You race over the closed off country road at top speed, flying past trees and fields. You stomp on the brakes just before the next curve. You follow the narrow curves in town and hit the edges of one or two patches of mud along the way. Once you reach the town’s exit point you put the pedal to the metal. You’ve barely made it out of town when your co-pilot orders you to take a “sharp right.” You turn onto a narrow gravel path through the forest. You notice immediately that the car drives very differently on this new ground. The grooves in the road also make it difficult to handle, and there’s always the danger that you will completely lose control if you veer too far out of the grooves in either direction.
Console-style drifting in a mobile game?
But you have everything under control; turning your front wheels sideways you drift cleanly through the 180° curve to the end of the forest. You hit the gas pedal again. You launch into the air at top speed on the hill at the railroad crossing. But you’ve miscalculated, jumped too far and driven right into the stone wall at the next curve. That cost you a few seconds and your fender looks really bad. No time to think about it now. The time target is tight. Stomp on the gas. Your wheels spin and the mud flies. The rear of the car starts to go into a skid, but you easily steer against it. Once you’re back on the street you can finally see the finish line on the horizon, and you finish the second stage with a bit of a time delay. The first stage was easier somehow.
Repair mini-games will get your car back in shape
As you can see, your car has sustained some damage. Good thing you can repair it before the next stage. The question is, should you have the team repair it or lend a helping hand so that it goes fast? But maybe you’re pretty clumsy and will only delay your team? You grab the torque wrench and tighten the lug nuts back on in record time. Nice job! Your car’s in top shape again, and you’re off to the next stage.
The landscape has changed quite a bit and the course preview leads you to suspect that this next race will be a little more demanding. The terrain is more hilly, and the ground constantly alternates between paved and sandy spots. When the sun is shining the grip is OK, but heat thunderstorms can cause downpours at any time and then the race will become a real downhill slide.
Flying high
So much for theory. The countdown begins, and you stomp on the accelerator. The car shoots ahead and you jump over the first hill at breakneck speed – with complete trust in your co-pilot, who tells you that there is a straightaway ahead. You’re in the air for quite a while. You think you feel your stomach drop. In a mobile game!
But you’ve launched off the hill at a slight angle and start skidding when you land. It takes a lot of effort, but you get the car under control before the next hairpin curve and skid on all four wheels through the apex of the curve. It probably looks great in instant replay, but it cost you a lot of time.
Did we just pass spectators or cows at the edge of the course?
The car is under control again. You race at top speed through a picturesque village. Nice. Maybe you should spend your next vacation here. Enthusiastic rally fans are standing along the edge of the course, and you really don’t have time for autographs. But you haven’t lost the race yet. You’re doing reasonably well in the race overall. Apparently the other drivers also had problems with this stretch, and you’ve even got a couple seconds on the car in second place. You concentrate on the next stretch.
Can someone get rid of the cliffs?
You’re going to need it. The road is much narrower and it can get really tight, especially between the cliffs that now frequently tower on both sides of the road, Something’s bound to go wrong at some point at this speed. and the rain has made the road extremely slippery.
You could see the archway at the entrance of the rock formation from quite far away, but you’re a little too fast in the curve immediately in front of it. The car still hasn’t straightened out enough, and you ram the passenger side of the car into the wall - BAM! The whole side is dented in. It’s obvious that the car has sustained quite a bit of damage. Somehow it isn’t driving that well. It’s going to cost you valuable time that you don’t have. So you take the riskier curves to compensate for the lower speed. This has consequences. You graze the cliffs over and over again and further damage your car. The main goal now is not to have any more accidents and simply make it to the next repair! Otherwise there will be no more rally for you!
Damage to the car – do you play it safe or play for time?
You paid dearly. You dropped back to fifth place. Your car is severely damaged. If the team repairs it they can spruce it up somewhat within the stipulated time allowance. But will that be enough for the next two stages? They certainly won’t manage to repair everything without a hitch. If you help them, together you could completely repair it. But if you mess it up, you may not get the car to where it needs to be. You need a better car, otherwise you won’t advance quick enough in the mountains. So you decide to help them out, and you do your job well in the mini-game. You hit the starting line with an almost completely intact vehicle, ready to make up for the lost time.
