Ghost Racer Review

Physmo, creator of the speedrun platformer Mos Speedrun, is back with a new game that will appeal to the original speedrun enthusiast: racing fans. Ghost Racer is a top-down 2D racing game that’s all about time trials. The base goal is to try and set record lap times around tracks, with different times for different medals. But the real kick of the game is its ghost racing. Players can race against the ghost of their best lap in a run. The ghosts of the next 5 entrants on the leaderboard can be raced. But the real fun of the game comes in the fact that Game Center friends can be raced against,

Getting to race against other ghosts adds to the fun of the game: getting to have something to actually take on in quests for fast times just adds an element to the game that’s not there when racing solo. Getting to race against the next fastest times, or against the world’s best makes for great goals to attain. because beating real people is just fun. The game is set up great for replayability, and racing for long periods of time on a track becomes easy because laps are so short, and hey, after one lap, just keep going and the next one starts. It’s a great structure for mobile racing.

The graphics can be a bit plain; the car designs are largely nondescript, and only the variation comes in with the different color schemes that can be unlocked or purchased. the tracks tend to look the same as well. The cars don’t appear to have any real differences, at least from what’s apparent; they’re just there to make the ghosts look snazzy. The ghost functionality with loading friends didn’t work perfectly for me; the developers are working on finding a solution. AS well, on iPhone 5, the controls felt occasionally unresponsive, whether this is due to the button placement or a glitch is unknown. The game could in general use controls similar to Mikey Shorts where a button’s area of effect basically extended from the top of the screen to bottom.

Those looking for a great asynchronous multiplayer experience will love Ghost Racer. It’s a retro-style 2D racer with surprisingly realistic physics, and modern functionality.