AstraWare’s GTS Racing is considered a classic handheld game, as people who want a car racer still flock to this 2004ish title in hordes. Its developer Pazzazz Games now delivered an update called GTS World Racing and put it on a TamsWMS device for review - will it stay on top?
As usual, the game supports a variety of race modes - some of them can take up to an hour to finish:
Three car types are available - unfortunately, the cars specifications are static and can’t be changed as races proceed(no upgrading here):
The tracks are set up in sixteen locations all across the world. Each difficulty level modifies the track layout(and, amusingly, changes the ambiance in some cases) - the shots below show a few track samples:
AstraWare populated the tracks with a few occasional trees, tunnels…and that’s it. For a 2007 game, the tracks appear literally dead most of the time…
After starting to play GTS:WR on my QTek, I was happy to see that the default control settings worked a lo9t better than on my Treo. Unfortunately, people wanting to use mechanical transmission are out of luck: even though the game seems to support this, you cannot assign buttons to change the gear(which leaves your car in 1st all the time).
The game’s sound effects are horribly annoying and essentially consist of high-pitched humming that barely resembles a car’s motor - IMHO, they are the worst ever in a handheld racing game. As for background music: sorry, no such luck either.
This review looked at version 01.00.02 on a Qtek 8500 running its stock WM5.0 ROM. The game needs 3079K of memory and can be run from an external memory card.
GTS World Racing is a decent game that - unfortunately - has been left behind by the evolution of racing games on other platforms. The tracks are plentiful, but the game’s action is sterile compared to other racers(things like nitros, car upgrades, cops, damage models… apparently don’t exist in Pazzaz Village). AstraWare usually manages to get at least the controls right: unfortunately, GTS World Racing is the exception to the rule. Cutting a long story short: fingers off until a significant update is released…
P.S. In case anyone of you is looking for a REAL racing game and happens to own a S60 phone: give Steve Townsend’s racer a pop. Its one of the best games on the market IMHO….
