen for the iPhone so far (and there are quite a few), this might be the one I'm most interested in -- Polarbit, who've already dipped into the iPhone's racing game capabilities with Raging Thunder, is working on a Crash Bandicoot-branded kart racing game for the iPhone (video here). And it sounds like it's got everything you'd want in a kart racing game on a console, much less on a smartphone platform -- twelve tracks, lots of characters, lots of weapons and powerups, and configurable controls. There are going to be a ton of racing games out when the App Store drops, but something silly and fun like this, crafted by a developer who knows their way around the fledgling platform, will probably be very near the top of the list.Can't wait to play it. No exact word on when Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D is coming, but it can't be too late after the App Store releases, and we'd guess $10 for a price, since that's what most of these things will be going for. Definitely looks like it might be a standout among the plethora of accelerometer racing games we'll be sure to have.
iPhone's Raging Thunder: the Developer Interview
TUAW was lucky enough to spend a little time recently chatting with Anders Nilsson of Polarbit.com. Polarbit is an independent game developer based in Europe. They recently ported their mobile Raging Thunder racing game to the iPhone and released it as a free beta to the jailbreak community. (It's hosted at the Big Boss repository.) Built around the iPhone's accelerometer, Raging Thunder really expresses the fun, interactive potential of the iPhone as a gaming platform. Read on past the jump for the full transcript of our interview.
