Hands on with Moto Racer

Last night, I had the opportunity to sit down and play with Moto Racer (iTunes link) for over an hour. Retailing for $9.99, it's one of the new Freeverse titles available at the iPhone App Store. In it, you play a motorcycle racer and race along several courses. Newer harder courses unlock as you pass easier ones.

I had no trouble passing the first dusty town course -- it was very easy to ride -- but I did have to lower the difficulty (found in the Options screen) to get past the second old-growth forest course. My girls insisted on testing the game and proved to be far better riders than me.

We all gave thumbs up to the game play, the placement of the left-thumb controlled gas pedal and the optional female racer (girl power!). Thumbs down went to the sound track, the weakest part of an otherwise excellent game and the relatively high default difficulty.

Both phone orientation as well as the gas pedal control your progress through the various courses. The camera-work really zooms you into the action with cut-pieces as well as rider point of view.

The game play is familiar to anyone who's done arcade gaming. You have to pass each checkpoint to earn extra game time. Coins appear in the road, boosting you to higher speeds to help you make it to the next checkpoint.

I found that I often suffered from "lead thumb", forgetting to ease up on the gas before entering curves. Going off road significantly slows you down and is a killer for making those checkpoints happen.

All in all, I found Moto Racer entertaining. The girls rated it extremely entertaining. On a Gameboy scale, this is the kind of game that we'd usually pay $4.99 rather than $9.99. On the more expensive Wii scale, this would clock in right at the $9.99 mark. It's no Excite Bike but it may keep you or your kids happy on a long car ride.