A few days ago, I purchased a new iPhone game, Riptide GP. This game has been available on nVidia Tegra II devices for quite some time now, but, as I do not own one of these devices, my experience with it has been limited to installing the free demo on one of Best Buy's Tegra II enabled tablets, and trying it for a few minutes. Now that it's available on iOS, I've been able to play it more and give it a more in depth review.
Gameplay: Riptide GP features very fun and addictive gameplay in vein of the 1990s arcade game Hydro Thunder. You race in fast jetskis while doing stunts to get boost and increase your speed. The water physics are good, and crashing across the waves feels satisfying. You can do stunts by swiping each of your thumbs in various direction on the bottom of the screen. There are eight types of stunts you can perform. For successfully performing a stunt, you are awarded boost. You can use this boost to temporarily increase your speed by pressing the right side of the screen. If you perform a stunt unsuccessfully, you are thrown off your jetski, and must tap the screen to recover. You will still take a few seconds to regain your speed, and it can impact your result in a race. The gameplay is mostly fun, but it can get boring after awhile. Play Riptide GP in short sessions, though, and you can't go wrong. However, the overall replay value is hindered greatly by the complete lack of multiplayer.
Controls: The main control scheme is "Tilt to steer, touch bottom left of screen to brake." You can turn auto accelerate on or off, and, when it's turned off, touching the bottom right of the screen accelerates. The tilt sensitivity is adjustable, but I've found that the default option works fine. The final control option is weather or not to enable camera tilt. This basically selects weather you want the camera to tilt when you tilt your iPhone. I prefer to leave it turned on, but this is really a matter of personal opinion.
Graphics: The models and animations are fairly detailed, but the textures are low res. There is some pretty bad aliasing as well. However, the water mesh looks very nice (despite some pop-in), and it's impressive that something like that can be done on a mobile device. The game features a resolution setting, which allows it to run at a lower resolution to achieve a better framerate. However, I've had no problems with framerate, even on the highest settings. Aside from a massive framerate drop for the first few seconds while the game was connecting to Game Center, it ran at a fairly fluid framerate on my 4th generation iPod touch. It also ran fairly fluidly on my 3rd generation iPod touch, but it did have framerate drops more frequently, and experienced the same massive drop while connecting to Game Center as my 4th generation iPod touch. Both iPods were running iOS 5.0.
Sounds: The in game music is very frantic, and it fits the speed of the gameplay well. The techno style fits the game's futuristic theme, and the sound effects convey the sensation of fast jetskis. The big dissapointment here is that you cannot play your own music during gameplay. That one issue brings this game down significantly in the sound category.
Conclusion: Despite a few glaring gameplay and presentation issues, Riptide GP is a fast and fun jetski racing game in vein of the 1990s arcade game Hydro Thunder, and the only game of its kind on iOS. Much like Hydro Thunder, it's most fun when played in quick sessions, and is well worth $1.99 if you like this type of game and can deal with the lack of multiplayer.
Final Rating: 7.5/10
Info
Publisher: Vector Unit
Developer: Vector Unit
Release Date: May 20, 2011 (Android), October 29, 2011 (iOS)
Platforms: iOS (reviewed), Android
Price (as of 1/3/2012): $1.99 (iOS), $2.99 (Android)
Gameplay: Riptide GP features very fun and addictive gameplay in vein of the 1990s arcade game Hydro Thunder. You race in fast jetskis while doing stunts to get boost and increase your speed. The water physics are good, and crashing across the waves feels satisfying. You can do stunts by swiping each of your thumbs in various direction on the bottom of the screen. There are eight types of stunts you can perform. For successfully performing a stunt, you are awarded boost. You can use this boost to temporarily increase your speed by pressing the right side of the screen. If you perform a stunt unsuccessfully, you are thrown off your jetski, and must tap the screen to recover. You will still take a few seconds to regain your speed, and it can impact your result in a race. The gameplay is mostly fun, but it can get boring after awhile. Play Riptide GP in short sessions, though, and you can't go wrong. However, the overall replay value is hindered greatly by the complete lack of multiplayer.
Controls: The main control scheme is "Tilt to steer, touch bottom left of screen to brake." You can turn auto accelerate on or off, and, when it's turned off, touching the bottom right of the screen accelerates. The tilt sensitivity is adjustable, but I've found that the default option works fine. The final control option is weather or not to enable camera tilt. This basically selects weather you want the camera to tilt when you tilt your iPhone. I prefer to leave it turned on, but this is really a matter of personal opinion.
Graphics: The models and animations are fairly detailed, but the textures are low res. There is some pretty bad aliasing as well. However, the water mesh looks very nice (despite some pop-in), and it's impressive that something like that can be done on a mobile device. The game features a resolution setting, which allows it to run at a lower resolution to achieve a better framerate. However, I've had no problems with framerate, even on the highest settings. Aside from a massive framerate drop for the first few seconds while the game was connecting to Game Center, it ran at a fairly fluid framerate on my 4th generation iPod touch. It also ran fairly fluidly on my 3rd generation iPod touch, but it did have framerate drops more frequently, and experienced the same massive drop while connecting to Game Center as my 4th generation iPod touch. Both iPods were running iOS 5.0.
Sounds: The in game music is very frantic, and it fits the speed of the gameplay well. The techno style fits the game's futuristic theme, and the sound effects convey the sensation of fast jetskis. The big dissapointment here is that you cannot play your own music during gameplay. That one issue brings this game down significantly in the sound category.
Conclusion: Despite a few glaring gameplay and presentation issues, Riptide GP is a fast and fun jetski racing game in vein of the 1990s arcade game Hydro Thunder, and the only game of its kind on iOS. Much like Hydro Thunder, it's most fun when played in quick sessions, and is well worth $1.99 if you like this type of game and can deal with the lack of multiplayer.
Final Rating: 7.5/10
Info
Publisher: Vector Unit
Developer: Vector Unit
Release Date: May 20, 2011 (Android), October 29, 2011 (iOS)
Platforms: iOS (reviewed), Android
Price (as of 1/3/2012): $1.99 (iOS), $2.99 (Android)
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