Dirt Moto Racing, an action-packed ATV racer released by Resolution Interactive, recently roared into the app store. A terrific follow-up to Aqua Moto Racing, their previously-released, jet-ski-infused racing title, Dirt Moto Racing takes the torch and powerslides its way into our adrenaline-fueled hearts.
Dirt Moto Racing features both Career and Single Event mode across 3 levels of difficulty. Career mode allows you to race in 8 tours, each with 4 possible locations (British Columbia, Death Valley, Toronto, and the Florida Keys) whose quintessential environment-types allow you to race a forest landscape, a desert scene, a dirt track, or a beach terrain, respectively. The unique properties of each locale will, of course, affect the handling of your ATV, requiring different strategies to achieve success. Races are 3 laps and pit you against 5 other riders, with 3 selectable AI levels. There are two types of races in which you will compete in career mode: traditional racing and checkpoint racing. Traditional racing takes place on a fixed track. Checkpoint racing has no fixed track. You must race to different checkpoints in a fairly barren, open environment. Location of the next checkpoint is indicated by an overhead arrow. The location and direction of all checkpoints is mapped out prior to the race, so if you are a quick study, you can gain quite an advantage.
Single Event racing contains all of the tracks from Career mode, unlockable by achieving top scores on the same tracks in Career mode. There is also an elimination mode where each race eliminates the last place finisher until one racer outlasts everyone, a checkpoint mode as previously described, a sprint mode for racing against a timer, a freestyle mode for performing stunts, a time trial for racing against your own fastest times, and ghost play, which allows you to download the ghosts of former Top Racers. There are also customization options available for your rider, including outfit, ATV, and gender, as well as tuning points which are earned by medaling in Career events. Top Speed, Acceleration, Steering, Grip, Brakes, Shocks, and Lifts are the areas to which tuning points can be applied, vastly improving these all-important aspects of race physics. There are also 21 unlockable achievements that can be earned through the course of racing.
The graphics are terrific with a smooth framerate. Though not overly detailed, there is enough to keep the game moving and get a good sense of each location. The soundtrack is very good, containing 12 original tracks and realistic engine/ATV sounds. The controls are extremely well done, using a combination of touch controls and the accelerometer. Tilt to steer and control your in-air positioning when getting airborne. Touch controls take care of everything else: braking and acceleration (unless you enable “cruise control” for auto-acceleration), boost for additional speed bursts, camera view, and stunts, which replenish your boost potential.
Stunts add a terrific element to the gameplay, and their implementation is handled very well. As you race over a jump, you may see a red, yellow, or green button appear on-screen. By holding one of these buttons and swiping up, down, left, or right on the screen, you can perform one of 12 different stunts. You can also swipe without including one of the colored buttons to perform one of 4 mega-stunts. As mentioned, stunts are important to build up your boost so that you can accelerate past the competition or get that extra edge when racing against the clock.
Our only real complaint is that, at times, you can get confused as to your positioning and direction on the track. We found ourselves powersliding in a fairly barren terrain and not knowing whether we were coming or going. Dirt Moto Racing includes a feature whereby if you go too far off of the track, it automatically resets you in the proper direction on the track. The feature is nice, but at times feels a bit touch, as you don’t have to go too far off of the track to trigger it. Otherwise, we loved all aspects of this title.
While there are plenty of racing games available in the app store, few are of the ATV/off-road variety, and Dirt Moto Racing stands out as a worthy competitor to any and all challengers. With a deep Career mode and plenty of freestyle-type events, you’ll have plenty of reasons to keep coming back for more. The $4.99 price tag is certainly justified by the outstanding gameplay, local and online leaderboards, and tons of unlockable elements. Resolution Interactive has created a game that, in our opinion, outshines its older, water-based brother to pop a 5-Dimple wheelie across the finish line.
Dirt Moto Racing gets our AppSmile 5-Dimple rating:
