tkcRace by theKompany.com,
Price: $ 10.95
Reviewed October 2003 by Michael Woo
tkcRace, developed by theKompany, is a
race car game for the Zaurus and somewhat modeled after the
classic games like Pole Position. You will have 4 types of
cars to choose from in the race and 5 racetracks with different
difficulty levels. The controls of the game make it easy
to pick up and play.
tkcRace is played from a top down view.
A birds-eye view of the racetracks is also shown to allow
you to plan ahead for the sharp turns and check out what
positions you are in compared to other racers. You can customize
the race by selecting a course from the four available courses
and number of laps to race. You can also select one of the
4 different color cars, although they don’t seem to
drive any differently in the race. The color allows you to
differentiate your car from the others while in the race.
There is a practice mode where you are driving the sole car,
and a race mode where you race against 3 other cars controlled
by the computer.
The almost cartoon-ish style graphics look
nice but give the game a feel of driving a PacMan around
a course. The course images and car design are colorful and
the animation of the car race is smooth.
The game is controlled by D-pad on the
Zaurus, with Left and Right steering the car and Up and Down
giving the acceleration or even going in reverse. tkcRace
takes up 1MB of space. I tested this game on a Sharp Zaurus
SL5500 with theKompany.com’s custom version of the
sharp 3.10 rom.
If you like race car games, this
would be cool game to have when you have some down time.
If you are not familiar with driving games, you could think
of this as 4 PacMan’s racing against each other,
where the basic strategy is not to make any mistakes, and
to block anyone from passing. The variety would mainly
be the 5 courses to pick from and the number of laps for
the race, and your favorite color racecar.
Tips and Hints
Use the “PRACTICE” mode to
familiarize yourself with the controls driving through a
course. You slow down each time you veer off course, so you
need to master the controls to keep a lead. If the other
cars do try to pass you, try to block them the best you can.
Once they pass you, it’ll be hard to get back in the
lead. |
