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I’m a
big fan of old-school, retro, top-down racers. Unfortunately, as with many game genres I
enjoy, I am not any good at them. So I have absolutely no shame in telling you I turned
the difficulty down to easy, I lapped my opponents despite my inability to drive straight...and
I enjoyed every second of it.
It’s CitiRacing for the iPad.
The idea behind CitiRacing is really reflected in its title. This is a top-down racer with
courses based entirely on urban settings. So rather than driving on circles of pavement,
you’re driving through tight streets, residential areas, parking lots, even beachfronts. In
my case, that means...well, I may need a crane of some kind.
Fortunately, my lack of skill has nothing to do with the controls. They work just fine
in CitiRacing. You have a pair of arrow keys on each side of the screen...one controls
the direction you steer, the other is your gas and brake. As soon as you’re accustomed
to which direction corresponds to which button, it’s smooth sailing. In fact, the button
placement is solid, too. I never fumbled with them at all.
But the biggest draw of CitiRacing is its multiplayer. You can connect with up to six
players via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, and that’s really CitiRacing’s claim to fame. Honestly,
the game is otherwise a pretty pedestrian racer...but if you have some friends with
iPads, the enjoyment factor increases tenfold.
The game does have a nice amount of content, though. There are 11 different cars, each
with their own attributes and driving styles, and 45 tracks to race them on. The game also
supports Open Feint leaderboards, as well as the ghost data from other players. Not
a bad set of features for an affordable little iOS game.
There are definitely better top-down racers in the App Store, but CitiRacing is a solid
game in its own right, especially for the multiplayer. If you have friends with iPads
and are looking for a game to spend a few hours playing together, CitiRacing is a perfectly
good choice.