Race Illegal: High Speed 3D, street racing for Windows Phone 8

Race Illegal: High Speed 3D is one of the more recent racing games available for Windows Phone 8. The game offers nice 3D graphics, several gaming modes and hopes to fill your need for speed.
Along with the multiple gaming modes, Race Illegal: High Speed 3D offers twenty racetracks to conquer and nine cars to choose from and customize. The game has had its fair share of success over on iOS and Android platforms and in taking Race Illegal: High Speed 3D out for a test drive, the game comes across as having similar potential on the Windows Phone 8 platform.
Game Layout
The main menu for Race Illegal: High Speed 3D presents you with a Lazy Susan styled menu with your main gaming options. Along with these options, you will also find options to access the game’s music settings, links to the game’s Facebook and Twitter pages, along with a link to the About Screen from the main menu.
Quick note on the music settings, while you have the option to set the levels for music, sound effects and engine noise you also have the option to choose the style of music played in the background. Music choices include light drum, electronic, acid beats, rock and hard rock. You can access these options from the main Options Menu as well as a music button off the gaming screen.
The Lazy Susan styled menu spins around and offers you access to the game’s options, your achievements, access to more games from the developer and access to the three gaming modes for Race Illegal: High Speed 3D.
Gaming options/settings include:
- Game Options: Language selection and speed units
- Controls: Here is where you can choose your steering options (Accelerometer, tap screen or steering wheel)
- Video Options: Turning on/off slow motion, vibrations and opponents information
- Avatar: Race Illegal: High Speed 3D’s racer profile allows you to upload a photo that will be used as your avatar throughout the game and during online racing
- Change Name: Here is where you change your player name
- Profile: This will present you the option to reset your gaming progress
The three gaming modes for Race Illegal: High Speed 3D include a career mode, quick race mode, and multiplayer mode. They break down as follows.
Career Mode: The Career Mode with Race Illegal: High Speed 3D has you competing across twenty tracks in an effort to become the top racer. You start your career out as a rookie and slowly work your way up through the ranks. The first few races get you familiar with the car’s controls and from there you face a wide range of opponents.
Quick Race Mode: As you would guess, this mode sends you right into a race without all the storyline distractions. Within this mode you have six racing challenges that are progressively unlocked. You begin simple with the challenge being to finish 1st in the race and progress to drift challenges, demolition derby challenges and more. You can choose your race track and world (progressively unlocked) as well as the number of opponents on the track prior to each race.
Multiplayer Mode: Multiplayer Mode is an online race where you can host a game or join a game hosted by another Race Illegal: High Speed 3D gamer.
As you complete races, you will earn prize money that can be used in the Race Illegal: High Speed 3D garage to upgrade your existing car or buy a new ride. In-app purchases are available to buy more coins as well as remove the ad banners ($.99).
Garage access is done through the racing menu on the Career Mode (tire icon in the bottom corner) and prior to the Quick Race and Multiplayer Modes (no engine tuning in the garage for Quick Races).
Game Play
Game play with Race Illegal: High Speed 3D isn’t much different than any other racing game. Personally, I like the tilt controls for steering best but the tap controls (tapping either side of the screen) wasn’t that bad.
Across the top of the gaming screen (from left to right) you will find a music selector button, your lap counter, race position, and your time/damage icon. Across the bottom of the screen (again, from left to right) you will find a rear view mirror, a pause button, a camera view button, a brake pedal and your speedometer.
Tap the rear view mirror and the screen view will change to let you see who is on your tail. Swiping up at your speedometer will activate the nitrous booster with the booster level being illustrated by the flaming ring that appears just above your speedometer.
As you zip along the various city streets and hit things (oncoming traffic, light poles, trashcans, other racers, etc.) your car will take on damage. Damage that will be indicated on your damage icon. If the impact is severe, the screen will turn dark red (simulating the concussion you’ve just experienced?) for a short time that limits your visibility.
It does take a little time to get used to the control responses and don’t be surprised if you hit the wall a good bit while you gauge this responsiveness. The first few lessons or challenges with the Career Mode serve as a tutorial and walk you through game play rather nicely. I would recommend going through these first few lessons before delving into the Quick Race or Multiplayer modes.
Overall Impression
I really wanted to like Race Illegal: High Speed 3D but I couldn’t feel as though something was holding the game back. Graphics were nice but lacked that 3D pop we see with other racing games such as Asphalt 7.
