Sneak Peek: Ground Effect - A Great New Racer?
by Staff Writer
October 30, 2009
Ground Effect is an upcoming hovering racing game. Hop into one of 10 hover crafts, and speed around 14 different courses. In each race all eight players start in different locations, and your goal is to go from last to first over a certain number of laps.
The courses are levels, and you unlock the next one by finishing in the top 3 on the current course. Each course is like an archipelago where you need to race across water, and over hills.
When you’re playing you can choose to follow the guide markers, which are two red lasers pointing towards the sky, or freelance to try to finish the course faster. When you’re flying along, the craft constantly propels forward, but you can boost any time, that replenishes when not in use.
The landscapes looks great as you’re speeding along, and it can be quite devastating as you witness exploding into a wall. As I was playing it felt kind of like pod racing, but with better handling. You can control your craft using tilt controls that were nice and responsive, or chose tap controls with left and right virtual buttons.
The game just plays well as you glide along varying island groupings the entire time playing catch-up as you try to pass all of your opponents. Only local high scores are included, but ghost races are there to try to beat your fastest times.
The game was just recently submitted, and should be available within two weeks. The price is undecided but should be between $0.99 and $4.99. We will have a detailed review when it enters the App Store.
Please see my video of the game in action below. Shows one entire race.