Road Warriors review
:: RACE ANOTHER DAYPrice: Free
Version: 1.0.7
App Reviewed on: iPad Air 2
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Road Warriors is a fast and fun arcade racer that's all about doing cool flips and shooting at other cars. It's systems are simple, sure, but they feel perfectly tuned to mobile in a way that is usually rare for arcade-style racers. As much as there is to like about Road Warriors though, there just doesn't quite feel like there's enough of it to have it make a lasting impression.
Blast from the past
The racing in Road Warriors is on a completely two-dimensional plane. Players don't really have to worry too much about steering or even accelerating in their car, as most of this occurs on its own. Instead, players need to occupy themselves with timing when their car jumps, flips, or shoots at other cars.
Why are these stunts so important to racing? Well, besides looking cool, performing flips and wrecking cars gives your car a speed boost. As a result, winning involves chaining together flips and kills to make sure you're moving faster than everyone else on the track. It's definitely a weird take on racing, but it has a great sense of speed and makes you feel really cool while playing.
Mechanic mania
Each race in Road Warriors is a point-to-point course that is broken up by checkpoints. Upon reaching a checkpoint, all of the action stops, your vehicle gets repaired, and you can even take a quick stop into the garage to switch out car parts or unlock new ones.
Getting the right parts for your car is the primary progression mechanic for Road Warriors. Coins are scattered across every race track, and gathering 200 of them allows you to open a loot box for a random part. These parts can upgrade your car's speed, stamina, or flipping speed. This customization system really lets you tailor vehicles to your particular play style, and it also gives you a reason to take some risky moves on the race track to rack up more coins.
Time trials and tribulations
The moment-to-moment action in Road Warriors feels blazing fast and super-satisfying, but there are a few things about the game's structure that put a damper on things. Most notable of these issues is the fact that the game only offers up one randomized race track per day. Some days, the track offered is great, and on others, it's not. In either case, Road Warriors grows stale quickly if you try to play it over a long session.
To a lesser extent, the loot box aspect of Road Warriors can prove irksome, especially to those that care about posting a quality time on the global leaderboards. Because the loot is random, someone could luck out and get better parts than you (or they could simply pay for them via IAPs). People who do not wish to pay can also accelerate their ability to buy loot boxes by watching ads, but this isn't an ideal solution. In most ways, Road Warriors is very good about not being an exploitative or annoying free-to-play game, but in this particular arena it is a little bothersome.
The bottom line
Road Warriors feels fast and awesome as you flip and shoot your way through insane race tracks. It also does a great job of bringing you back to it by providing a new course every day and loot boxes to upgrade your car with. The track may not always be great, and you might not always have the best luck with loot, but the racing action here more than makes up for it.