Cro-Mag Rally - Review

One result of Windows Phone arriving late to the smartphone party is that the mobile Xbox Live lineup consists mainly of iPhone ports, with a few exclusives hither and there. Many of the iPhone games are outright classics similar Doodle Jump and Angry Birds, and nosotros're all better for having them available to us. Only not every iPhone game is worth playing; for every big hit, many, many terrible games make it through also. 1 such bomb fabricated the jump to Xbox Alive for some reason: Pangaea Software's Cro-Magazine Rally. The Windows Phone port comes courtesy of Citizen 12 Studio.

Cruise by the break for our full review.

A game correct out of prehistory

Most of Cro-Mag Rally's problems stem from its historic period. The caveman-themed kart racer debuted in 1998 on Macs before migrating to iPhone in 2008. Even if we ignore that the original version (to which this ane closely hews) is more than 10 years old, that still makes this a port of a three-twelvemonth erstwhile iPhone game. That wouldn't be so bad if it was a fantastic game to begin with, merely that is not the example, every bit I'll explains shortly. Nor take its shortcomings been rectified in the process of bringing the game to Windows Phone. Imagine if someone had released the original Atari 2600 E.T.: The Extraterrestrial as-is and slapped some Xbox Live Achievements on it; that's basically Cro-Mag Rally in a nutshell, merely with cavemen on karts.

Graphics

I am not a graphics whore. I can oft enjoy games with simplistic graphics or awkward art styles, just even I have limits. Cro-Magazine Rally is hands-down the nearly hideous 3D game in the mobile Xbox Live lineup. The mistake here lies generally with the original developer, as the game has e'er been an affront to the eyes. The character designs of the two playable cavemen are so atrociously, heinously bad. They brand a decent case for regulating fine art and turning the world into a dystopian police state, if just to protect gamers from having to see such horrid things. At the very least, the original art designer needs to await for a new field of work, such as the custodial arts.

Looking past the cave-monster drivers (which you pretty much have to exercise in club to protect your retinas), the game sports some depression-end Playstation One-era 3D visuals. Every single object in the game is overly angular and lacking in definition. The textures don't pick up the slack due to their low resolution, and the colors are generally garish. PutCro-Mag Rally up against a recent game like Jet Car Stunts or even the other WP7 launch racing titles and it comes upwards way short.

At present, those problems all came from the original game, though I question the wisdom of not cleaning upward and enhancing the graphics during the porting process. But 1 area where the port really drops the ball is the design of the Windows Phone-specific UI screens. The Settings menu and Credits screen look haphazardly thrown together. They use tiny fonts that don't fit with the residue of the game, and would definitely have benefitted from some cleanup.

Stages

Cro-Mag Rally lacks a metagame, just presenting gamers with a selection of tracks and an array of vehicles with varying stats to race with. The included tracks show some creativity and promise, equally they include fun locals like The Cracking Wall (Ancient China), a Viking Village, and a couple of Stone-age era tracks. Living prepare pieces like dinosaurs, yetis, and mummies instill a chip of character. Likewise, every stage has its ain tune that fits it perfectly; the music is the best part of the game.

The bodily grade blueprint is where this game's tracks fall autonomously. Every runway is littered with style also many random obstacles, most of which finish the player'south kart in its tracks when hit. There are also aggressive obstacles like tornados and statues that shoot lightning at drivers, knocking them virtually wildly. Instead of enhancing the gameplay feel, all of these things just serve to annoy. Many tracks are filled with repeated tight turns that the karts tin't properly go on up with, too. While Cro-Mag Rally is patently inspired by Mario Kart, the designers don't seem to understand the game they're copying well enough to do it justice.

And the racing

Each of Cro-Magazine Rally's tracks can be played two means: Race and Gather. Race is a traditional race confronting three other drivers with the object of coming in kickoff. Race is kind of fun at times, but Assemble is not. Here players must not merely endeavour to come in first but besides collect 8 arrowheads that are scattered around the rail. Unfortunately the rotating sprites of the arrowheads are fashion too difficult to see, especially as the backgrounds often utilize a lot of the same grays as they do.

Gather races also bring Cro-Mag Rally's physics and control problems to the forefront. Steering utilizes tilt controls and works fine. Citizen 12 famously added an motorcar-accelerate feature to the game post-launch. But the overall speed of the game is just likewise fast for a kart racer, especially with the frequently narrow and winding rails design. Equally a result, information technology often feels like you're careening out of control, necessitating abiding breaking to continue things in check. Turning around to option up the tiny arrowhead sprites is torturous due to the unnecessarily loftier speed as well.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention weapons and powerups. They're small and difficult enough to pick upwards, just like arrowheads. Most weapons can be fired forward or backward, depending on whether players hit the peak or bottom of the fire push. But again, the game'southward abrasive speed (and the finicky performance of the burn button) makes actually hitting enemies an extremely rare occurrence.

Achievements

Cro-Magazine Rally has a variety of Achievements, including a few creative ones like hitting all of the cacti in the Desert rail. Unfortunately, the game'due south weaker mode, Assemble, gets several Achievements. Players volition need to collect all 8 arrowheads from every track in the game, including the united nationsfathomably bad Atlantis track. Atlantis takes place underwater with submarines instead of karts. Information technology adds unnecessary vertical motility into the equation and removes the brake button. It's also nighttime and the submarine produces bubbles that obscure the player'southward view, then collecting the arrowheads there is a consummate chore. Except for enduring that misstep of a course, the Achievements are really quick and piece of cake to get.

Overall Impression

Cro-Mag Rally is a game that should accept been allowed to languish in obscurity rather than receiving the Xbox Live handling on Windows Phone. Perhaps it was fun back in 1998, but I think any positive reputation it earned is due more to the scarcity of Mac games during that era rather than actual quality. Pangaea has announced an overhauled iPhone version with new graphics and UI, but it's unclear whether those improvements will trickle downwardly to Windows Phone. As it stands, the but reason to get CMR is its like shooting fish in a barrel Achievements. I feel for Citizen 12, who took on the unenviable task of polishing a turd, which never works. They just need to choose more compelling games to port in the future.

Cro-Mag Rally costs $2.99 and in that location is a free trial. Pick it up here on the Marketplace.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/cro-mag-rally-review

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