Preview: GTS World Racing for iPhone and iPod Touch
Astraware’s GTS World Racing for the iPhone and iPod Touch should go live in the App Store over the next 24 hours or so, according to one of my industry contacts.
As the name suggests, GTS World Racing is a driving game in which you race a coupe, sports car, or Formula One car around a variety of international tracks using the built-in accelerometer to control the car.
I’ve been playing with a pre-release version of the game for a couple of hours, and it’s a slick application with lots of potential.
Though I love the genre, I’m not a driving game fanatic, and so it’s difficult for me to compare it to some of the other big names in racing. I found the cars pretty easy to control from the start, as using the accelerometer (just as in Monkey Ball Island) is intuitive.
I wonder whether there will be enough to keep avid racing aficionados content. It feels as if the game, even on Extreme mode (which, by the way, allows for some pretty nifty skids and slides) will only be a challenge to casual gamers, however I could be wrong. (Update: having played some more, and finding myself either in ninth or tenth place all the time, I suggest it may be more of a challenge than I at first thought — beginner’s luck, perhaps?)
Graphically, the game looks great. The music and audio is decent enough, but can be turned off if you want to play your own music tracks instead.
The game stuttered a couple of times, but that was literally a dropped frame or two, and could have been the iPhone doing something else in the background. It didn’t detract from the enjoyment.
Overall, the game looks fun to play, and challenging enough to keep the intermediate player happy. The great thing about getting the application via iTunes is that the company has the opportunity to deliver updates (new features, tracks, cars, types of play) should it wish to.
Official details of the launch, including price, should be available over the weekend. I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, here’s some screenshots of the game, plus Astraware’s demo video. I’ll do a more thorough review in a week or so.
GTS World Racing on iPhone (via iPhonic)
