Fans of pop music star Robbie Williams rejoiced to hear that he would be getting his own iPhone game alongside the release of his new album Reality Killed The Video Star. Now that the game is here, some of the excitement may wear off due to it’s hard to control mechanics and lack of gaming content.
Robbie Williams Racing, by Artificial Life, invites players and fans to Robbie’s world to race against him on 2 different tracks. The Mojave Desert course was modeled after the backdrop of his Bodies music video. The banked track offers an environment with a deserted feeling. The other available track is Robbie’s private course, which takes place in a more lush jungle-like setting. Both tracks can be played in either Race or Treasure Hunt mode. Race mode pits players on motorcycles against Robbie himself as he jeers and cheers them with his included exclusive commentary. In Treasure Hunt mode, players drive a dune buggy in either course searching for tokens which unlock videos and photos of the star.
The graphics are on par with other early entries in the iPhone racing genre. The characters are a bit stiff and robotic looking. Our biggest grip, though, is the gameplay. While racing, smooth visuals are constantly interrupted by special effect views. For example, when jumping or hitting a wheelie, the camera angle will change to show the player from a varying perspective (as if you were a spectator). While the idea is great and works well in some iPhone titles like The Need for Speed, here it results in a rather confusing and frustrating experience. The issue is lessened in the first-person view modes, but even here, it’s hard to keep your eyes on the track due to the lean-to-turn simulation.
The game begins with commentary from Robbie and this remains throughout the whole of the content. We found ourselves irritated with the repetitive comments by Robbie while racing and were glad to find that you can turn it off. The music featured in the title is of course from the new album. Immediately available are Bodies and Difficult For Weirdos. Nine other songs can be unlocked through in-game achievements, but all are remixes of Bodies. As was mentioned before, videos and photos can be unlocked too. The album can be purchased too from within the app. Other incentives to mastering Robbie Williams Racing reside in its online leaderboards and Facebook Connect ability.
Robbie Williams’ followers may find enough fan-centric content in this game to justify the $2.99 price tag. For this team though, the overall commercialized feel of the game with all the in-app promotions, makes us ask why it’s not free. Other organizations like Volkswagen have successfully marketed promotional apps with great quality and content at a free price point. We cannot wholly attribute our discontent with Artificial Life. They have done great things with other apps and we understand much of the commercial content was beyond their control. We hope to see this app undergo a mechanics revamp and price revamp soon.
Robbie Williams Racing gets our AppSmile 3-Dimple rating:
