I have seen Final Freeway in the App Store for a while and just glanced by. When looking at apps to review this week I felt a little nostalgic and thought I would give this little gem a spin. The result? Well, if you enjoy old-school arcade racing, if you remember when Out Run was the arcade game, then Final Freeway is for you!
Off the bat, the game is dead simple. Start off by going to Options and you can change your control type from accelerometer to to touch steering. I really prefer the accelerometer steering and once you turn on horizon tilt it gets a lot better.
Jumping into a game starts with two choices: Normal or Expert. Be warned, this game gets tough as more traffic and the time limit starts to hinder your progress. Next you have three choices for music. Unfortunately you can't select iPod music at this time (the developer says they are working hard on a substantial update, we shall see what this brings). From here, the race begins!
Controls are precise and responsive as you fly really fast around the tracks. You have a few different control layouts in options for gas, break, etc. From here it is time to beat the clock and avoid the traffic. When you reach a check point, the game continues, but you do not have any branching paths, you continue through six total levels for the high score.
I had a lot of fun with this game. Since the levels are relatively short and with fast task switching, it makes for an excellent pick up and play game when you have the time. Sure there is a big "Cons" list below, but for $.99 this is a must have app for any classic racing fan; no regrets.
[$.99- iTunes Link]
Pros
- Classic racing action
- Similar to the arcade classic "Out Run"
- Fast frame rate- almost too fast!
- Retina display support for iPhone 4
- Universal app for iPhone and iPad
- Pick back up and play with iOS4
Cons
- No "tree" to show level progression
- Only three music tracks
- No iPod music option
- Only one car to choose from
- No Internet scoring fro global high scores (Plus+ or OpenFeint for example)
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Reader comments
Final Freeway - app review
Thank you for the review ! (It's the devs here.. ;)
Here is what we have for sure for the next update (1.3):
iPod music and global leaderboard are a bit more substantial and those may have to be pushed until 1.4. But they are coming nonetheless. The priority for now is to inject more replayability into the game.
Path branching may appear in some form, but we want to think this through so that we can come up with something different.. 8)
Pit stops between levels would be great. Not everybody has time to play an entire game. And pausing is not really a viable option. Trying to pick up a game in the middle of a level is annoying. Especially in a racing game. The action is just too fast.
Overall, this is a very nice app.
@devs
Can you make a couple more cars to choose from?
@Dee You have a point there. Would pit stops happen at each stage though?
I feel that in a sense that would be too much, and take from the thrill of crossing the checkpoint at the last second.
Time Attack mode would probably help in that sense, as one will be able to loop around the same stage, and pick a different one at any time.
@Tweger01 Adding more cars is a common request and some sort of variety in the player car may come in the future. But right now it seems that more stages, global leaderboard and iPod playback is where most requests are at.
I know that is actually boring and you might be skipping towards the next comment, but I just wanted to throw you a big thank you - you cleared up some things for me!
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