Hello fellow gamers and welcome to another review!
Name: Nitro Nation Stories
Developer and/or Publisher: Creative Mobile
Platforms: Google Play
Cost: Free w/ micro payments
Type: Racing
Offline play: Yes
Version that has been reviewed: V1.0.32
Device used to review game: Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9505) running Android 5.0.1
Time played: Several hours over the course of a few weeks.
Note: All screenshots have been taken by myself using my smartphone and have not been provided by the developer.
The quickest way I can sum up Nitro Nation Stories (NNS) is a stunning looking story driven semi on-rails racing game…but of course you aren’t here for a quick summary! Also, no screenshots? let’s change that shall we fellow gamers!
This is the Garage screen, the first screen you are met with upon loading NNS. it is for all intensive purposes the hub of the game, you can go upgrade your ride, customise the look, spend cash/in game currency on item packs, fiddle with the game options and of course…race!
Here is the options menu. Obviously with it being a mobile game you aren’t going to get a huge amount of options but its nice to see separate options for music, sound AND vibration as that can really put a drain on the device battery. Also a nice feature that I wasn’t expecting is the option to flick between metric and imperial units. Nice touch!
Hammering the shop button will bring you to well…a shop where you can buy cars! Although even with my current playtime of approx. 6/7 hours I still haven’t been able to amass enough $$$ to buy a new car, keep spending on upgrades!
If you poke the + icon in the top right of the screen you’ll be taken to a currency store where you can purchase in game coins to spend on various things like item packs and cars. The payment system looks pretty fair if I’m honest, for example let’s say we buy the “small pack” at £2.41, the previous image showed the mini at an in-game cost of 10 of these coins. We get 50 coins for our hard earned cash meaning the mini only costs you £0.48p! Now obviously there are many other cars you can buy that will cost more in game currency but even the “large pack” is £12.96 for 350 coins so that’s going to get you something with some punch!
The upgrades screen gives you the opportunity to tune up your ride to make your life easier come race time, again upgrades can be bought via packs in the upgrade shop during the game.
Upon the first press of the Race button you are taken to a map where you can opt to do various challenges like Division races, story mode races among other types like street racing (that comes a bit later). Races are colour coded to show you how difficult they are in the current car you have selected. Upgrading will obviously lower the difficulty. Racing is also the main way to earn $$$ in NNS.
Gameplay itself is fairly simple and is largely reaction based, you start of by having to time your revving to get a good start on your opponent, some stages even get you to wheel spin for more traction.
Once the race kicks off you don’t “drive” as such but switch between lanes by tapping the arrows on screen when you need to dodge traffic/obstacles or get behind another car to slipstream them. Although accelerating is done automatically you have to gear change at the right moment, think of it like reloading your gun on Gears of War, you can do it too slow and the car will change but accelerate slower, change just right and it will speed up as normal or you can do it perfectly and it’ll keep the cars’ momentum going and you’ll stand a chance of beating the opposition. This is represented by 3 lights near to the end of the rev meter. Worth noting that you can over rev the car which will not do you any good at all.
I’m really impressed with the look and performance of NNS, it’s possibly one of the best looking games I’ve played to date on my current phone, motion blur, bloom and flare and decent particle effects are all present along with edge smoothing to give the game a more console-like feel. And to date I’ve had no performance issues in the way of framerate, smooth as silk!
Of course I couldn’t finish without answering the obvious question of “what happens when you hit another car/wall/etc?”, well see the image above! if you fully hit another car or obstacle you forfeit the race as “crashed” and you will have to start again (which will used up your fuel aka energy but don’t worry it doesn’t take long to regenerate). Unfortunately there appears to be no visual damage to the cars when they hit things which would be awesome to see after you just hit an oncoming car at 130mph, I can forgive it though as that probably requires a LOT more coding ;). Maybe with coming patches we might just see it :P
Gamescroller thoughts:
Nitro Nation Stories has been a very welcome addition to my devices’ gaming library. Races are short enough for a quick 15-30min session while on your break at work but there is also more in depth features such as upgrades to keep you interested for that little bit longer.
Oh yeah, did I fail to mention that thoughout my entire playthrough thus far I have yet to encounter any ads? Sorry my bad ;).
If you are a bit of a petrol head or just enjoy your racing games and are looking for something for when you are on the go then I recommend you try this out fellow gamers!
Gamescroller score rating:
Looks: A* Gameplay: A*
Sound: A
Price: A*
Enjoyment: A*
