Racing Boy:

In Brief:


Seriously, I wasn't expecting much, but for the short time I played this game I really enjoyed the challenge. It's one of those get to the end of the level before you run out of petrol or overturn your vehicle (though it's unlikely you'll run out of petrol) as there are lots of pickups along the way to the end.

Controls are simple, use your mouse button to select from the menu's and your left and right arrow keys to move back or forwards; though you won't be using the back arrow much.

Graphics are sharp with simple colours and a stark background, which for me actually adds to the games feel.

You start off with a generous amount of money (200 000) which can be spent immediately on various upgrades and unlocking new vehicles and new levels of which there are seven levels in total (see the images below for details) and eight different vehicles (including cars, camper vans, trucks, bikes and even a tank) that you can unlock by spending some of the cash you start with.

Use your right arrow key for gas and the left arrow key to break or move backwards. Use the keys sparingly; you don't need to keep the accelerate key depressed for more than a quick tap every few seconds or so. Beware of accelerating when near the top of a hillock as you're liable to overturn and end your progress. If you depress for any more than a tap I guarantee you'll end up turning your vehicle over and that's the end of the game; you have to start from the beginning when this happens because there's no save points. You can pause your game via the pause button in the top right of the screen that also gives you the option of restarting the level.


You can see your progress via the distance travelled bar graph at the bottom of the games screen. The further in you get the more difficult it becomes to stop your vehicle from turning over. My three attempts have seen me turn over each time and I've been very judicious with the use of the accelerator key (forward arrow).

Yes I really like this game. As mentioned elsewhere, it's an ideal coffee break game. When you first start the game up you can immediately upgrade every part of the vehicle (at least the first vehicle you start with. There's a lot of cash to spend and you earn a lot more cash as you travel along each of the seven levels picking up numerous gold coins; more than I've ever seen in other similar games.
If you run out of cash while upgrading, unlocking a new level or vehicle a small window pops up asking you if you would like to get more coins for free. If you select yes, a full page grey coloured ad pops up that says you can earn 4000 coins per ad and that you can watch approximately 25 ad's per day. . I wasn't able to leave this screen unless I clicked on the show button (the back button wouldn't work) or Alt+F4 to leave the game. I chose the latter as I don't want to watch adds while playing a simple arcade game.

You can see a video of game play HERE.

Conclusion:

Racing Boy is well worth downloading and playing; more so during your breaks because it's a nice short game. The levels may require a little practice to get through to the end of a level initially, but once you get the mechanic it's well worth the effort, at least in short sessions. It's not a game I'd play for more than 20 to 30 minutes tops, but it's still worth keeping and playing occasionally.

The initial menu screen has three buttons Exit, Start and More games. The last button opens up your browser to a Google Apps page called Transport Moldova that appears to be an app for transport time tables across several European countries. The Start button opens up the level screen, where you progress to each level by tapping the level thumbnail image and not the next button which takes you to the Vehicle selection screen. Initially as already mentioned all vehicles apart from the first one are locked, but you can easily unlock them by clicking on the in the centre spot (so long as you have the cash).

Unfortunately all the screen captures I took while playing initially came out blank initially, with images of my desktop instead; so, I've spent a good 90 minutes trying to figure out what the issue was before posting an edit to my original posts. I finally reverted to Windows own snipping tool, which, because the game doesn't drop to the task bar if you have a multi-monitor set up and click outside of the game it stays full screen, so I was able to use the tool. Usually it's impossible to use on these Unity based games.. I was using Ashampoo Snap 10. I'll see if I can use the snipping tool or one of my less used screen capture programs later. You can see a few images at the top of the giveaway page for now. I still have some legal stuff to work through at the moment, which is really important as we have been looking to finalise things after almost nine years of legal wrangles (paying out a small fortune to the legal team).

A Big Negative:
Despite liking the game I do not like the fact that both the More Games button and the pop up that appears if you don't have enough cash to upgrade etc, leads to advertising that has nothing to do with the game. You can avoid both by not pressing the buttons. In my opinion, both of these should not be included with a simple arcade game like Racing Boy; especially as it's usually $5 to buy via Itch.io. (see my comment in answer to Jason's feedback for details of a similar game that's always free).