CSR Classics

Hi folks!

Today, I'm going to talk about a different game I've been spending some time on the past days - CSR Classics. Basically, after the somewhat exhausting NFS Lunar New Year event, I wanted have a bit of a break. So let's take a look around in this "free to play" game, and see how we can have fun with it without spending much real world money.

Gameplay

Even for a mobile game, the gameplay is dead simple. My kid is playing "Lego City", which has a section of motorbike drag racing. You press a button to start, and then again to "gear up" when a light goes on. Press the buttons at the right time wins you the game.

This, if we're honest, is exactly how CSR Classics work. Rev the engine so the light goes green. Press "gear up" when the light goes green. Press "nitro" at your leisure. Done. Toddler-grade.

So if it's not the challenging / skilful gameplay, what is interesting about this?

The Good Parts

First thing to note, the graphics. This is, hands down, one of the most beautiful mobile games I've seen. Consistent 50's styling, HD graphics, everything shines and blings. No blocky graphics like we're seeing in NFS these days. Everything is absolutely smooth. Did I mention that the theme is stunning?

The UI integrates well with Android, and doesn't feel like a generic port. Controls are working the usual ways, including the back button. This "native" feel also shows up in resource usage - even on extended play sessions, this game doesn't seem to stress hardware much at all, and in return, doesn't burn much battery or create "the hottest phone on the market", literally.

Loading times between main menu and race are minimal, which is refreshing, especially coming from NFS' minute-long loading screens. Given, the race is extremely simplistic, so there may not be that much to load, but it still feels very quick, compared. Races themselves are usually done in 15s once started, so you can do farming without losing too much time.

Cars

As the name suggests, this is about "classic" cars, and boy are there plenty of them! Collecting and "restoring" is actually the main pull in the game for me.

You can buy cars in two states - "unloved" (rusty and barebones) and "loved" (with nice paint job and some upgrades). Cars also come in different stages / levels, and there's a story mode with some boss characters and a thin narrative - standard stuff. Although I got to say, nicely done to add to the 50's atmosphere.

To give you a bit of an impression, here are the cars I've got so far, after about four days of playing (no real money spent so far). All bought "unloved" (rusty).

The first car, a Chevy Impala. Body fully restored, engine etc. enough to make it to tier 2.

Next up, an old Mercedes. You need a "tiered" car, so once you make it to the next tier, you start with a new one.

For tier 3, which I just started, I chose to go with "The King" - a Plymouth Superbird. It's still pretty rusty, although some body work has been done already.

I got sidetracked by a special event - pickups - so the cash went there for now.

Money Traps

Given the theme of this blog, and the fact that we're talking about free-to-play games here, of course there's the "meta-game" of the developers trying everything in their might to part us from some real-world cash.

For the basics, we've got the "dual currency" trope - we've got cash, which you earn by racing or buy directly, and we've got "gold", which is much harder to come by "naturally". As usual, there are many silly ways how you can spend gold, and only very few that make sense.

There's quite a range of cars that can only be bought with gold. All "loved" cars require gold expense. But there's a decent range of cars through all tiers that can be bought for cash - and we're not talking "two-weeks-of-severe-farming" kind of cash, but very reasonable.

On the high-pressure / psy-ops front, there is a whole range of things I've seen so far.

• "once-in-a-lifetime-offer" : the "agent" character (who we appear to be romantically involved with) regularly pops up with these, giving gold discounts of about 75% on certain cars
• "miss-out" button : The cancel button on all special offers is lovingly called "miss out". Hint, hint.
• "you-need-superpowers-to-get-the-prize" : after you've made it through a free section of a certain race type, you need to start investing gold towards an often vaguely-defined "big prize". Or "miss out".
• "wait-time corruption" : you can speed up delivery of stuff by paying gold.

And a range more. All in all, it's pretty unsubtle, in-your-face-give-me-money. But somehow endearing in its directness, and fair in its limitations so far.

Conclusion

It's a fun little game, with not much of a skill challenge, but very beautiful retro style. Doesn't take much of your time, and has a nice collector trigger. I'll be playing this one for a bit more, and add some strategies etc.