The Sealink review

The Sealink is a driving game app. by Spiel Studios where basically you choose your favorite car and drive it on “The Sealink,” which from what I gathered is based upon the Bandra Worli Sea Link (BWSL). The BWSL is located in India, and is an 8 lane cable-stayed bridge that connects Bandra/Mumbai with Worli/Central Mumbai. If I have any of this wrong, someone please correct me. Just wanted to throw it out there for those who are already familiar with the BWSL so you could have a frame of reference. Besides this special spin on it, this seems to be a pretty straight-forward driving/racing game- complete a lap within the stipulated time, and unlock a new cool car to use on the course. Sadly, when you purchase the app. there is only one car available for you to use until you pass the first course. There are 6 additional cars to unlock, so 7 total. You have to finish the first course (Bandra to Worli) in 3 mins, 30 seconds or less to move on.

The controls are simple- brake/reverse on bottom left hand corner, accelerator in bottom right corner, speed meter in upper right, and time in upper left. You have to tilt your device to steer. At first I had trouble with this because I was doing it wrong- I was trying to move the device on a horizontal axis, but it needs to be done on a vertical one. Basically, you move your device clockwise or counter-clockwise, just like you would steer a steering wheel in a real car. Even after I got this down, though, I still had trouble steering the first vehicle. It is basically like a VW Van with no doors and only three wheels (2 in back, 1 in front). The different car choices spin around on a showroom floor before you select them and actually play the game. Note: The guy driving the car appears to be wearing no clothes. Super weird, considering that all of the other graphics aren’t too bad.

The course looks alright- lots of concrete and steel surrounded by clear blue water and some interesting art/graffiti on the sides of the course. There are boats in the water, cityscape in the distance, and billboards every few seconds that say “Don’t Drink and Drive.” Very responsible of you, developers- I appreciate that. I feel like the music is pretty standard driving game music- electronic, mellow with some random more intense intervals.

Besides the actual game section, there are help/about/best times/options (sounds, sfx, accelerometer) sections.

If I could change anything about The Sealink, it would be the lack of cars available and the difficulty of the controls. I feel like it would be wiser to give you at least one cool car off the bat so that you’d get hooked playing right away. The crazy van with the naked driver just doesn’t do it for me.

For $0.99, you could be driving on the BWSL. If you don’t care about the BWSL in particular, I’d say there is probably a driving game out there that might be easier to pick up and play, and that has more replay ability.

Here is a video demo of the The Sealink app on the iPhone

AppSafari Rating: 2.5/5

AppSafari review of The Sealink was written by Tyne Kennedy on April 28th, 2010 and categorized under App Store, Fun, Games, Racing. Page viewed 4328 times, 2 so far today. Need help on using these apps? Please read the Help Page.