(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)
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What a delightful surprise; here now is Little Red Sled – 3D Racing from Imangi Studios LLC. If this game doesn’t sleigh you (seriously you knew I would work that in) with its cuteness first, you’ll have a great time sledding down the old snowy slopes like it’s Christmas day every day.
To start, you select whether your young sledder will be Max or Maya then you pick your trail. At the beginning this is a linear progression but later more will open up at a time as you ‘level up’ and you can always go back and play any trail you’ve completed to try and best your score. In increasingly cute fasion, levelling up here consists of you gaining a new title such Cottontail or Treecrasher and the goals get more and more challenging. For example you may go from the simple task of just swooping up 6 gifts (by running over them) to needing 85k points in the next to gathering 20 gifts and 140k points in under 40 sec flat. Obstacles pop up (sometimes literally) to slow you down including trees, ramps, snow banks and OMG teh bunnies! There’s powerups too as some presents increase your speed or make you temporarily invincible. Each run is controlled very simply by rotating the phone to turn, touching the screen to brake and shaking to execute a roll when you catch air off a ramp (for bonus points). There’s no need for an acceleration control as this is handled automatically by the natural gravity of the situation. The game never gets you going so fast you feel like it’s Days of Thunder and never so challenging that you feel frustrated; it’s basically just right for a light and fun experience but is by no means a pushover at the higher skill levels.
I’ve no gripes with the game but I do have a suggestion. I’d love to see the game allow you to save and playback your favorite run on each trail for both the pure fun of it and to show others how you beat the trickier courses. Of course, this being the iPhone after all, it would always be great to see a global scoreboard.
Talk about endearing, special mention simply has to go to the original music score composed by the very adorable Natalia Luckyanova (‘nattylux’), check it:
Little Red Sled – 3D Racing might be the most wholesome game you’ll ever play and it goes without saying that it’s essential gear for any youngsters you have around (that you allow to play with your i<device> anyway). For the polish, presentation and gameplay it’s easily 1.5 thumbs up so throw in the highly original music and it’s a full 2 for an unpretentious, pure-hearted gaming experience with universal appeal. In a sort of existential way the game kind of reminds me of my little son, very genuine and (as yet) untainted by the nuttiness of the world.
Version reviewed – 1.0
Review platform – iPhone 3G 8GB 2.2.1
Global scoreboard – no
iTunes music support – yes
Lite version available – no
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- A nice complement of options
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- Soon to be airborne
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- Ya baby, level up, I'm a Cottontail now and don't forget it
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- Max's mad skillz in play
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- You can always go back and try for a new personal best
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- The trail map where new courses open up
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- It's no Donnie Darko but it's still an evil bunneh, run!
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on Mar 6th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Awwww, I give this review 3.5 thumbs up!
So glad you liked our game, and my mad music skillz! We wanted to create a happy, lighthearted, carefree and slightly goofy game, and it’s so satisfying to hear reviews like this.
Thanks again! Just keep on sleddin’!
Natalia from Imangi (aka nattylux)
http://twitter.com/nattylux
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Michael (Admin) reply on March 6th, 2009 11:57 am:
I’m so jealous of people who have musical talent!! Looks like a great game, Natalia.
And thanks for posting the piano video Swain!
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