Faily Brakes - Hands On

When it comes to the world of mobile gaming, there are way too many games and nowhere near enough time to play them, so I take my mobile gaming time very seriously, because I don’t to waste my time. So when a game like Faily Brakes comes along, my first instinct, based on its visual design was to move right past it, but the more I saw of it, the more I wanted to try it out and I am glad I did.

The idea behind the game is pretty simple, you are going for a nice drive through the mountains and as you approach a turn, your brakes fail and you smash through the safety rail and start to barrel down the side of the mountain. As you careen towards the bottom of the hillside, you will need to avoid trees, rocks, stumps and such, to avoid having a car accident, which when you do, will have you thrown from your car. The challenge comes from avoid the obstacles as you move down the mountain side, but while the trees and rocks are easy enough to avoid, you will also need to content with jumping over rivers and canyons, dodging cars heading across from you and the occasional train.

While the trains are easy enough to avoid, the cars can be a little trickier, depending on which side they are coming from, but as you have gravity on your side, there are times when you can bash through them, if you have the speed, if not, you are ejected from your car. Speaking of cars, there are a number of them available in the game, but you won’t be able to use them until you have purchased them in game, which you can do once you collect enough coins, some of which you will collect as you roar down the mountain side, others are gifted to you and then there is the option to buy some. The cars themselves handle the same, so it is just a visual choice on their look, but while they handle the same, they are not easy to handle, if you turn to sharp and gain some air, you could roll the car, which again, will result in you being thrown from it.

The game sports a very low polygon look, which works in its favour as the game does not need super realistic graphics, but while it’s low on its polygons, it is not low on charm, as the games look has that in spades. The music in the game does not work for me, it’s not that I dislike banjo music, it’s just repeats far too often and there is no variety in what is played, so it can wear thin fast. The one element I do like from the sound department is the looney tunes-esque crash and knocked out sounds, which adds some levity to the situation.

The game is a fun diversion and a little different from the other style of endless games that is populating the app store of late, so I say give it ago, after all it is free.