Gangsta Race, by Garga Games, $19.95
Reviewed November 2002

Finally the Twisted Metal fans have something to cheer for: a combat racing game for the Pocket PC! Developed by Garga Games, Gangsta Race is shooting its way to capture the hearts and souls of the fans of this genre. Even though you won’t see the 3D fully interactive environment, a variety of weather conditions, or chainsaws and gatling guns in the body shop like you experience in the console combat racing games, you will be fully equipped with gun installations on every car, bonuses that include smart missiles, oil spill barrels, tire-killing nails, bombs and of course speed boosters. So, you’re in for a fun ride!

The dynamic game play of Gangsta Race comes from the selection of racing modes and difficulty levels. There are 3 playing modes each with 3 difficulty levels in this game: old fashioned rubber burning race (Racer), shoot everyone on the track many times over (Shooter) and take the money and run race (Survival). These playing modes will satisfy the fast drivers, the mean hammers and money-lust racers who like being chased by bullets, giving the game a wide-ranging appeal. There are a variety of cars to choose from in the races. You will unlock new cars as you perform well on each of the ten tracks. The unique design of these tracks makes the racing interesting. Naturally you will need to perform either by finishing first or killing enough cars to unlock these courses. For the true treasure hunters, look for the bonuses carefully placed on your race tracks. You must collect all 10 bonuses to unlock the bonus track. (For the locations of these bonuses, see my Playing Tips below).

Gangsta Race gives you very nice control without juggling too many buttons. You can use either the D-pad or the stylus to drive the cars, plus two more hardware buttons for shooting and deploying the bonus items. While the stylus control has incredibly responsive feel, the D-pad control gives you more power and speed. So if you want to win the races, use the D-pad and stylus combo: steer with stylus and boost the speed by pushing Up on the D-pad. While the biggest danger in the Racer mode is pileups, the Shooter and Survival modes will offer you plenty of lethal weapons and nasty traps. You can have the auto-fire turned on and only push one button to shoot bonus rockets and lay traps. If you have taken offensive driving lessons, the game controls in Gangsta Race provide you with the necessary evil.

The 2D graphic design is created with style and cartoonish colors. The environment is stuffed with beautifully crafted still background pictures, with shadows, but nothing is moving. The title screens, still graphic cut-scenes and hot-rod design all show great finesse and cleverly avoid issues that would come with a 3D racing game. The game performs consistently at 25 frames per second, with very occasional drops to 16. For the most part, the frame rate dropping is invisible to the naked eye. When your car collides with road barriers or buildings, you will see explosions.

The nice visuals are accompanied by some upbeat racing music-- the kind you hear in rally racing games. The music goes with the brightly colored environment and driving/shooting action. You will hear the ethnic music style of a particular country when driving in that country. The sound effects are both plentiful and realistic with FX like tire squeaking, car explosions, tire skidding, and etcetera. Although the game is built for ARM processor, I had no trouble running it on my Toshiba e330 which has the new 300 MHz Xscale processor. The game takes about 6.8MB in memory, and there is also a MIPS version.

Gangsta Race is the first PDA game that allows virtual drivers with aggression to commit mayhem to test their skills in a rather cheerful looking world of underground gangster racing. The game nailed the car handling so that you can concentrate on laying traps and getting speed boosts, leaving your opponents in the dust! Even though 3 playing modes and 3 difficulty levels on 10 tracks (plus the bonus track, if you are lucky!) are good enough to give this game the horsepower to be one of the most creative games on Pocket PC. I look forward to the bonus tracks promised by the developer.

Playing Hints and Tips

Control: use a combo of the D-pad and stylus control. Using the stylus to guide your car, and let it loose when you are on the right track and push Up on the D-pad for more power and speed.

Bonuses: there is a bonus in each level. You must shoot them to collect them, except in the Racer mode where you don’t get a gun. The bonuses not only freeze up other cars, if you collect all ten of them, they will unlock a secret bonus track at the end of the game. If you can’t find a bonus on a certain track, look at my list. WARNING: major spoiler.

1. France- the middle umbrella with brighter color.
2. England- the girl in bikini lying on the lawn.
3. Russia- the cannon display.
4. Aircraft Carrier- the fuel tank next to a fight jet being refueled.
5. Egypt- the tub-looking tomb with a Mummy in it behind some pillars.
6. Industrial Zone- the pipe in different color just after the Start point.
7. Paris- the gift box on the table of an outdoor café.
8. Italy- the only blue window on the building left of the track not far from the Start.
9. USA- the black creature in the water.
10. Bulgaria- the only tree with fruits on it.
11. Gangsta Land- this is the bonus track.