This past October, the development duo of Pixelbite and Polarbit brought us Reckless Racing [99�/Lite/HD], a top-down racer with beautiful graphics and fun arcade-style physics that we really enjoyed in our review. Then last week, the developers announced a follow-up title to Reckless Racing titled Reckless Getaway [$2.99], a game with a similar visual style and floaty physics system but with a focus on escaping capture from the police while causing a ton of collateral damage along the way. The developers had stated that Reckless Getaway was inspired by classic titles like Spyhunter and the Burnout series, and you definitely could see that inspiration in the trailer for the game.

Though there was no release date announced along with the trailer last week, we were pleasantly surprised to see Reckless Getaway show up in the App Store later that day. After spending a good amount of time with the game, and even talking about it on our most recent podcast, I'm really pleased to report that Pixelbite and Polarbit have succeeded in bringing some of the best aspects of Reckless Racing into Reckless Getaway while offering a very different gameplay experience. There are a couple of quirks here and there, and an extra dose of content couldn't hurt, but for the most part Reckless Getaway is an intense arcade experience with a ton of replay value that's easy enough for anybody to pick up and have a great time with.

There's really no story to speak of in Reckless Getaway, but all you'll need to know is that you're the driver of a getaway car following a robbery and you must evade a police pursuit on the way to the end of each of the game's 16 levels. There's no gassing or braking to worry about, as the game handles this part for you. The only thing you're responsible for controlling is the left and right steering, either by tilt or arrow buttons on either side of the screen. During your getaway, you'll earn points for a myriad of activities, including driving against traffic, collecting coins, launching off one of the many jumps carefully placed in the terrain, and of course for getting the cops off your tail. As you earn points for these actions, a set of 4 stars will slowly fill at the top of the screen, and your score is based on how many stars are filled by the time you cross the finish line.

It's in this star rating system that Reckless Getaway gets its replay value, but also where it limits its accessibility. Just getting from the beginning to the end of a level isn't too difficult, but earning enough points along the way in order to gain 4 stars is a real challenge that will require many replays of a level as well as memorization of where the different point-earning items are. On one hand, I really like this aspect of the game as it forces you to pay attention to the details of a level and rewards you for making a clean and efficient getaway.

On the other hand, I'm not a huge fan of how unlocking new levels depends on earning a certain amount of stars, and since it can be pretty hard to earn stars you'll likely be stuck replaying the same sets of levels many times before finally unlocking more levels later in the game. It's not a huge issue, but I'd appreciate a more forgiving way to see the advanced levels in the game, and then have the option to go back and earn 4 stars on previous levels if I choose to. As it is now, sometimes I feel forced to perfect a level even if I'm not ready to just to earn an extra star or two to keep progressing in the game.

The thing that makes the odd progression structure easy to forgive is that Reckless Getaway is just damn fun to play. Just about every playthrough of a level feels like a high-octane chase scene from an action flick. The floaty physics and touchy steering ensure that you'll pinball off of traffic and the many hazards in the terrain, making for plenty of memorable moments. The handling is about as far from a simulation game as you can get, but this actually benefits the arcade nature of the gameplay. One thing Reckless Getaway could really benefit from is some sort of endless or freeplay mode where you could just drive fast and cause destruction to your heart's content.

For such a simple arcade game, Reckless Getaway actually contains quite a bit of depth and strategy in obtaining every star. If you're just looking for some mindless vehicular mayhem, then it delivers that in spades as well. Those looking for a more traditional racing game may choose to stick with Reckless Racing, or hang around for the proper sequel Reckless Racing 2 which has Pixelbite has confirmed is already in progress. Players in our forums have had tons of positive things to say about the game, and for some high-action arcadey gameplay Reckless Getaway is one to check out.

Divine Robot's�Blobster [99� / HD] is a physics-platformer tasking you with stretching and flicking a blobbish creature across various levels in Blobtopia in order to thwart the evil polluting efforts of Blobzilla and the rest of the Big and Powerful Corporation. Along the way, you'll need to collect gems and dodge evil blobs bent on getting in the way of your victory. The plot isn't going to win any awards, but you get the point � it's a platformer, not the next great American novel.

As far as the platforming is concerned,�Blobster gets its controls and influences right. Control is handled by tapping the left or right side of the screen and slingshotting by touching and dragging a direction to jump. There is also a tilt control option if that's more your thing. Across the game's forty levels you'll run into familiar platforming concepts, from springs and spikes to gears and shields,�Blobster doesn't exactly offer up any new ideas, but it executes its mechanics well. Besides simply traversing and surviving a level, you'll also need to capture gems in order to unlock bonus levels. It also tosses in a few completely physics-based puzzle sections, including at least one level that's clearly a nod to�Angry Birds.

No matter how solid the mechanics and controls are, a solid platformer boils down to level design and�Blobster manages to nail it most of the time. The majority of the early levels can be cranked through in under a minute or so, but they get progressively longer as the game goes on. For the most part, the difficulty curve keeps the game interesting throughout, but it also means it introduces and discards mechanics so quickly you'll often find yourself wondering where your favorite power-up disappeared to.

One of those mechanics is the life preserver, which lets you explore underwater. It essentially flips the game upside down because you're continually floating to the top and you have to platform accordingly, hitting the underside of platforms instead of the top. It's a nice twist to the gameplay and they could have probably built an entire game based on this concept alone. It's also a bit off that at the start, the game seems to put importance on collecting plus-sign pieces to make Blobster grow and jump higher, but even though it seems like the core shtick, it comes and goes throughout the game.

What doesn't go away is the collection system, where you'll be picking up gems along the way to finishing each level. You'll need to complete each section with a certain collection score to unlock bonus levels and raise your score on the leaderboards. As you'd expect, the collection part of the game is nearly a game unto itself and you'll mostly be able to ignore or obsess over it depending on your disposition.��That said, if you snatch up 75 percent of the gems, you'll unlock a survival mode that tasks you with staying alive and in the air as long as possible � a sort of�Doodle Jump-alike that could have probably been its own thing in a different universe.

The easiest complaint to log against�Blobster is the sound design. There isn't any music in the game, which isn't that big of a deal because you'll have it on mute within ten seconds of the first level. I'm not sure what exactly they were thinking, but the sound that comes out of Blobster is something out of an educational '80s DOS game and will drive you insane within seconds. Visually, Blobster animates and moves well, but despite the name and the bright colors, Blobtopia isn't as interesting as it sounds. It's not bad by any means, but it's not going to turn heads based on aesthetics alone.

Thankfully, the gameplay sets the pace better than the sound or visuals and if you're itching for a familiar but kitschy platformer, you'll certainly find one here. Its biggest strength and weakness is in its diversity and although it'd be nice if it took a little more time with its more innovative mechanics, the fact most every level is wholly its own is a decent trade-off, even if it does feel like some great ideas get left behind.