When I was about nine or ten, I was lucky enough to get a couple of
Scalextric cars and some track for my birthday. This was somewhere around the end of the 90's, and toy car-racing games were really popular among kids my age (and among some adults, too). I built up the track again and again, soon veering away from the recommended figure-eight design and creating more intricate courses that involved meanders, long straights, and sometimes bridges. Every so often one of my cars would fly off the track, and sometimes I'd even do it on purpose - just to see them fly through the air.
I haven't seen that toy car set in years (it's hidden away now, somewhere in the attic), and I haven't thought about it in a long time. However, upon playing
HTR High Tech Racing (in HD on my iPad), the memories soon came flooding back.
The game, which is also available for the iPhone, allows users to build up a virtual track and race virtual cars - sometimes to their doom. Players can customize everything about their cars, from the tires to the chassis and the motor, and then they get to see how their tweaked features fare on the track against three other metal machines.
The game includes what the developer,
Graffiti Entertainment, calls "realistic physics", and combines this with excellent graphics to create something extremely fun and entertaining.
HTR High Tech Racing also comes in two versions:
one for the iPhone, priced at $1.99, and the other,
an HD version for the iPad, which is priced higher at $4.99. Aside from editing your own tracks, HTR also allows users to work their way through a series of pre-designed tracks - adding emphasis on the game as a racer, as well as a track builder and editor.
Players control their cars in the same way we did with our Scalextric vehicles: through a slider that alters the speed. There's no need to steer, as your car follows the pre-set track - meaning players can focus all their attention on pushing the speed of their vehicle ahead of hazardous loops and bends.
HTR High Tech Racing really is a brilliant game, and you'd be foolish not to check it out in the App Store. Both versions are reasonably priced, so whether you decide to race in SD or HD, the cost of the app isn't going to set you back much.
And if that doesn't reel you in, Graffiti Entertainment has also announced that they'll be giving away a
free iPad to the person at the top of
HTR's leaderboard! What are you waiting for?
Be sure to drive down to the App Store and check out the
iPhone and
iPad versions of HTR High Tech Racing - and let us know what you think of this great app in the comments box below. And, thanks to
Cult of Mac for the find!
