iPhone Game App Review: Cro-Mag Rally

Written by: Arnold Zafra • Edited by: Simon Hill
Updated Dec 17, 2008 • Related Guides: Iphone Game | iPhone

If you read our previous review of the Crash Nitro Kart 3D for the iPhone, you’ve probably conquered all the levels of the said game like me and are now looking for another similar game. Fortunately, there is another iPhone game which feels like Crash Nitro and it's called Cro-Mag Rally.

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The first thing that would come into your mind when you hear a game with the word Rally on the title is of course the ultra-cool game Mario Kart Racing, but that’s for another console and we’re supposed to be on the iPhone game platform. So, the closest game that we could possibly compare Cro-Mag Rally to, like we said is Crash Nitro 3D. Both iPhone games feature beautifully rendered 3D race tracks, characters, and racing vehicles. The only difference is their world, wherein you’ll get to race pre-historic tracks of Cro-Mag Rally as against the futuristic world of Crash Nitro 3D. Other than that, both games are very similar in gameplay.

Cro-Mag Rally for the iPhone - Menus and Settings

cromagrally characters Upon firing up the iPhone game app, you are presented with three menus – Play Game, Settings, and Info. Tapping on the Settings Menu lets you tweak your device’s volume, difficulty level of the game, steering sensitivity, and turn on or off the game’s music, sound effects and vibration settings. I would not recommend turning off the music and sound effects settings as these two are very important in enjoying the game. Cro-Mag Rally’s musical scoring are definitely fun and amusing and adds excitement to the game. Tapping on the Info menu will open up your iPhone’s Safari browser to take you the game developer’s site where you can read the game’s manual. However, since this is a pretty simple racing game, I don’t think it is really necessary to read the manual. But if you’ve got the time, go ahead and read it first.

Cro-Mag Rally for the iPhone - Gameplay

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Now going to the last menu – Play Game. Cro-Mag Rally offers you two game modes, Race and Gather. Race is of course is your usual arcade racing where you are pitted against 3 other players in a 3-lap race. Along the way you can collect various power-ups such as nitro boost, sticky tires and various weapons which you can throw at your competitors to annoy them.

The game offers 9 tracks with all of them available at once, unlike in Crash Nitro where some of the tracks and levels have to be opened by completing special events and specific levels. Crash Nitro 3D beat Cro-Mag on this part. But for those looking for just straight racing game for their iPhone, Cro-Mag would suffice.

When racing, you are immediately given 10 vehicles to choose from, each with various characteristics that don’t really affect your racing performance at all. In the Race mode, you can easily beat your opponents to the finish line just by steady racing and throwing bombs at them occasionally.

The other game mode, Gather is similar to the Race mode, although this time aside from reaching the finish line first, you must also gather eight spear heads along the way. If you fail to gather all the spear heads, you fail the game. This adds difficulty in completing the different race tracks as some of those spears are placed strategically along the race tracks.

Cro-Mag Rally – Graphics and Control

The game’s environment is one aspect where the game excels. Like Crash Nitro, Cro-Mag Rally is beautifully rendered and fully maximizes the power of the iPhone. The race tracks have so many goodies and obstacles that are well designed. There are some moving elements on the race tracks which obstructs your along the way, such as dinosaurs, rock formations, whirlwinds and more.

The Game Control of course makes use of the iPhone’s accelerometer and touchscreen feature. Now here’s one big difference between Crash Nitro and Cro-Mag Rally. In Crash, your vehicle automatically moves forward and you just need to use the accelerometer to guide it along the race track, but in Cro-Mag, you need to keep tapping on the Forward button to move your vehicle forward. The always-forward motion for Cro-Mag might be OK normally, but sometimes when you are on a difficult track, you might lose control of the acceleration. But, it would just be awhile before you get used to it.

Our Verdict:

Cro-Mag Rally is another great iPhone game app. If you’re tired of Crash Nitro, you’d definitely want to purchase this game from the Apps store, which is currently available for $1.99.