Colin McRae Rally Review

Disclaimer: I am not much a racing fan. Perhaps it's having to deal with crazy drivers on the road everyday, but watching high speed vehicles zoom around perilous twists and turns, seeing drivers taking their lives into their own hands... Well, it's just a little bit much.

The one exception is rally driving. In this discipline, the drivers are competing more against the clock than each other. Ultimately, they are competing with themselves, trying to perfect each corner they take to secure victory. In world of rally games, Colin McRae Rally has been one of the heavy hitters. And now it's on iOS.

Based on Colin McRae Rally 2.0, this port features thirty tracks to master, and four different vehicles in which to tackle them. Each championship comprises a number of stages back-to-back, with the ability to repair your vehicle after every two segments or so. You have a minute to undertake repairs, and each block takes five seconds, so depending on how much crashing you've been doing, you may have to make some tough decisions when it comes to fixing your wheels.

Getting used to how the car handle is a matter of feel and experience. So, it's easy to see why the early tracks are forgiving not only in their turns, but the speed of your opponent (as you're racing a single opponent).

The controls take some getting used to, but after a while you begin to appreciate the finesse the touch screen arrows provide. These arrows are lot kinder than the tilt controls, which often cause you to oversteer. Actually, over-steer is the real enemy in Colin McRae. It's very easy to not only spin out of control and plough into a tree or rock. Not only that, the game's physics can send you flipping or barrel rolling off a jump if it's taken at a weird angle.

While the backgrounds are a little sparse and dull, and the voice of your navigator can become annoying, the presentation is decent. After a couple bad crashes your car starts to sound very ill indeed, which is both fitting entertaining.

iPhone users who enjoy rally driving should probably grab Colin McRae Rally. It's obviously not as pretty or feature-rich as its console or PC brethren, but for a hand-held rally experience, it crosses the finish line with style.