Flashout 2 Review

There's a lot of noise made about how major cities need to focus more time, money, and energy on public transit and infrastructure. But what cities really need to do is take a cue from Jujubee's Flashout 2: elevate all the streets, cut big holes in buildings, line the curbs with neon lights, and let owners of flying high-speed cars (they're out there) race to their hearts' content.

Flashout 2 is a fast-paced, futuristic racing game that's not unlike Nintendo's famed F-Zero series. There's no sign of Captain Falcon or his "Falcon Pawnch!", but there's still a story involving high-stakes tournaments and steely-eyed racers with no fear.

Aside from a multiplayer option, Flashout 2 has several gameplay modes available for perusal. There's "Single Race" for anyone that just wants to take a quick spin around the block, "Time Trial" for setting and beating best times, and a single-player "Career" campaign that runs through multiple cups and multiple cities. There are plenty of cups and different difficulty settings, so Flashout 2 should keep racing fans fat and happy for a good while.

Flashout 2's cities zip through futuristic cityscapes supplied with the kind of stuff you'd expect from towns that have given up on road safety: huge jumpable gaps, speed pads, and nitro boosts. Some stages even allow players to arm their cars and blow other racers off the road. It's nature's most perfect cure for road rage.

The neon-accented courses in Flashout 2 are gorgeous and run without a hitch - provided the game is run on hardware that can handle it (iPhone 4S and up is recommended). However, the tracks do run into one another a little bit: Racing in Seoul involves navigating the same breed of gaps, turns, and tunnels that exist in Los Angeles. And while the game's tilt controls work very well, it'd be nice to have an option for on-screen buttons. Steering through some of the longer, more intense courses gets a little rough on the shoulders.

Then again, what kind of hovercraft racer complains about their aches and pains? Fans of high-speed chases should toughen up, download Flashout 2, and slide behind the wheel.