Split/Second: Velocity

It might be an exaggeration, but I'm almost certain there were more yellow flags than finishers at this year's Monaco Grand Prix.

It got to the stage where it wouldn't have been a surprise if Webber's stop-start procession to victory had been waved off due to a stray drip or two of Chardonnay trickling its way onto the asphalt.

But while real motorsport seems intent on giving British Rail a run for its money when it comes to cancellations, racing games seem to be gaining an ever more reckless edge.

Something of a blur

Split/Second: Velocity, like Blur before it, focuses less on actual racing and more on the carnage you can cause from behind the wheel.

Played from an isometric viewpoint, the races themselves make passing opponents something of a backdrop, as attention shifts to merely keeping on track to trigger a series of crashes for your seven fuel-laden foe.

It's a set-up that really has far more to do with timing than it does racing.

As such, the courses themselves don't exactly lend themselves to replicating the exploits of Hamilton and co., with the tracks consisting of long straights and soft (yet overtly angular) turns – each one frustratingly out of view until the very last moment.

Managing to react to these turns is key, however, as staying in touch with your rivals is what enables you to take them out.

Doing so is a question of hitting the '5' key in quick time when signposted. A successful hit might drop a crate in their path, or cause them to plough side-on into a runaway train, amongst many other things.

But creating a successful crash is far less satisfying than you might think.

The fact that each hazard is essentially triggered at exactly the same time each race makes every collision entirely routine. It also doesn't help that each car is much like any other, racing in a set line and with little on-track personality or distinctive AI.

Whether you're racing at the back or battling for the front, the experience is much the same. But then, that's because Split/Second: Velocity really has no designs on being a racer.

Unlike its console cousin, which is able to merge tussling for position with the desire to take out each and every rival you cast your eye on, the franchise's mobile flavour has had to sacrifice the former to accommodate a very scripted take on the latter.

It's hard to imagine Split/Second: Velocity ever existing on mobile without the inspiration of the original game, and as such, its appearance here only serves to prove that it's an idea that really needs a much bigger, grander format to do it justice.

By scaling things down, the magic has sadly been lost along the way, the mobile version of Split Second: Velocity is too disjointed to really deliver the thrills and spills it sets out to master.