Hell Rider review (iPod/iPhone)

♫ “Hellrider … roars on through the night”

10 word description: 2D motorcycle race challenges. Hell theme. 40 levels. Game Center.

10 word review: Simple game, decent visuals; controls need a bit of tweaking.

You will like this if you enjoy: Motocross / trials style side-view bike games.

The good news: Quick, short challenge levels. Graphics, although they don’t change through the game, are fairly attractive. Quite fun to play, which is important.

Oh hell

The bad news: The tilt-only control method (for leaning) isn’t calibrated particularly well. It could do with being more sensitive so that you don’t have to tilt like crazy all the time. Either that, or add an optional on-screen slider or some buttons to do the leaning. The sounds are horrible – tinny, rasping noises with clicks that should just not be there. Other things could be added, such as an endless mode, although that might be more effort that it’s worth if the levels are hand-built and there’s no current facility to generate them from a random selection of track pieces.

I never thought I’d be wishing for spike pits in a game

Arcadelife verdict: Hell Rider lacks a bit of finish and the single control option hasn’t been tweaked enough, or maybe not tested by enough different people. For me, tilt would be fine in this game if it was calibrated a bit better or there was a sensitivity option. Adding optional slider/buttons to control the leaning would be an excellent move. The tracks feel a bit nasty at times, with big angular blocks not really adding anything more than an opportunity to fall off. Maybe add some longer jumps over fiery pits, where you need to reach a certain speed in order to make the jump – that wouldn’t feel as cheap or frustrating as tripping over wonky bits of landscape.

Satan on a moped. Feel free to use that name for YOUR next game

Overall, it’s not a hellish game but it could do with a bit more attention to detail, particularly the controls.

Arcadelife rating

Visuals – 8/10
Audio – 2/10
Controls – 4.5/10
Content – 7/10
Fun – 5/10
Final rating – 53/100

Rating categories explained here.

Version reviewed by Arcadelife is 1.0

Arcadelife played and reviewed this game on:
4th gen iPod Touch (iOS 5.1.1)