Reckless Getaway: Ridiculous fun
This new iOS game, from the makers of Reckless Racing, puts you at the wheel of a speeding getaway car for non-stop vehicular carnage. It's a blast!
Time for a pop quiz. Are you a fan of:
(A) Bank robberies?
(B) High-speed chases?
(C) Vehicular destruction?
(D) Jumps, power-ups, and coin-collecting?
All of the above? Me, too! What you'll want to do, then, is toss the sofa cushions, scrape together $2.99, deposit those coins in your PC, and buy a copy of Reckless Getaway--the single most fun racing game I've played all year.
If the "Reckless" part sounds familiar, you might be thinking of Reckless Racing, which was among my favorite games of 2010. Developer Polarbit is the shop behind both, and I'm happy to say that this unofficial sequel is even better.
You've already robbed the bank and hopped in your getaway car; now it's time to elude the police. Unlike Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, in which the main goal is to hightail it outta there, here it's all about smashing, crashing, jumping, and collecting power-ups.
Like Reckless Racing, the perspective is mostly top-down, but with gorgeous 3D graphics and a great "chase-scene" soundtrack. Because the focus here is all on the environment--running other cars off the road, smashing through barriers, picking up coins, totaling police cars, etc.--the only control is steering: left and right, via buttons on either side of the screen.
Some race-game purists might not like that, but I found it liberating not to have to worry about accelerating and braking. You just...go, focusing entirely on piloting your getaway car. (That said, there were times when I wished I could brake, if only to get a a police car off my tail.)
The game comes with 16 tracks, but they're linear, not circular, so they don't feel repetitive at all. They're not all unlocked, either; to progress, you have to collect a certain number of stars.
Polarbit promises new chapters and game modes in a future update. (A couple vehicles to choose from might be nice, too.) But even now, Reckless Getaway is a little slice of arcade-racing heaven.