Review: Fumes Stunt Racer - Running On Fumes
by Allan Curtis
October 23, 2010
Overview
Fumes Stunt Racer is a new racing game by Sector3 Games that allows you to pull off crazy stunts as you race around one of 15 tracks in your high performance stunt car. It is very similar to Trackmania: Nations on the PC, but lacks that game's flair.
Features
Fumes Stunt Racer features 15 tracks, global leaderboards and fast racing action.
The Good
Fumes Stunt Racer could have been an OK racing game. It features a good number of tracks, nice growling engine sounds and some decent music pumping away The idea is solid as stunt racing is always fun. Throw in a few loops and jumps and you have a recipe for a fun game. The game also features 17 tracks with an update on the way to raise that number to 22, giving the game a good amount of longevity.
The Bad
Fumes Stunt Racer seems like it sure needed a few more hours (maybe days) of testing, as some glaring control issues and a collection of other bugs make this game pretty much unplayable.
At the top of the list is the control. Driving with any finesse in Fumes is way harder than it should be. Try to take a turn at a reasonable speed and you'll launch off the edge of the track with all the grace of a oil covered brick sliding across a glass table. Even at very low speeds the car, handles like a runaway combine harvester and is very slippery. Even driving straight is a trial in Fumes.
The controls really need to be tightened up. The slider based control method is slightly tighter than the tilt controls, but still not sharp enough. Other racing games are quite easy to control and Fumes really needs to take a few pointers from Real Racing's sharp controls.
The game also feels extremely unpolished in other places. The options screen is buggy, as it takes many tries to get an option to register that you've tapped it and for some reason if you use the non tilt controls the brake and accelerate pedals sometimes appear on top of each other on the screen, making it impossible to play.
Fumes also looks primitive even though it's based off a very old game. The textures are low res. Your car is some blurry mass of grey and red, while the tracks are just flat grey circles in wide open fields of space. This is garbage compared to Real Racing or Asphalt that have very detailed scenery and clear, well constructed cars. There have also been reports of frame rate issues on certain devices, but this did not happen on my 3GS.
Even if the controls worked as they should its doubtful Fumes would be an enjoyable game. Its just you, racing along in a nondescript car, on boring tracks with no other opponents. Yawn.
The Verdict
Fumes Stunt Racer is a buggy, poorly controlling mess that looks bad, plays worse and should not be bought by anyone. Sector3 is promising updates, but it remains to be seen if they will fix the game's many problems. Buy Jet Car Stunts instead.
