Review: Monorace - Racing With Shifting Gravity - Plus Giveaway
by Staff Writer
August 19, 2010
Overview
It's time to strap yourself into a one wheel cycle, and shift gravity in a race against the clock. If you want your racing game to be more of a 2D side scroller then Monorace has got you covered. You'll speed through various levels with multiple obstacles in your way, and you'll be racing on the floor and the ceiling in the process.
Features
There are forty levels of racing action that are unlockable based on stars earned on previous levels. There is a beginner mode of all the levels as well as a more advanced racer mode to earn total stars on your chosen difficulty. The game is infused with OpenFeint giving you challenges and high scores that are intertwined into the game so you don't have to go into OpenFeint separately. One more thing is that there is a randomly generated endless mode, if racing from point A to point B wasn't enough.
The Good
Monorace provides a simple premise making it easy to understand, but then adds many challenging elements to keep the game fresh. Rather than simply racing on a flat surface you’re racing through multi-level structures in a 2D perspective. You'll be racing on the floor, the ceiling, and any surface you can find. You just tap to switch gravity between up or down, and you'll be tapping a lot with so many obstacles along the way. There are multiple gaps and spikes as well as clocks to collect for a time bonus. If making it to the finish wasn't tough enough the game is side scrolling, and if you’re going too slow, the edge of the screen will catch up to you adding another way to lose.
The game is nonstop action requiring you to be constantly engaged with your eyes fixed on the screen. There are obstacles that destroy you, and then there are ones that just get in your way like wood blocks that you will need to avoid or the screen will catch up to you. Playing through the levels is great with an actual ending, and usually it's within 40 seconds, making these races awfully quick.
The game is perfect to play in short bursts with multiple races in a few minutes, though you can easily play in a long sitting. Making it through all forty levels will make it easily worth your while, and then there is the endless mode on top of that. The endless mode could be a game upon itself with always a different course to play.
The game has a top notch design quality like all of Craneballs games with so much detail in the background, the course, and the racers. The game goes without a hitch at high speeds, and you may miss some of the detail along the way, though you'll never miss the grand explosion when you hit an obstacle. There are multiple soundtracks that change with each background theme, and there are also the various sayings of the three different racers.
The Bad
The game has been developed with players in mind with extensive beta testing, and it really shows as there aren't many problems. Most of the bad is simply being nitpicky as the game style is simple so it can be repetitive as your only interaction is tapping. You don't really feel this when playing the game though because the courses have so much variety, and you never know what's coming next.
The sayings of the different racers get tired pretty quickly with only a few different ones. When you switch racers you can't really tell the difference visually during a race though I don't think it matters.
