Death Rally Mobile Review

I had never heard of Death Rally for the iOS platform before Touch Arcade posted that it was going to be free for a limited time. Never one to pass up a free game if it looks even remotely interesting; I downloaded it for my iPod Touch (3^rd gen or newer only can play the game).

Death Rally is published by Remedy Entertainment and developed by Cornfox & Brothers and Mountain Sheep, Inc. The game is an action racer where you compete against 5 opponents in a race to the death. Your opponents can be computer run (single player career) or computer/humans in the multiplayer campaign. Depending on how you do in each race, you earn points that can be spent to upgrade your car, weapons or increase your overall fame.

The game starts with you driving a beetle-like little car with a gun attached. In each race, you compete to be first, to destroy your opponents or both. During the race, you can also shoot barrels that will explode or crates that will give you power-ups or cash (adds to your points at the end of the race) all the while watching your own health hoping you don’t get killed. There are a total of 8 cars and 6 main tracks to race along with multiple weapons to choose from. New cars and tracks are unlocked by picking up parts during races (not sure if the same mechanic is used in Multiplayer). This allows you to earn all of the cars and tracks in single player mode without having to make in app purchases (except the flamer weapon, which seems to be IAP only).

The controls for Death Rally consist of a virtual stick on the lower left part of the screen to control the car and a button on the lower right part of the screen to activate your weapon. I found that having no tactile feel of exactly where I was pushing the virtual stick to be a little difficult at times, but not overly so.

What I liked best about Death Rally is how accessible it is. Have 90 seconds to spare? That is more than enough time for a race. I also like that there are multiple ways to score points in each race – meaning that winning isn’t always necessary to make enough points to reach that next car/weapon upgrade (you score points for cash pickups, killing opponents, what place you come in and if you beat your lap or race time on the track). There are also multiple difficulties for each track and challenge races including a marathon race that will take 15 – 20 minutes or more to complete.

I highly recommend Death Rally even for the $0.99 it currently costs on iTunes. Unless you are impatient, you shouldn’t need to make any IAP in single player at all. You will also get a lot of replay value out of the various tracks and cars to choose from. Death Rally gets four and a half Mick Happies. Go get your rally on.