Real Racing

Real Racing showed that a mobile phone could offer a racing experience with ambitions close to consoles — cars modeled in detail, physics that reacts to your driving style, and tracks where the player can feel the difference between sliding and safely taking a corner. The controls offered several schemes: tilting the phone like a steering wheel, virtual buttons, or dragging a finger along the track, so everyone could find the style that suited them best on a touchscreen.

Firemint, the same studio behind Flight Control, released Real Racing in 2009, and the title quickly served as a demonstration of just how graphically capable the iPhone and other smartphones were, only two years after the App Store's arrival. Its presentation, with glossy bodywork, dynamic lighting, and decently sounding engine roars, was surprising at a time when most mobile games still relied on simple 2D graphics and short game loops.

Real Racing's success kicked off a long series of sequels that gradually added online multiplayer, licensed cars, and increasingly realistic tracks, turning the original concept into one of the longest-running mobile racing franchises. The original installment thus remains an important milestone in how quickly mobile games approached console ambitions — just a few months after the App Store even came into existence as an open platform for independent and larger developers alike.

The choice between tilt and touch controls also let players tailor the game to their own style, which in 2009 was still an unusual luxury — many racing titles of the time offered only a single, fixed scheme regardless of how comfortably, or uncomfortably, players could actually steer a car through a sharp turn with it.

Why play it: Suitable for players interested in the history of mobile gaming who want to see how quickly touch-based racing approached console quality.