Publisher: EA

Developer: Firemonkeys Studios

Release Date: 2/28/2013

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Racing simulators were not something you’d think of to be on a phone outside of looking like something from the Atari days. Now that phones are nearly as powerful as home computers, racing simulators can have all the processor-demanding traits to bring a great experience to your phone or tablet. Real Racing 3 is probably the best mobile racing game out there and for many reasons.

Let’s just get this out of the way. Yes, the game is free-to-play, and yes the game is always tempting you to pay for more R$ or gold coins. If you’re patient to wait for upgrades, repairs, etc. then you will have a great time. Jump in for about 20 minutes, do a few races, buy and upgrade, and go about your business until it’s done. If you want to just cram away at races for hours you will either need to cheat (by altering your save data on the Android version to give you unlimited money) or you will completely hate this game.

Before you go about hating it give it a chance. There are hundreds of races, plenty of real-world tracks, and a lot of great-looking real-world cars. Once you jump into a race you will notice how fantastic the controls are and just how real the game can feel. As your rumble across strips on turns, you will feel your phone vibrate accordingly, using the accelerometer makes the game feels smooth and realistic. All you need is the gas on your right and the brakes on your left. Each car has its own characteristic feeling to it just like any console simulator.

Once you finish a race you will work your way around achievements, unlocking new events, and cars, and also trying to upgrade your car as fast as you can. You can even customize your vehicle a little with ride height, rims, paint, and decals. This all may come at a huge cost of grinding and waiting, but it’s well worth it once you can finally beat that race you couldn’t before thanks to your new upgrade. However, people who don’t have the patience will quickly uninstall this game and give it a 1 star on the app store which isn’t quite fair.

Outside of the tense races and many race types; the graphics are fantastic. The cars look great and the dust kicking up behind opponents’ tires makes you forget you are on a phone. The only issue I had graphics-wise was the massive amount of slowdown when 22 cars are on screen. Even on a Samsung Galaxy S4, with some of the best mobile hardware out there, I received a slowdown. Apart from this, you also get slick menus, and some nice music to go along with all this.

If I were to rate this game based on the free-to-play model I would give it a 4/10. Simply because some of the wait times are really long and earning enough cash to upgrade can be a bit of a grind. The flip side of those kinds of people will see a wonderfully crafted racing simulator that’s one of a kind right now on the mobile market.