IndieAppolis

Ground Effect

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in

Glenn Corpes
App Store: Ground Effect $2.99

Ground Effect is really fun racing game that is similar to whip’Eout”, but more realistic! This game is simply awesome with incredible 3D graphics, challenging tracks, and is very smooth. If you are not familiar with the concept of ground effect vehicles then you should read up about them on Wikipedia here. This is not sci-fi and this game does a great job of bringing this really cool vehicle to the iPhone.

You have the option of selecting from many really well designed 3D crafts with various paint jobs. There are 14 levels and they get challenging really quickly and offer a lot of replay as you try to get the best time possible. You must place in one of the top three finishing spots to unlock the next level. You use the accelerometer to turn left and right, while using two peddle buttons as boost and brakes. The sensitivity of the controls takes a little getting use to, but the controls work great once you get use to them. You gain more boost over time or by passing through gates (between two flags). If you miss a gate then boost is taken from your meter, so be careful!

The tracks are really well done and offer awesome terrain. The jumps are amazing and really add a lot to the gameplay. There are three modes of gameplay: Race, Ghost Race, and Just Cruise. Ground Effect uses OpenFeint achievements and leaderboards. The music and sound effects are great. There is also the option to play your own music, which is always nice.

This is one of the best racing games that I have played on the iPhone and I would highly recommend giving this one a try. There is a lot of gameplay here and as Glenn mentioned, in our interview with him, more levels are on their way!

[youtube 30UBj6vfshU]

Comments

4 responses to “Ground Effect”

  1. Android Avatar
    Android

    I can’t believe stuff like this can be sold at 2.99$ on the appstore, and actually get success.

    This looks like old openGL demos, there is no innovation, no great graphics, and really nothing special at all.

    I would not pay more than 0.99$ for a game like this.

    Reply
  2. Richie Avatar
    Richie

    @Android: You have no idea what you are talking about. After checking out the free version, I would have gladly payed around 15 bucks for the paid version. It’s an incredibly well-made game and it represents a whole new class of racing games – the “Ekranoplan” (a Ground-effect vehicle) is not a car, it’s not a plane, not even a hovercraft. You need a completely different skillset to fly this thing – and this is represented pretty well by the game physics. The graphics look decent enough on my iPad; they are really awesome on the iPhone.

    Reply
  3. Android Avatar
    Android

    I have Idea because I tried the Lite version,
    and I must say ther was really nothing impressive there!

    I tell it again, looks like an old openGL tutorial, the graphics bring me at back at 1996 Riva TNT times, when also the resources on the internet were poor enough to make such visuals. Sorry.

    I like the racing idea, and the game idea in general, but visuals must be better than that to be worth that price imo.

    The controls, like almost every title I tried until now where you drive bending the ipod like a car wheel ARE REALLY ANNOYING ME!

    Reply
  4. cupcake Avatar
    cupcake

    I am not going to talk about the game because I have never actualy played it. However, I follow the development of gev technology for military, comercial, and civilian uses and I think that this game has the potential to excite more people about the ways that these vehicles may be used in the future. I think that the people that made this game went to great lengths to make it as realistic as possible, on the other hand, am also curious as to how much the game developers used the actual physics of this type of craft when creating the game. Although ground effect vehicles have been around for at least half a century the aerodynamics of these craft are not well understood or hard to come across, expecialy over unlevel terain and out of ground effect where these vehicles are rarely used. Overall it is a great idea for a game, and I hope it does well.

    Reply

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