The mobile quick pick of the week Drag Racing!

Have the need for speed but the wallet of an average American? Check out Drag Racing on the Android Market. This game is but 8 days old but the Android Market claims that it has over 10 million downloads already. Drag Racing (that is the actual name) hardly needs a review, it is a fantastic game and is certainly the best of its kind. It is very easy to play but it leaves a lot of room for perfecting your racing skills.

With tons of cars to pick from, customizable upgrades, easy to use controls, and several different play modes Drag Racing offers a very complete experience. The graphics of the game are very good, I had it slow down once but a simple restart of my phone solved the problem. There are a few bugs but I remind you that it is only 8 days old so hopefully they will be fixed (things like the throttle being stuck down or not being able to accurately tell your rpms, but they were rare and avoidable if you know the cause).

Tons of cars, tons of upgrades (basically the same for each car though), offline, online, head to head, skill only, and pro league rounds are available. For the most part all of the cars are viable though in the upper tiers there are clear favorites. There are 10 levels of cars, you buy a car at a certain level then upgrades will increase the level to a certain point. For example if you buy a level 1 car and upgrade it completely it will probably only be level 3 (with exception to 2 of the level 1 cars). The controls are as simple as pressing the on screen gas peddle before the race (proper timing helping your launch) and using on screen up and down shifters as needed. To make things easier there is an on screen guide to help you know when you need to shift.

Because it is a free game there is a premium currency but the good news is its very easy to get. Simply racing bosses, online matches, and in the pro league you can earn respect points (the in game premium currency). RP as it is labeled and cash are used to buy upgrades past level 2 and to tune your car however I warn you before trying to tune your car, it is time consuming and challenging to get positive results from it unless you know something about racing cars (which I do not). There are a couple advertisements that pop up at the top of the screen but they have been appropriately placed to be out of the way. The only one I really ever noticed was while waiting in a pro league room for a game to start (when I’m already not paying attention) and towards the last third of the race an advertisement will sometimes pop up over the track guide at the top left half of the screen. Because you’ve already progressed in the race past that point it doesn’t get in the way and I’ve never seen it cover my opponent.

Drag Racing is without a doubt the best drag racing game on the Android Market. Get it. It’s free, the premium currency can easily be grinded out, and the advertisements are not invasive at all. According to the Android Market it is one of the top grossing games out right now, even though it’s a free game and can be played to its fullest potential without money I like that it is on that list. If developers made games as great as this one, with the ability to maybe speed up progress without giving a true advantage through premium currency I think mobile gaming would improve as a whole.

I am just about 200 races in with just over a 50% win rate (the pro league against 9 other people rather than the head to head against 1 other really lowers the win rate) and I am still loving the game. I’m not sure how they do the racing but lag is non existence. I imagine they save my race and play it against someone else so it isn’t real time head to head battles but the feeling is still there. Drag Racing does suck your phones battery dry so I recommend playing with your phone plugged in if you can. If not, keep track of time because those 2 hours will go fast.

Drag Racing’s rating: 91/100 One of the best games on the Android Market.

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Mobile Thursday Review of Robo Defense

Do you like like tower defense games? Do you like progression within your games? Do you like games with free trials so you don't to commit your hard earned cash before getting them? Well, over at Lupis Labs Software the developers have given you just that. A game with a free trial, progression, and TD all in one.

Robo defense is a fairly basic tower defense game, 3 towers that can be customized into a bunch of different forms, with rockets, machine guns, flame towers, mines, rockets, some more rockets, slowing towers, and teleportation towers so you won’t have any problem finding a play style you enjoy. Unlike other games that focus on matching certain towers to a certain enemy type, that doesn’t appear to be the case in Robo Defense, it seems to me that the biggest factor that affects your towers' ability to gun down or blow up that enemy is the amount of research/reward points you put into it.

Rewards points are earned at the end of each round, win or lose, they are your score, you can then spend them on upgrading your towers so that you can progress through the games different difficulty levels and maps. With 6 maps and what appears to be an unlimited degree of difficulty (or maybe it stops at 999), you won't be finding yourself finished with the game ever. The way you spend your reward points is very important, you can improve the damage of your machine guns, increase the reload rate for your rockets, unlock new towers (teleport and mine towers), or customize the effects of your towers by changing how the tower works (like increasing range or adding a burn effect). It is here that you gain the ability to progress through the game and it is an aspect I truly enjoy. It is what makes a simple game like this so addictive.

The free version of the game comes with 10 difficulty levels, 1 map (I believe), all the towers except the unlockable ones, and the ability to use your reward points on about half of the choices. The full game is where the fun begins, as you increase the difficulty, new mobs/creeps are created for your enjoyment or destruction, the challenge grows and requires you to adapt your strategy to the needs of that difficulty. You probably won't find a cookie cutter format of laying down towers that wins every time, if you are like me you will have a basic approach but change it up a little bit every time to make it better and better.

The game is 2.99 dollars on the Android market and I think it is a great deal, it has way more entertainment value than a 99 cent game and I think it is appropriately priced. The game runs smooth, even with fast moving creeps or just a ton of them and a ton of rockets on the screen my HTC Thunderbolt has never slowed down once because of the game. Not only that, but the devs had brilliant idea of putting a meter at the top right of the screen to show up much battery your phone has left! Something I wish more apps/games did! The game doesn't eat away at my battery either which is just another great thing about the game. There are prettier TD games, but for its ability to run smoothly with no issues at all Robo Defense couldn't get much better.

Robo Defense's Rating: 88/100

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