Fishlabs hand over the keys to a preview build of their upcoming Rally racer ‘Rally Master Pro’…
The iPhone & iPod touch are showing their worth in the racing genre, with a solid line up of kart games, futuristic hover racers, and the more realistic Gran Turismo style racers like Real Racing. While we do have some good motocross racers out there, there isn’t a decent Rally game… that is until now. Back in August we posted details of Fishlabs Rally Master Pro, featuring 27 courses, 3D graphics with vertex colouring and dynamic lighting, full damage models and mini games. Well, now we have got our hands on a preview build of the game, and it’s certainly looking on track to be a great Colin Mcrae clone.
There are three control methods: accelerometer, analogue (shown in the video below), and digital. Accelerometer is the best option, offering the most realistic feel, though if like Matt you can’t stomach tilt controls, then the analogue controls work equally well. Stay away from the digital controls though, as they require pinpoint accuracy and it’s all to easy to slip off the controls and plough into a ditch. Car physics works well, giving a good balance between being in control and sliding around on the various surfaces, with over and under steer adding realism.
Graphically it runs and looks great. The models are well created, featuring full damage (you’ll see the bonnet fly off in the video below) and the environment are varied, detailed and well textured. I can’t comment on how it runs on older iPhones and iPods, but on the 3GS it ran without a hitch. We kicked of with a career and slowly moved up the ranks. You don’t directly compete with other cars on the track instead partaking in time trials as is usual in Rallying. The fastest wins. While driving your co-driver shouts out commands to help (or hinder) you in navigating the corners. Unfortunately the co-driver seems to have been to the Sega school of voice overs and is more than a little irritating in his delivery. “Way to go!”
After a few races the tracks take their toll on your vehicle, and you can enter repair mini games. You can choose to skip them and have your team automatically make the repairs, or enter into various mini games to do the work your self. In the video below you can see the tyre pressure game. This requires you to fill the tyres to the required amount in the allotted time. Just like real tyre pressure gauges, you don’t see where the needle is until you let go, so you will need to listen and react into time, not to over or under fill the tyres. Once the event is over you are ranked on your efforts and your car is repaired accordingly.
Rally Master pro is shaping up to be a solid racing title on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Fishlabs state that the preview build is not the final version. Controls, physics, sound and some other minor issues are not finalized yet. The game should be released in the coming months.
Check out the video of the game in action below… oh and I was playing badly on purpose to damage the car 
