Moto Chaser

When it comes to manifestations of mid-life crises, motorbikes are right up there with affairs, destructive online gambling habits, and demanding that your children take you to a Slipknot gig.

The market for motorbikes isn't lithe young speedhounds. It's Your Dad, probably to escape from Your Mum when she finds out about his fling with his secretary / £10,000 poker debt / Dicknose tattoo. Or, in extreme cases, all three.

Sadly, Moto Chaser doesn't focus on this social phenomenon, choosing to focus instead on a vague plot involving you giving two-wheeled chase to a bunch of rogues who've kidnapped your cat. No, really.

It was one of the first racers onto the App Store, offering tilt-enabled steering, 3D visuals, and an element of Road Rash-style fighting. It's an impressive game, but with some frustrating omissions that stop it being a classic.

You start by choosing a character from the three available, then set off to race through the game's nine tracks - each set in a different environment. The game's simple to play, too: you tilt left and right to steer, and hold down a virtual 'GAS' button on the left of the screen to accelerate. The bike handles well, with about the right sensitivity to ensure your view of the iPhone screen isn't hampered by having to tilt it too far in either direction.

It uses the time-honoured checkpoint system for each course, which requires you reach the next checkpoint before the clock runs out or it's game over. You can change the difficulty setting to adjust how tight these checkpoints are, which is a boon to its accessibility (albeit a not well advertised boon - it took us ages to realise there even was such an option).

As a showcase for iPhone's potential, Moto Chaser is great. The graphics are top-notch and the speed of the game is extremely nippy with no glaring pop-up to put you off. It's fun, yet there are problems with the gameplay itself and specifically the lack of other people on the tracks.

You flash past the odd car, and occasionally meet an enemy who has to be punched out of the way. Other than those infrequent passes in the night, it's purely you against the clock. We'd much rather have had this game engine used to race against a bunch of other bikers. In essence, Moto Chaser is a racing game with nobody to race against, which can get dull.

There's not enough structure around the game either. You don't unlock new bikes or characters as you go. You just finish each track, then move onto the next one. There aren't even high score rankings for each track, at the very least. Plus, there are annoying quirks, like the way you don't actually crash into obstacles, you just slither around them.

It all feels like it's running on empty. Moto Chaser may look great, but there's not enough depth behind those good looks to keep things moving along.