Remember Pitch Car, the Major Fun-award winning race track game that you play with pucks instead of cars and even though it feels like a real race, you take turns? Well, I’m happy to tell you that Pixelocity Software‘s iPod, iPad, iPhone, etc. Disc Drivin’ game is virtually the same game, so to speak, only a lot more virtual.
First of all, you can play on-line as well as co-presently. And one of the co-present versions, “Pass and Play,” allows you to play on one device with a resident puck-racer. Should you desire to practice a bit, you can play against yourself and experience, simultaneously, the thrill of defeat and the agony of victory – and not have to wait for someone else to take a turn.
And there’s a wifi and Bluetooth mode in case your friends have their own iThings with them and they all want to play at your house. Playing online, remotely, adds to the suspense, and yet lessens the tension. And it keeps you in touch with up to 4 people per game. And you can have several games going more or less simultaneously! (you can have up to 8 wifi and Bluetooth players).
Second, the 25 different track layouts are breathtaking – especially around the curves where there’s no railing and your puck haplessly flies off into deep space (you are spared having to witness its ultimate demise, but your puck disintegrates in mid-air and you are most certainly left with no questions at all about your fate).
And then there are power-ups and oil slicks and bumpers and barriers and ramps, oh, my! And it’s very realistic, in a virtual way.Your puck bounces off things and crashes into things and spins and slides and all the behavior you’d expect from real world pucking.
On the other hand, the whole game looks and plays like the kind of game you play for fun – not like a real-time race, but much more what you’d expect from a toy-like, turn-taking game. Even though there can be a lot of time between turns, you can get very wrapped up in the whole “Oh, my gosh, the guy’s right behind me” thing. You get this genuine race-like tension, but you can still very much feel the high quality pretend of the whole game. And that’s what makes it Major Fun.
There’s an inescapable humor to it all that keeps you on the other side of serious. But not so much on the other side that you stop trying to win. And the sheer plethora of tracks!
Disc Drivin’ comes in free (advertising supported) versions, and the modestly priced advertising-free. All versions are generously endowed with a multiplicity of tracks and conceptually dangerous delights.
Disc Drivin’ is designed by Tommy and Michael Bean. Thank you both.