TechDomino
Turbo Racing League is handing out $1,000,000 in total to the fastest racers – but even without the cash incentive, this game is worth the look.
$1 Million? Is this real?
Normally I’d go right into the mechanics of the game, but first I’d like to remind everybody that DreamWorks is indeed handing out $1 million to the speediest snail drivers. For more information, check out the description in their app. They are handing out cash each week up until June 17, so you’ve got about a month left (sorry for those of you who are reading this past then).
This is more complex than your average racing game
First off, you are racing snails…and as such the game starts out feeling very, very slow. Trust me, once you get a few upgrades and have mastered the controls, you will find it hard to keep up. These upgrades come in the form of spoilers, exhaust pipes, custom shells, and different racing snails.
The game starts during the countdown. On the word “GO”, flick up on the screen to accelerate and get a good boost off the start. Nothing like a good-old Mario Kart style start.
Controls are plentiful, in total you have 4 control options – tilt, touch, thumb-stick, or buttons. I’m a fan of the thumb-stick, but that’s just me.
There are different race types – some have you racing against an AI, others have you conserving fuel, and some are just attempts to beat the clock. At the end of each race, if you reached a certain level of achievement, you are rewarded with Tomatoes of all things. Do snails eat tomatoes, or am I missing the connection?
Tomatoes
Tomatoes are the in-game currency. You can buy them from the ‘Tomato plant’ starting at $2 (for 5,000) and going up to $100 (for 800,000). You could also purchase the ‘Tomato Doubler’, which is similar to the option in Beach Buggy Blitz to double every tomato you earn. This doubling option costs $5, but it’s the gift that keeps on giving.
Tomatoes let you customize your snail, which in turn improve your stats (speed, acceleration, steering, boost) through upgrades, or tune-ups which also upgrade the same attributes. Upgrades are necessary to move on, and I haven’t yet hit a roadblock where I’ve needed to make an in-app purchase to move on, which is nice.
The main way to get tomatoes however, is to collect them on the tracks, or by winning races.
Tips and tricks
The first thing I noticed was that boosts are very important. Boosts are those green arrows on the track, which can dramatically increase your speed especially if you hit a few in quick succession.
The next thing I noticed was how much sliding around corners really does speed you up as well. Sliding might come more natural to you than it did to me, but trust me on this one. You will want to learn how to control the slide.
Also, ‘stunt grinds’ are great. You typically go faster on them, and there’s still tomatoes on them, so you can shave a few seconds off your time wile keeping your tomato count up. It’s a win-win. Plus, you even get bonus tomatoes for style points.
More about this Turbo app
Turbo Racing League is free on the Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and Windows Phone Store, but there are noticeably many ads. No matter – you have a chance to win a chunk of the $1 million they’re giving away. It’s really a fun game too, and has a good rating of 4+ across all the platforms. The game ran ultra smooth on my Nexus 4 with no lag whatsoever, so now go ahead and try to win some of that bounty! Wile it’s downloading, check out the Official Game Trailer below.
