Squiggle Racer's new world tour mode keeps you hooked
Squiggle Racer is back with a brand new world tour mode that adds hours of additional gameplay. The app is a deceptively difficult racing game that's wrapped up in an always nostalgic 8-bit design. The simple controls and easy instructions yet frustrating results evoke memories of Flappy Bird. Squiggle Racer is free with in-app purchases and requires iOS 7.0 or later.
Kelly Hodgkins of TUAW gave her review for an earlier version of this game, all of which still applies to the game now. In addition to the new world tour game, there are basic tracks to complete - short and long tracks - with the goal of merely trying to beat your own record. You also pick from one of six cars to use, each very slightly different in speed and handling than the others. Left and right arrows toward the bottom of the screen guide the car along the track.
Simple, right? Wrong. Squiggle Racer is brilliantly designed to appear easy but it's actually far from it. The cars typically take very wide turns, making it particularly hard to maneuver around curves in the road. In a typical racing game, one might consider this a flaw in the game's design. However, here it actually enhances the experience because although it's thwarting, you always find yourself coming back for more.
This gameplay style doesn't change in the new world tour mode. The biggest differences between this mode and the regular racing tracks are the way the track is set up as well as a new list of challenges to accomplish. In world tour mode, the track is seemingly endless and scrolls along as your car moves. In classic modes, the entire track is shown on screen from a bird's eye view.
When you enter world tour mode, Squiggle Racer presents you with the option to head straight to the tournament or practice in a grassy, desert or city area. I recommend getting some practice first because it takes plenty of time and patience to achieve a score even remotely decent.
Regardless of what you select, before you play you have to choose a car. There's the original racer, sports car, Hummer, school bus, buggy or super racer. They range from being fast and furious to slow but steady to light and agile. Keep in mind though that this is an 8-bit game so none of them bring any wow factor to the table.
Enter the tournament to see your three challenges. The first three are to pass 20 checkpoints, collect 40 coins and make it to the desert. You level up when you get past these. If at any point during the race you crash (and trust me, it's inevitable) you have to start from the beginning, unless you're willing to fork up 100 coins. If you run out of coins, packs of them are available as in-app purchases. The more cost-effective solution though is just to buy the full game for US$1.99 to unlock all the race tracks, remove the ads, gain 10,000 coins and reduce the amount of coins you have to pay to continue in the world tour mode. It's a pretty solid deal.
The new world tour mode adds an extra layer of entertainment and dramatically increases the value of replaying it over and over. Squiggle Racer is ridiculously addictive and fun, and for free you really can't go wrong. You just have to be content with possibly throwing your life and productivity away.
