Gran Turismo 6 and Flappybalt in perfect harmony

Console games are bloated dinosaurs! Mobile games are stupid time wasters! Both true. But that’s fine, when taken together.

Take Gran Turismo 6, which I quickly tired of before even playing, due to the initial update and install. But I got a lot done in the time GT6 took to do basically nothing.

Flappybalt

Canabalt is still always my first port of call, and after a couple of typically useless runs, I remembered that Flappybalt has recently been ported to iOS and Android. That’s the game created by Canabalt developer Adam Atomic at Flappy Jam, the Flappy Bird-inspired game jam.

GT6 still had plenty of jobs to do, so I had time to download it, install it, and achieve a big high score of 5. It is, inevitably, not a complicated game: tap to flap, bouncing off the walls where the spikes aren’t. Hit the spikes and die.

It’s menacingly fair though, meaning every time I hit the spikes it was my own idiotic fault. What did I tap then for? I was bound to hit the spikes! If I didn’t chuckle at my own ineptitude, I would have to cry.

Then Gran Turismo 6 whizzed into life, and I was wanging around Brands Hatch.

Gran Turismo 6

Though GT6 weirdly recalls mobile gaming at times. The Anniversary Edition grants you a ludicrous 1 million credits, which feels like a £69.99 IAP. Then there’s the star system, which awards up to three after each race – it’s not bad or wrong, it just can’t help feeling a bit Angry Birds these days.

But there’s no doubt that it’s a Japanese developed console racing game: you have to press a button to skip the replay; quitting back to the menu and getting on with the game is the last option in the post-race menu; there are sparkly fireworks under the results screen when you get on the podium.

Not forgetting the lengthy updates; I got my Flappybalt high score up to a massive 8 while it was doing the latest. Time well spent.

Jake

Jake has been here since the beginning, with hundreds of reviews and countless other guff to his name. These days, not so consistent.

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