Posted by By wassapps at 25 April, at 23 : 14 PM Print

You know when a film can pull out more than two sequels something is working for that movie franchise and there is probably a good following of people watching them. The one that’s got me excited which will be released this Friday is the Fast & Furious Five. Which guy doesn’t like fast cars, fine women and a lot of action? When I heard this announcement on the radio I immediately searched for a F&F Five mobile app to review as my tribute to the film. The app that I found was the “Fast & Furious 5: Official Game” by Gameloft for the Android and iDevices.

In the game you can follow a slideshow format storyline of the movie which is only through the Career mode but if you hate spoilers then I recommend playing the Quick Races until you watch the movie. In that time you will have the ability to customize (Performance/Appearance) your vehicles and purchase new one’s with or without using what they call Upgrade Packages (Cash/XP online) however the feature to unlock awesome new cars like the 1970 Dodge Charger and beautiful new tracks in places like St.Domingo and Favelas can only be done when in Career mode.  To progress through this storyline you must be placing first in many different race events (Normal Race/Drag/Time Attack/Drift/Elimination). The toughest one to master is the Drifting competition because of the difficulty to begin drifting with the car, controlling it and then coming back out of the drift. If you have trouble performing this or need some other F&F 5 driving lessons then go to the Tutorials menu to see how they all work.  Having this variety of race events adds to the enjoyability  of the gameplay and keeps things intereting for the user.

Another entertaining factor to the gameplay equation are the racing bonuses that you can achieve for doing things such as drafting behind a car, taking your opponents out and showing off by drifting. It’s cool when you get these because what happens is you will be presented with a freeze frame or slow-mo replay in black and white of what you just accomplished and the best to see are the spectacular crashes of your competitors when you annihilate them. A neat component that adds some depth to the gameplay is the “Rewind Time” feature and what it does is help you go back in time giving you a second chance to rectify your driving mistakes or errors. Throughout the races you can run into things like Nitros which give your car a boost and Underground Market tools (ex. Granny Shifting, Flat Tire, To The Metal, Bad Juice…) which all support your efforts in different ways to winning each race.

For the controls in the game you have a choice between three different types (Steering Icons, Steering Wheel and Steering Accelerometer). I tested each one and was stunned by how responsive and tight the controls were right from the start. All of them were user-friendly designed and by this I mean that where your fingers are to be placed on the screen for the buttons and controls felt natural and intuitive.  If you do not like the setting of the controls then all you have to do is easily adjust the sensitivity slider in the Options menu.

I have no complaints about the sounds in the game, both beats and sound fx were clear and pumpin.  For the games’ graphics they were very impressive. The vehicles were not modeled with large polygons so they did not have that boxy look, rather the cars were smooth and refined and like the developers description mentions, there is that neat shiny reflection of the environments on all the cars. As for the settings and locales these were also all well modeled giving you a true feel for the surroundings and so they do not feel stale or lifeless the developer has embedded interactive elements and obstacles (ex.truck falling of a bridge, train crossing the tracks) in the environments.

If you love racing games then you are going to like this one and if you want a taste of the Fast & Furious 5 action, you definitely need to get this app!

http://www.gameloft.com/index.php?platform=gameloft&section=home

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