Get Better Gear!

Premier Sponsors

TechRestore

Other World Computing

Top 5 Free Apps

Release Date: August 05, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: May 22, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: August 29, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: March 27, 2009
Release Date: August 07, 2009

iTunes New Music Releases

Release Date: September 29, 2009
Genre: Rock
Release Date: September 20, 2009
Release Date: September 15, 2009
Release Date: August 25, 2009
Genre: Rock
Release Date: August 25, 2009

Top 5 Paid Apps

Release Date: April 22, 2009
StickWars $0.99
Release Date: March 31, 2009
Genre: Games
Bloons $0.99
Release Date: April 05, 2009
Genre: Games

Discover New Music

  • Modern Lovers

    • 10 out of 10
    • Modern Lovers
    • This timeless masterpiece is little known, but it has inspired almost as many bands as The Modern Lovers' own inspiration -- and only slightly better known -- The Velvet Underground & Nico.

  • Plans

    • 8 out of 10
    • Death Cab for Cutie
    • With the introduction of Plans, Death Cab for Cutie became a new addition to many user's Artist list after the single "Soul Meets Body" became a hit on iTunes. Offering a fresh alternativ

  • Cocked & Loaded

    • 8 out of 10
    • Revolting Cocks
    • It's hard to believe it's been more than a decade since Ministry founder and front man Al Jourgensen's side project Revolting Cocks released any new material. 2006 brings us Cocked and Loaded

  • Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

    • 8 out of 10
    • Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
    • When I first got hooked to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the only place I could get their debut album, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, was through the band's Web site. I listened to the two tracks a

  • Another Day on Earth

    • 10 out of 10
    • Brian Eno
    • In his first proper solo release since 1996's relatively cold "The Drop," Brian Eno has constructed a whimsical and ecclectic masterpiece which is arguably one of the year's strongest records thus fa

Reader Specials

Visit Deals On The Web for the best deals on all consumer electronics, iPods, and more!

In-Depth Review

Days of Thunder

I have tried many of the available racing games for the iPhone. While some -- such as Asphalt 4: Elite Racing and Fastlane Street Racing -- have awesome graphics and others -- like Crash Bandocoot Nitro Kart 3D, Cro-Mag Rally, and Wingnuts Moto Chaser -- are cartoon-ish  but none the less fun, I've yet to finish a single one of them. I play for a little while and grow either frustrated or bored. So I was surprised that Freeverse's Days of Thunder has maintained my interest for several weeks and that after just  a few more races I'll have completed the final, most grueling level, the Endurance Circuit. 

Here's how it goes... It's NASCAR racing so the tracks are mostly oval with no sharp turns.  Each race pits you against 7 opponents for 10 laps. Do well enough and you can advance to a higher level (circuit). 

Controls are as follows: 

  • Tilt your iPhone or iPod touch to steer.
  • Press the accelerator pedal in the lower right corner of the screen to go.
  • Press the brake pedal in the lower left corner of the screen to slow down.
  • When you have taken a lot of damage, make a pit stop by tapping the Pit icon that appears on the left side of the screen on the straightaway near the start/finish line. 

DOT pit stop

  • Follow an opponent closely (draft) to earn a speed boost.
  • When the speed boost hammer icon appears on the right side of the screen, tap it to put down the hammer and race past some (or many) opponents. 

DOT

You start each race at the back of the pack in 8th place as shown above. The bar in the upper right corner (above the laps and place indicators) tells you how much "health" your car has remaining. When your health gets low, you need to make a pit stop or risk having your car blow up. The relative health of competitors' cars, which you can see when you pull behind them, is a red and green bar above them. In the picture above, the 7th place car has a bar that's almost all red, which means if I crash into him once or twice he's going to blow up, which puts him out of the race for a short time. 

This is what blowing up an opponent looks like:

DOT boom!

The 5th and 6th place cars, on the other hand, display health bars that are mostly green, so they'll take a lot more damage before they explode. 

Repeat for ten laps, then do it again and again.    

Here are a couple more pictures for your edification and enjoyment. 

The pits are on the straightaway near the start/finish line. When you've taken a lot of damage, like this: 

DOT trouble soon!

You need to make a pit stop. When you do, other cars may pass you (the red indicator on the left below) as your car is healed (green indicator on the right below). 

DOT pit stop

Before I wrote this review I gave some thought to what makes Days of Thunder so much more engaging than some of the other racing games I've tried. It's not the graphics. They're OK but I've seen better. It's not the story line. Although there is one I mostly ignore it. And it's not the physics. Although they're perfect for the game, they're pretty unrealistic. 

So what's so good about Days of Thunder? The answer that it brings together a perfect storm of  features:  

  • Each race is relatively quick -- under 5 minutes. 
  • There aren't many controls to deal with -- accelerator, brake, "put down the hammer," and Pit.. 
  • The accelerometer (turning) controls are well-balanced -- not too sensitive but not too mushy either. 
  • There is strategy involved -- it's not just "put the pedal to the metal and see how fast you can go." You have to plan pit stops carefully and know when to "trade paint" with opponents (and more importantly, when not to). 

and last but not least... 

  • When you blow up an opponent, the explosions are cool.

The only thing that keeps Days of Thunder from a five star rating is a single vexing issue that occurs too often for me to overlook. That issue is that it quits unexpectedly far too frequently. Once it does I usually have to restart my iPhone to fix it and that's not good. 

That said, when it's good, it's very, very good, but when bad and quitting in the middle of a race, it sucks big time. 

The Bottom Line

Days of Thunder is the most enjoyable racing game I've tried in spite of its quitting unexpectedly most often than I'd like. Even so, it's still easily worth the three bucks.

Just The Facts

Days of Thunder from Freeverse

MSRP US$2.99

Pros:

Really fun, relatively easy to learn but not so easy to master, short races.

Cons:

Crashes occasionally.

Post Your Comments

  Remember Me  Forgot your password?

Not a member? Register now. You can post comments without logging in, but they'll show up as a "guest" post.

Commenting is not available in this section entry.