Recently Ludia and CBS Mobile released The Amazing Race, a game based off of the popular television show of the same name, for iOS devices. We were fortunate to get our hands on the iPhone version, and as a person who has never watched an episode of the TV show, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.
The concept of The Amazing Race is simple. There are multiple teams of various pairings and backgrounds, and they are tasked with traveling the world with their goal being to reach their destinations before the others. The game plays exactly the same. When starting, a little opening sequence plays showing all of the different teams available for you to choose. There are Goths, Students, Fans (of the show), Rockers, Hippies, Parents, Actors, Ranchers, Athletes, and Soldiers to select from. Once you finish with that, you can name your team.
After that, it is up to you to decide what you want to play. There are two modes to choose from: Adventure or Quick Play. In Quick Play, you are able to go back and play the mini-games you go through during your travels, and some of them are quite enjoyable. I could easily see myself playing many of them over and over. There are different ways to unlock each of the mini-games, and it can range from completing the game with no errors, or beating it under a set amount of time.
In Adventure, that is where you play the actual story mode. One thing that was a pleasant surprise was how there were three different modes to choose from, each varying in length. There is Tour, which has 5 legs to travel through, Journey which is 9 legs, and finally, Race which is 11 legs. A leg is basically the equivalent of an episode one would watch of the show. The legs focus on the destination you are currently on, and has about 3-4 mini-games to play through. At the end of each leg, the team scores are totaled up and the team in last place is eliminated. This continues until you get to the last leg, and that is when it becomes crunch time.
As far as the mini-games go, there is a nice variety, but I didn’t like how the game would always tell you how many times to play each one, even if you had gone through it multiple times already. One would think that after playing something once, you’d remember how to play it every time. I think having an optional tutorial would’ve been more effective. I did have a lot of fun playing the one that had multiple cards and was based on the classic “Memory” game, and the one where you had to select images that were moving on three different film strips. All of the mini-games were actually well done, and they are things where you have to be fast in your decisions because the time adds up quickly and determines your placement on the leaderboards.
Once you complete a leg, you are able to go back and see your travel journal and read information about all of the locations and countries you visited. Each location has its own individual image for you to look at, and for iPhone graphics they were pretty nice. Overall the game wasn’t too bad, and even though I am not a fan of the TV series, I did find enjoyment while playing it, so that was a huge plus. For only $2.99, it falls into the middle price range for iPhone games, but I can honestly say it is worth that price since the game does offer incredible replay value.
For more information about The Amazing Race for iOS devices, check out the official iTunes Page and give it a download!
