“Prepare to qualify,” commands a familiar voice. You take a deep breath and grip the steering wheel — or, at the least, you steady a finger on your iPod’s click wheel. Before you looms the Misaki Point race track, where distant mountains sit under a cloudy sky and many of its treacherous turns feature a beautiful view of the ocean and a nearby lighthouse. You remind yourself not to get distracted by the scenery.
The light at the starting line flashes green, and you’re off. A puddle in the first turn slows you down, but you pick up speed and soon you encounter a tightly-grouped pack of cars. You deftly weave between three of them, but another turn comes up. You drop back, negotiating the curve before attempting to pass the other two.
A short stretch of straight track provides a brief respite, and you pick up speed again, breaking into the clear. You successfully pass the rest of the challengers you encounter and earn the coveted pole position for the upcoming race. You also unlock a version of the Misaki Point track that runs in reverse, but there’s no time to try it right now: A three-lap race is next, promising more goodies to unlock.
An Updated Classic
Pole Position: Remix brings the 1980s arcade classic to the iPod with all of the features you remember, including a ~censored~ view of the action, racing speeds in excess of 200 MPH, oil slicks that make you lose control, and collisions that produce wheel-bouncing explosions. A new track, Misaki Point, joins four existing ones: Namco, Speedway, Wonder, and Seaside.
During a race, complete each lap within the time limit to earn extra seconds, with your final score based on the distance you traveled and the number of rival cars you passed. Crashes take time off the clock, so be careful. The faster you finish the race, the higher you’ll place. Do well and you’ll unlock reversed and mirrored versions of the tracks, as well as graphical themes based on other classic Namco games, including PAC-MAN, Galaga and Dig-Dug. The Retro and Neopolis themes even change the environment.
Choose from two levels of difficulty and run through some practice laps before you join a single race or a multi-race Grand Prix. Select Sudden Death, another option you need to unlock first, if you want a challenge in which one crash ends the race.
While you’re zipping around the tracks at breakneck speeds, you can not only listen to your music, but you’ll notice that the game pastes your album art on the billboards that you occasionally pass. It’s a feature you’ll find only on the iPod version of Pole Position: Remix, so prepare to get your groove on while racing.
Tips and Tricks:
- Use billboards and similar features as markers for turns, so you know when to get ready to slow down and steer.
- Take curves on the inside whenever possible.
- While automatic gear shifting lets you focus on steering, switching to manual helps with turns, because you can downshift to low gear and quickly decrease your speed that way.
- Driving along the red-and-white road border, or onto the ground next to the track, will slow you down too.
- If you hit an oil slick, don’t keep steering until a few seconds have passed, or you’ll make the situation worse.
- Some rival cars will veer across your path as you’re trying to pass them, so watch out. The purple ones are more prone to that.
- When passing a pack of other racers, try threading between them or decrease your speed and hang back for a couple seconds, hoping the group breaks up.
- You’ll notice that some of the billboards advertise other Namco games, including Pac-Man and Galaga.
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