The air is getting thinner
High up in the mountains. Great view, but the route plan doesn’t look good. There’s one curve after another. Well, at least you have asphalt under your tires and the car handles well. Based on the interval times you recognize that you’re doing well. You are perfectly attuned to the rhythm of the serpentine curves. You wind your way higher and higher with the greatest of ease until you reach the top of the mountain pass. From here on in it goes straight down. Hopefully your brakes can withstand it. But the material was worth the money. You make it safely across the finish line. And have moved up one place!
The right tactic for that crucial tenth of a second
On to the next stage. You read the next course overview. The course appears to be similar to the previous one and also has a few considerably faster passages. You can make up some time there. However, it is pouring down with rain. Raindrops on the windshield make it difficult to see. If you veer off the course at this point, you may as well pack up and go home. You push those thoughts away, because the time keeps mercilessly ticking away. You let it fly on the straightaways. Almost nothing can happen here. But you have to really throttle down before the curves. You need to rely on your co-pilot reading the pacenotes. Your brake lights now light up at every curve, and you are rewarded with second place.
Show down
It’s time for the last stage of the rally. You’re still driving in the mountains on asphalt, but you have to leave the course at the halfway point. You take a “sharp left” and the surface changes once again. There is enough space between the cliffs to adjust the car to the unpaved road in the curves, but you are severely penalized for every error. Cliffs are hard. You violently come into contact with the unforgiving natural lane markings one or two times. The car loses its top speed. It isn’t noticeable in the winding section, but the last part of the race is on the road. You could lose some crucial seconds here. It’s going to be close. Damned close. The last intermediate time is displayed. You are two tenths of a second behind the first place car. You could also say “first loser”! Can you do anything?
It all adds up in the end – in a mobile game as well
You shoot through the final finish line. Your car doesn’t look very good anymore. You’ve really squeezed every last drop out of it. Your thumb hurts and the joystick of your Sony Ericsson K800i has left behind a deep imprint. You can now lean back for the first time. You watch the last stage again in the interactive replay. The TV cameras mercilessly reveal where you wasted valuable split seconds. You rewind, play it back, change the camera angle and have to watch how you slammed into the rock wall twice. Is this the spot where you may have gambled away the win?
It’s time for the final numbers. You can’t believe it. You are five tenths of a second from third place! This can’t be happening. How long have you played? Just under an hour? And that was the amateur rally? Oh man, that’s really tough. Weren’t mobile games designed for casual gamers? OK, maybe you should have used the brake more from the beginning instead of cutting it close around the corners everywhere. At least you have now unlocked all the courses for the time qualification and adrenaline mode and can train on them. You simply have to finish in the top three, then you’ll get a new car and will have qualified for the pro rally. It would be ridiculous if you didn’t…
Tags: Fishlabs, gamer, Games, k800i, Mobile, racing, Rally Master Pro, sony ericsson
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Just like the happy winners of a Sony Ericsson W760i Walkman phone, who couldn’t believe at first that they’ve actually won something. Or the endless numbers of mobile gamers, waiting for their free mobile game to be beamed on their mobile phone! And last but not least the huge amount of visitors, which we’ve been able to please just with a Sony Ericsson lanyard or a FISHLABS T-Shirt, in exchange for their participation in our prize.
No matter what age, position or reason for being at the show - anybody who took a glaze at Galaxy on Fire 2, Gladiator, Blades and Mages or Powerboat Challenge felt the urge to get one of those FISHLABS mobile games. And we felt this urge at our counter, where visitors pushed each other to be the next in line to get one of those free mobile games, which sometimes took some time: When 300 mobile phones pollute the air with their Bluetooth signals it becomes hard to single out one of them…
As a day at the fare can be somewhat exhausting, many people chose to relax a little bit at our booth - thanks to our cozy seats, which some people found so cool that they’ve tried to take some with them!
We even made it into the nightly news - the ARD Nachtmagazin taped our booth and people playing FISHLABS mobile games for their coverage of the first day of Games Convention and had one of our promoters show them a mobile game in detail.