The ad-supported version isn’t terrible with ads showing up on menu pages and in transition between game play and menus. The game screen for races is ad-free, which is a rather nice thing, and gives you an un-obstructed view of game play. The multiplayer games are also a nice touch and gives Race Illegal: High Speed 3D a little more staying power. It is a nice break from racing the computer.
As far as stability goes, I did experience a few endless load screens that required me to exit the game and restart to clear. The frequency wasn’t enough to drive me to uninstall the game but it was noticeable.
All in all, Race Illegal: High Speed 3D is a nice racing game for Windows Phone 8. I think if you add a dash more pop to the graphics and tighten up the steering response, it could be a better game (that and fix the game load bugs).
Race Illegal: High Speed 3D is a free, ad-supported game that is available for Windows Phone 8. It is showing available from my Nokia Lumia 520 and you can find Race Illegal: High Speed 3D here in the Windows Phone Store.
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George is the Reviews Editor at Windows Central, concentrating on Windows 10 PC and Mobile apps. He's been a supporter of the platform since the days of Windows CE and uses his current Windows 10 Mobile phone daily to keep up with life and enjoy a game during down time.
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Where is Amazing Spiderman 2 game for Windows phone?
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at around 7$ do u really want spend that much on spidey?
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If it's Xbox enabled, then it's worth it. Sadly it won't be.
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it is http://www.windowsphone.com/en-in/store/app/the-amazing-spider-man/df3d8...
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That's the 1st one. I think what's been asked is the amazing Spiderman 2
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sorry my bad :D
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I should make the worst game ever, but make it Xbox enabled, maybe even hide malware in it, only spend about an 10 minutes of dev time (ensuring the malware works) and sell it to you and all your Xbox Enabled, ecosystem hurting, none developer supporting friends. After all, you don't care about the games, you care about Xbox Achievements. Maybe I will name it X-Chieve Boxing and when you open it, you will get Rick Rolled but then a banner will come across the top that says Achievement Unlocked but then another Rick Rolled video will play signifying that the Xbox Achievement doesn't exist and that you, paying Windows Phone customer, got nothing, no detailed graphics, no story, no sound, no fun, no Xbox Achievement and especially, no refund. Thank you for supporting Windows Phone GAME developers and all the hard work and time it takes to develop a worthwhile game! Watch out for our next game, WiFi Toggle Racing, Xbox Enabled and the FREE trial cost $.99 (its free to look at screenshots) . Pay and you unlock the first Xbox Achievement "Bamboozled". Have a great day!
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Way to be civil about it. I think we can all tell you are not the type of person one should even waste time explaining things to. You have a great day as well bottled up in your own ignorance and anger.
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Hmmm, ignorance and anger? I'm not angry nor ignorant of the fact that to develop a game, it is a financial investment for a company and their return on investment or lack there of determines if they will continue to support a platform or not. Let's be real, by some of you insisting on not buying games because they lack Xbox integration, you are NOT, I repeat, NOT forcing the hand of the developer to include Xbox Achievements. What you are doing at best is making dev studios desire to put LESS efforts into their WP conversions (poorer quality ports, delays in releases) and at worst, you may even be fueling their sales data that brings about a decision to NOT support Windows Phone anymore. Why should a developer feel forced to make Xbox achievements for a game that is on the 3rd place ecosystem, the smallest market share, the number one device is the underpowered 520 that can't run the games at full fidelity if even at all, that results in less revenue for the developer? Why should they invest their budget and time to have to think up and integrate achievements that are not in their game on iOS and Android for such a small return on investment? I am being civil and clear about this. Microsoft and Windows Phone are not in a position to set any standards or requirements and neither are we, the SMALL user base of WP gamers. We cannot command anything and this boycott means nothing positive for the WP ecosystem. Who do we think we are? Some of us are on some real high horses. Some of you speak this "No Xbox, no buy" as if you rather a game not be made without it. Guess what? When the games are not made, due to lack of revenue and a potential WP customer ask if XYZ game is on WP and the answer is NO and the Dev says "We have no plans to support the WP platform", that potential customer does not care about Xbox Achievements. I'll assure you, I'm not angry, I'm a writer, I'm a business man and I am definitely not ignorant of the reality of the situation. How about this: Why don't all of you Xbox Achievers band together and seek out the correct people at Microsoft and question them about the lack of Xbox integration, question them via email, phone, in person at events, online and any legal, respectful inquiry possible. Why don't you do the same for the developers, engage them, seek assistance, answers, explain to their teams how important Xbox Achievements are to you. Put your effort where your mouth is and show them support RATHER than showing them low sales that they can misinterpret to mean that WP users don't play games and that it isn't worth the effort? This "movement" that we see in comments isn't helpful to the big picture, the NEED for as many apps and games to come to WP as soon as possible so that people will consider WP as a viable option. That is bigger and more important than Xbox Achievements and THAT is something that we can't be ignorant of. I will be buying the game when it comes to Windows Phone to support the developers BECAUSE they supported Windows Phone when they didn't have to. Maybe I should have put a smiley face or a /s tag on my first post about developing a fake game because I definitely wasn't angry. If developers have sales data to back up the notion that investing in Windows Phone development isn't financially a good idea, it won't be because of the people who bought their software.
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You know what? +625 for this.
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Preach, Deacon!
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That's my favourite MNB writer! And here you can see why I have big respect towards him.
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You tell them. As a gamer that actually plays a lot, I can't stand achievement chasers. Games are for playing. It's even worse on stream with the useless trading cards.
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Haha, well put.
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Haha rocking one dude
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That will never pass through XBox certification, should be no problem on Google Play though.
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LOL!
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Who said it is going to be $7? I bought it on iOS and it was $4.99. My only gripe is the camera is waaayyyyy too close to Spiderman when web swinging and walking. People have complained about the game needing to check the internet when you launch it. That doesn't bother me as I never turn off a data connection any way. My biggest fear is that the graphics will be a downgrade for Windows Phone, similar to how NOVA 3 was missing bump mapping and hi resolution textures that the Adreno 220 GPU and above can handle as the Galaxy S 3 version had all of the effects. The game is beautiful and plays well and I can't wait for the Windows Phone version. Hopefully they don't disappoint and hopefully WP USERS don't disappoint the developer by not buying the game for WP. Why make games for WP if users don't buy them?
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The car .. seems faster.
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Shame your brain isn't
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Yep, got that right.
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:D
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Lukin at the graphics of this game, m just glad I got Asphalt 8 Airborne for free when I did :)
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Is it me or does anyone else gets turned off by games with names ending with '3d' or 'free' ? Good game btw.
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Same
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+1520; Yeah they should get rid off those suffixes.. Just like Toyota still being proud of providing Bluetooth in GL/GLX/Grande class of their models. Its should be in every class of every car. Its 2014 and BT is a 20 years old technology!!
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+1
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I couldn't agree more!
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Add one person.
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+1520
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+1
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Well if they didn't, a lot of kids would not download the game, which - based on the comment section of the store - seems to be the number one target of this kind of games... BTW the same observation encourages big video game companies (like gameloft) to submerge the store of 3D/free pay-to-win games (without the need for the suffixe) but that's another debate.
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I agree
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Another forgettable driving game! Ah well.
Off topic, but does anyone know if WP8.1 supports Bluetooth keyboards? I just bought a case with a built in stand for my 1020, and just thought how useful it'd be to use it as a mini laptop for replying to emails etc. (the word flow keyboard seems great...but it still takes up the majority of the screen).
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Yeah, another game from HeroCraft that is not available here in Brazil! :(
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Will be great If I had battery enough to play games on my L920 :(
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Same here :(
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Same. Battery dies so fast when gaming. Sometimes I'm gaming and charging the phone the battery is still going down.
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This game looks good I almost downloaded...Hopefully will download full later.. Anyways can anyone suggest some good free game for a 512 ram wp8.1 ?
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Football club Ea sports
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That's not a game. It's just an app for people who have fifa 14
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Dogfight, super polygon, asphalt 8, angry birds rio..
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Offtop Got a Nokia Cinemagraph update
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'The game screen for races is ad-free, which is a rather nice thing, and gives you an un-obstructed view of game play.' It shows the sad state of the mobile gaming scene that this is considered a feature and not just, you know, respecting that the player may actually want to have fun rather than be milked dry for advertising revenue. =/
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Where is vodka?
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Looks ok but, with so many other racing games, I am playing Real Racing 2 that HAS Xbox Live, a pretty good/fun game. This titile I will skip because of no Xbox live #SaveXboxWP, I might of tried it otherwise....oh, well...
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How to turn off annoying reminders? Didn't find it in the notification centre nor game settings.
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LOL
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On my 521 with 8.1 the graphics were off and alot of white distortion going on and flickered white around the car and in the background. Anyone else experienced this? Shame because I liked it on android.
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I am facing random closing of wpcentral app..like WhatsApp...anybody else having it?