Hutch Games' Rebel Racing is a recent racer with some great looking visuals and a roster including some of the most popular supercars in the world. For the little storage space that it consumes, the game is really impressive. It obviously cannot compete with Triple-A titles such as Asphalt or Real racing, but for under 500 MB, it is beautiful and works flawlessly on lower spec smartphones. From the loading screen itself, the design and graphics are eye-catching and provide a glimpse of the various sports cars, SUVs, pickup trucks, and sedans that are playable in the game. It is evident that the developers have put in a lot of time and effort to make it look good.
Rebel Racing’s HUD is clean and minimal. The controls are as simple as they come, with a button on the left and right side for turning. When your turbo is up a new button pops up. That's about it. Holding one of the buttons down enables the drift mechanic on turns which is quite fun. The precise responsiveness of the buttons give you a lot of control over your vehicle and makes it a very immersive experience. The racing tracks are well designed and an equal amount of attention has been given to the map’s ambience and background music. Straying into bumpy terrain, beside the racing track, decrease your speed and control over the car, and the diverse map pool will keep you on your toes as you face the next new race track – these race tracks vary from a flat-track across the ocean to a race track in the mountains!
There's a story of sorts at play in the background, which involves taking down certain racing gang leaders or something. But in order to do so you need to upgrade your car. Upgrading your car can get pretty tedious, and by tedious we mean it's a lot of grinding. You need quite a bit of cash for car upgrades, and even more to purchase new cars.
The cars have a decent amount of customization options which are fun to mess around with too. Rebel Racing also offers plenty of customisation features to mess around with to change the look of your car to your tastes. The game constantly provides incentives for players to upgrade their vehicles. After nearly every race the game suggests an upgrade.These upgrades unlock new game modes and further higher level upgrades.
The only thing this game really lacks is a track map. Players have almost no information on the track that they are driving on and it tests the player’s reflexes rather than their planning skills while driving. In the tougher races, against bosses, this does lead to disadvantages for the player namely it doesn’t give you a clear idea of when to use your nitrous boost.
If you're a fan of racer games then there's really no reason not to give Rebel Racing a try. Although it can get incredibly grindy, it's a polished game with a team of industry veterans behind it.
Publisher: Hutch Games
Developer: Hutch Games
Platform: Android / iOS
Price: Free