Raging Thunder 2

I'm a fan of Polarbit as an Android game publisher and I loved the original Raging Thunder. It was among my first Android games that really showed that my phone was just as capable as my old iPod Touch given the right development talent. The upgrade, Raging Thunder 2, was recently released so needless to say it was a must download for me. In writing this it occurs to me that this is the first time I've reviewed a sequel on MeAndMyDroid.com. So how does it stack up?

Let me be clear... this game is an improvement over the original arcade style racer. But I have a hard time telling those that are anything less than die hard fans of the original to buy this if they own Raging Thunder. I think your money would be better spent on a different game... perhaps a different Polarbit title.

The graphics in Raging Thunder 2 are superb. The game itself is bigger and on top of that it downloads another pile of data to your SD card. It also adds more physics such as knocking those orange traffic cones out of the way as you run into them. And it doesn't have some of the slow background fill in problems that the original had... such fill in issues are at a minimum here as I only saw one. Furthermore, sliding against a wall or crashing into an opponent yields a plasma like 'explosion' (as visible in the screenshot). But the game itself doesn't really seem to have changed much... game play modes, power-ups, ...etc are all still here.

What has changed is the intensity. Switching back to Raging Thunder made me feel like grandma was driving me to the airport whereas I could feel my heart accelerate when playing the sequel. That feeling may be the biggest draw to this game... aside from cosmetics it really was the biggest difference.

I'm not a huge fan of racing games in general. I can appreciate the quality of this title, but I need something more... I need it to be a cat and mouse chase or a stunt race or, to deviate from racing altogether, a demolition derby. I guess that's the kind of change I was hoping for in a sequel.

One big annoyance with this title on my Droid is that I've been trained that the home button gets me out of any app and back to the home screen. I was surprised that if I do that during game play that I return to the home screen, but the game continues to play its music and reloading the game resumes my place. I guess some might consider that a feature... I found it to be a pain as I would have to reload the app and then go backwards through its menus to force it to do a clean exit.

Do you own the original and want to take that next step in intensity? If so then this game will not be wasted on you. And if you don't own the original this game will be a stunning addition to your collection of Android games. This is a five star title, but I just wish it could have had more substance. Want to see more? Check out the following video: