F1 2009 (iPhone/iPod) review

Apple sells the iPod Touch not only as a music player, but a gaming machine also. Developers are seeing the hardware and the development for the platform is slowly taking shape. Big games like assassins creed and Ace Combat have already made the jump to the iMachine. Today we'e looking at Codemasters attempt at making a F1 game for the new platform.

Gameplay

Throughout this article I will compare it to the PSP version because both games are available for a (almost equal) powerful portable device. Fist thing you will notice when starting up F1 2009 for the iPhone is that it will ask you to create an account for a online service. With this account you can easily compare your lap times with mates or other racers around the world. We really like this idea so we signed up and have been comparing since. Starting the game will provide you with several options. You can start driving, look at the options or compare your lap times to the world. Within the options you can pick several assists and display options. Assists are very limited though. You can choose a steering sensitivity, braking assistance, activate the racing line or allow horizontal tilt. The display settings are equally limited. Corner popups, a mini map and 3 controller setups; not much to see here.

When all is set we started on our favorite PSP track which is the Singapore venue. This is the only night race in F1 and we were excited to see what the iPhone and iPod could do. You can select all season tracks and drivers so no complains there. Then we could choose the number of laps. Doing few laps will make the system count your fastest lap which will then be uploaded to the leader-boards. With 6 laps or more the system will calculate your average time and post that. We're huge F1 fans but found ourselves bored racing the ghost of our previous lap. With no option for AI cars, race weekend or such the modes are highly limited.

Another problem is the way the game drives. Because the iphone doesn't have any physical buttons we found it hard managing consistent laps. Tilting the iPhone to steer just doesn't work well enough to represent the serious sport that is F1. Even after an hour of racing our lap times were still inconsistent and crashing was hardly avoidable. What we did like was the KERS. Simply press the blue ring on the left to activate the temporarily boost. Taking everything is consideration the iPhone F1 game doesn't compare well to the PSP game. There's just one game mode and driving is close to impossible. Although some people have been posting impressive times online.

Presentation

The graphics of this game are amazing. Because the hardware only needs to render one car, more power can go to the track graphics. We found no jaggies whatsoever, which is amazing considering the hardware. The textures are also a step up from the PSP game. The F1 tracks never looked better on a portable machine. We didn't like the sound though. The engine sounds like a Renault Megane and they maintained the unrealistic high pitched KERS sound we complained about earlier in the PSP review.

Conclusion

We have few complains about the presentation. Sounds may not be up there but the graphics are top notch. It's very unfortunate that this is a missed chance as you can't compete in races or challenges. Therefor the game bores quickly and most will never put in the necessary hours to master the awful controls.