Android Community App of the Week: Bang Bang Racing THD

Behold NVIDIA’s newest collaboration, this time with the developer team at Playbox for a rock and roll racing game by the name of Bang Bang Racing! This is certainly the most unique racing-type game to come to Android yet, with an overhead birds-eye view of your progress on the track and controls consisting of the tip of your index finger. While using the game on a smaller device such as the G2x didn’t work out too much to our liking, the tablet experience can’t be beat. Unique controls and fabulous graphics ahoy!

This game was just released for purchase via the Tegra Zone for NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor Android devices a couple of days ago, and we’ve been racing ever since. This is a game for those who love to drive, turn on a pin, and roll out in comically compact cars in fancy color combinations. If you ever played a Micro Machines video game and/or had a few of the little buggers when you were a kid (or if you’ve got them stashed in your closet for your kid to play with like yours truly,) you’ll love the size and environment in this game.

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As for the controls – there’s only one. You’ve got to use your index finger (or thumb, or whatever piece of yourself you want to touch to the display) to lead your car around the track. The closer to the car you get, the slower you go, the further ahead your finger is, the faster your car will go. It’s sort of like a rubber band, if you will. Once you’ve got the hang of moving in and out and turning sharper than you think you ought to, you’ll be in good shape for winning races left and right.

That’s not to say that winning in this game is easy. As you’ll quickly see after a glance at the standings on Feint (which Bang Bang is connected to,) you’ll see that high scores are no joke. Pick your car based on control tightness and speed and ZOOM ahead. Beware though, each crash takes away a percentage of your speed and accuracy from what we understand, you’ll have to be on your guard when it comes to walls and such. Near the start of your track are the pits, a place where you’ll quickly be able to repair your vehicle to brand new, continuing down on the first place attack to the finish.

ODDITIES: Winning unlocks a feature in which you can race clockwise instead of counter-clockwise. If you’re using Honeycomb, pressing the lower-right corner initiates the pause button (and also your updates and alerts, I think not on purpose.) Finally – you can’t completely crash. Even when you’re down to your lowest car-health, you’ll keep on going, so don’t fret!

Check the game out now via NVIDIA Tegra Zone or go straight to the Android Market for a direct download for $7.95. Can’t wait for Touch Rally later this summer!