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6th Gear
– The Ultimate Challenge
Chronotech
 INTRODUCTION:
I have to fess up right
up front and let you know that I don’t really drive fast at
all. You know that old guy that you get stuck behind when
you’re in a hurry to go somewhere? Well, that’s probably
me. 6th Gear, however, gives me a chance to experience
what it is like to rev up and put the pedal to the floor in a racing
experience that you will be hard pressed to beat – and the $9.99
price tag is much less than the fine for a traffic ticket if I were to
really drive this fast. Let’s take it for a test
drive, shall we…
 FIRST
IMPRESSION:
I have to be very
careful in my comparisons here because I tested this program on a Zodiac 2
that contained other racing games such as Stuntcar
Extreem, a program that was optimized for the
Zodiac and its advances graphics chipset.
6th
Gear, while compatible with the Zodiac, is not optimized for it (not yet,
anyway…) and is designed for any Palm devices that operate off OS 5
or above and include a Hi-Res screen. This
includes (but is not limited to) the Zire,
Tungsten T, Tungsten C, Zire 71, Tungsten T2,
Tungsten T3, Tungsten E, and the Zire 72 as well
as any of the Sony Clié models that use
the standard Palm sound streaming.
 Options
While many people
will want to compare this game to other racing games such as Stuntcar Extreme, this really is
a quite different racing experience because you are given the option
before you even get in your car to choose one of 5 different tracks,
three different weather conditions (sunny, rainy, snowy…), six
different automobiles ( each of which have their own default road-handling
characteristics) and three levels of difficulty.
I know
you’re wondering just how many other options you can have and you may
be surprised to find out that, just like a real race car, you can play pit
crew and tweak the way the car performs by adjusting the gear ratio,
gripping ability of the tires, car mass, gear shifting, brakes, and the
like.
 Game
Modes
The game provides
four different game modes. Practice Mode lets you just jump in and drive
anything and anywhere you want for three laps. Arcade Mode lets you
practice with other vehicles on the road. One-on-One Mode pits you against
another driver (with other vehicles on the road…) for three laps on
your choice of tracks and conditions. Circuit Mode really tests your skills
by stepping through 15 different stages (much like an entire NASCAR racing
season) during which the damage to your vehicle is turned on and you earn
the ability to perform repairs by breaking speed records for the lap or the
circuit.
As you actually
race you can control your vehicle with the stylus or with your hardware
buttons which are fully customizable. Having a Zodiac I relied
on my buttons to control the steering and had the auto-accelerate enables
do I could concentrate on keeping the car between the ditchs…
LOL
As you can see from
the screenshots above, this game is built with long winding tracks on which
you can test the speeds of your automobile and tweak it to
perfection.
 Summary
The only thing I
found disappointing in this game was the somewhat repetitive graphics on
either side of the road. Some of the tracks offered exit signs,
street lamps, and even camels beside the road and these all seemed to be in
pairs and at the distance apart which got repetitive after a while.
The graphics are very fluid, however, and much more effort was placed on
the actual racing experience and not the graphics displayed on the side of
the road as you blew past them at 150 MPH.
While I am not a
big racing fan, I found that this game offered a lot more versatility than
some of its competition and well worth the retail price of $9.95. There are
trial versions available from Chronotech
or you can purchase it directly from Handango.
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