Itsy Cars Review

Itsy Cars is a unique interactive app that allows children to build the race track of their dreams using a combination of thirteen pieces of track which are connected to create a track that one can drive a race car through.

Four differently styled cars can be chosen, and then children will build their tracks with the tap of a finger, connecting pieces of track together. When complete, start the car down the track, tapping the “Turbo Button” when players want their car to go faster.

The look of this app is highly computer-generated, with the use of many angles and bright yet not terribly unrefined colors - a style I am not always a fan of but which makes a lot of sense in this app.

By far, my favorite element of this app is the ability not only to view the cars that are moving along the track, but enjoy the view of the car in motion from the driver's seat, giving players a wonderful POV shot where one can gaze at the very realistic clouds and distant horizon, making me nauseous - in a good way - as well as winning me over as a fan.

I was surprised how much thinking this game necessitated as the inclusion of a physics engine made my track not work the way I expected, as my car was unable to make all the elaborate turns I first added to my course. This made me appreciate how this app takes effort and forethought to create a track that a car can actually drive down without getting stuck.

I enjoy much of this gameplay, as the adding of track, including both driving on the grass pieces, as well as ice track pieces for a much slicker ride is quite intuitive, as is the ability to move the screen around with a finger to keep the track in view and also the ability to pinch the screen to minimize it, allowing users to see a smaller, more complete view of their work.

I did not fully understand how the presumably saving of these tracks works, as “save” disks can be seen - an area I was not able to muddle through. I would love to see a tutorial on how this function works in the future.

I would also like to be able to “snip” problem spots out of the track where my car always gets stuck with new pieces of track instead of using the “go back” button, removing each piece of track from the end, which can be tedious and unnecessary.

Even with these notes, I can recognize an app that will entertain my son, and this is one of them. I also expect some tears and frustration when the natural physics of a moving car will not keep my son’s car on track, but the overall effect of being able to view one’s race track as if driving is enough to recommend it to children who love playing with and building Hot Wheels or classic train tracks.

I do wish saving instructions were included as well as being able to change out track pieces from the center of the track, but even with these notes, Itsy Cars is an app worth checking out.