Nano Rally

Michael (Admin) | Nov 3, 2009 Games

User rating:

(2 votes, average: 2.00 out of 5)

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Racing games are tough to pull off… developers have to worry about making the cars realistic, they have to convey a sense of speed, they have to incorporate a million sound effects… or do they?

Nano Rally gets along just fine without all that fanciness! It’s a unique top-down racer where your cars are tiny and the environments are huge, as in apples-to-peanuts huge. That’s my awkward way of saying that Nano Rally’s cars are, on a relative scale, roughly the size of a peanut, and they literally drive around apples and about 10,000 other items you might find in and around the average household.

There are 25 different tracks, each of which is really screwy in its own special way, and they’re spread out across six different household environments. You start off by racing around fruits and utensils in the kitchen and then move on to more challenging courses of clutter in the bedroom, office, and garden. Beyond the garden are two more environments but those are secret! You’ll have to unlock them yourself to bask in their glow.

The courses in Nano Rally are creative to say the least. Each one demands different things from both car and driver and they’re made up of junk from around the house that’s carefully arranged to form a lot of pretty f’d up tracks! The first stages in the kitchen are easy because all you have to do is steer, but things get trickier later on when you have to worry about driving off the edge of a table or navigating your way onto a belt (like the kind you put on your pants). In every race one big screwup can leave you completely hosed, so it’s important to strike the right balance between driving smart and driving fast.

Nano Rally’s variety of tracks are really what make this game, but it also helps to have a car that’s capable of driving those tracks. At the start of each course you’re given some clues as to what you’re up against (lots of turns, need for speed, etc.) and you get the opportunity to tune your tiny car to meet those needs. Racing noobs will automatically crank up the car’s speed without a second thought, but with crushing failure comes enlightenment which will inevitably lead that noob to focus more on handling, braking, and acceleration. There will be times when speed is the top priority, but in most cases that speed is useless when you’re trying to negotiate your way through a maze of highlighters and paperclips.

There’s a Single Race mode for casual motoring, but to unlock all of the environments and tracks you’ll need to jump into Championship mode. Each environment is made up of a series of races and, in Championship, you need to finish in the top 10 overall to unlock the next set of tracks.

Nobody likes getting their ass kicked over and over with no end in sight, so the key to enjoying Nano Rally is to pay a visit to the Preferences screen where you can decide on things like skill level and how to control your Nano car. There are important options for car control and game view (both landscape and portrait are supported) but I’d say the most important one is skill level. I was absolutely getting creamed and couldn’t unlock anything, and eventually I realized I had the game set to Pro level like an idiot! Things got a lot easier and way more fun when I dumbed it down to Amateur.

Sauce Digital has made a pretty fun and very original racing game here. There are plenty of options for customizing the game to your skill level and preferred way of playing, and overall it feels like Sauce has put a lot of time and care into Nano Rally. Top-down racers aren’t for everyone, but for just a buck I think this game is a bargain.

iTunes Link – Nano Rally
Version 1.1
Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS3.1.2