Mad Wheels

Until recent rule changes were introduced in Formula One, detractors of the sport accused it of being boring and predictable.

However, while F1 has managed to inject more thrills, it probably wouldn't let its teams strap weapons to their vehicles. That's the beauty of video games.

Mad Wheels is free of F1's spoilsport constraints. However, although its use of such weaponry ensures action-packed races, it's still lacking in features and longevity.

Destruction Derby

Mad Wheels's chaotic races involve a selection of extremely unroadworthy vehicles armed with the standard arsenal of mines and missiles along with unique special and melee attacks. These range from buses to construction vehicles, and have different armour, acceleration, and handling attributes which allow you to choose the motor that most suits your racing style.

If your vehicle sustains too much damage it breaks down, and the delay while you wait for it to respawn can be the difference between first and last place.

Vehicles are controlled with a virtual joystick, which also acts as the accelerator, making handling unrealistically easy. Attacks and missiles are launched with a series of touchscreen buttons.

Hot Wheels

More vehicles are unlocked in Championship mode, which requires you to compete in a series of Combat and Knockout races set in a number of environments. Combat races are fairly standard, while knockout races see the last placed competitor at the end of each lap eliminated.

Races are presented from an isometric camera angle with cars, landscapes, and tracks looking crisp and detailed thanks to an impressive 3D engine which makes full use of the iPhone’s graphical capabilities.

New races are unlocked by collecting medals awarded for position, score, kills, and for certain objectives such as leading the race for an entire lap.

Tracks feature numerous twists and turns with multiple routes creating plenty of shortcuts. A map assists with navigation, but as familiarity with each track grows anticipating corners becomes far easier.

Championship mode is supplemented by a wi-fi multiplayer mode and a Quick Race mode which, somewhat surprisingly, doesn’t allow you to choose a track, vehicle, or race stipulation.

Chequered Flag

This cocktail of speed, destruction, and impressive 3D visuals means that Mad Wheels has all the key ingredients for a decent arcade racer, while its ease of handling ensures that it's accessible enough for casual racing gamers.

However, despite having all this going for it, Mad Wheels feels hollow and flawed. Championship mode boasts a decent number of tracks, but the limited number of races and objectives is exacerbated by the inclusion of just two types of race and the limited range of weapons.

Weapon controls are rather fiddly and unresponsive due to their small size, and with no option to resize or reposition them this can cause major irritation when a mine or missile isn’t deployed quickly enough.

While the absence of such features is disappointing, the omission of multitasking support is remarkable. Given that this has become a standard feature in recent iOS games, to lose all progress because you have to answer a phone call seems unforgivable.

Mad Wheels is a fast, frantic, and good-looking racer, and there’s no denying the quality of its core game, but it's let down by a lack of features.