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A genre not in short supply on iPhone, Racing games that control with either movements of the phone, or an on-screen steering wheel are now a staple of people’s iPod Touch and iPhone units. Horror Racing is the latest of these from developer Chillingo, but does it bring anything new to a genre so often aped on the App Store?

Though the title suggests a gothic and altogether frightening theme, this isn’t too apparent in Horror Racing. The game retains a cartoon style throughout, though variety was obviously not at the top of the developer’s list. With graveyard-like tracks, both in the colour and how depressing they can be to navigate, the game never branches past this one template, each track merely being a new layout to race across. This is fair enough given the price of the game, and the environments are nice, with small visual touches round each corner.

The game is controlled on screen through a steering wheel, a trick that many iPhone racers have adopted, and it suits the isometric perspective the game adopts. The wheel can be moved to either side of the screen too, which solves the problem of using whichever thumb feels most natural to you. The wheel is large enough to navigate effectively, though it’s essential to make very definite movements with your thumb in order to turn. The racing itself woks the way it should, though the addition of weapons is what makes it a little bit more interesting than just a simple racer.

You can have three weapons equipped at any time, each being activated through pickups that litter the track. The first, a machine gun allows only 15 bullets at a time, which while hard to aim can be the thing needed to bring down your competitors in a pinch. The other two weapons available, a bomb and a missile make it much easier to bring opponents down, and to be taken down yourself. The bomb drops behind you too, working best when you are in the lead.

This use of weapons shows how inconsistent Horror Racing is in terms of its original vision. It doesn’t really know what it is, whether it’s a racer, or a Twisted Metal style shooter. That said, there is more than enough content here to warrant the small price tag, and with races lasting no more than 3 minutes, it’s prefect for a quick race on the bus. Horror Racing may not be the best Racer on the iPhone, but it’s hard to deny that it’s a well made experience.

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