Firemint Real Racing

Judged by the former criteria, there's certainly a lot of game here for your money. Career mode has you playing through 18 championships, each playable at three different difficulty classes (the higher divisions unlocked by placing first in the previous ones). The main cup races, which consist of three consecutive races, require qualification in preceding events, ensuring that the game opens up in a staggered and sensible step with its difficulty. Taking its cue from Forza and Gran Turismo, time trails across the game's 12 courses are offered as a sideshow to the main career, and with synching to the game's leaderboards at the touch of a button, competition with peers and strangers is both straightforward and compelling.

The out-of-car camera is selected by default but, by tapping the top right of the screen at any point during a race, you can switch to an impressive cockpit view, where the vehicle's dials and displays act as a HUD, framing the smooth and lifelike driver's animations. Firemint offers five control schemes, none of which are perfect, but all of which have been carefully thought through. The default and optimal option has the car accelerate automatically, while tilting the iPhone from side to side steers it. Control is sensitive and the punishment when you veer off the road, by way of instant deceleration, is harsh. As a result, learning to make small, smooth precise movements is of paramount importance. Playing the game on public transport is risky: the rocking of a bus or train carriage will inevitably knock crucial seconds from your lap times.

None of the game's cars are licensed, so you've little to direct your pre-race choice beyond engine size and its number of doors. Neither are there any customisation options, either superficially (in terms of liveries) or in terms of the cars' performance. This omission, alongside the limited damage modelling, weakens the game's impact as a simulation racer as well as its standing against rivals on other handhelds, even as it effortlessly tears past its immediate competition on the iPhone

After prolonged play, other concessions Firemint has made become apparent. For instance, your car is always significantly overpowered in comparison to your rivals, so, while races are tight, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat is possible even when you enter the final lap in last place. Without a handbrake, drifting around corners isn't possible and, if you do slide at a right angle off a hairpin, the game will usually keep you from spinning out, so correcting mistakes is far easier than it is in Forza et al. As a result, despite the austere presentation, the game occupies a spot somewhere between arcade flamboyance and earnest realism, a happy compromise considering its platform but one that will no doubt disappoint more serious racing game fans.