Rollercoaster Extreme HD for iPad – App Review

We’ve seen a number of video game inspired movies (Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, etc.) and movie inspired video games (Indiana Jones, Avatar, etc.) but it’s not everyday you see a TV commercial as the inspiration for an iOS app. In an interesting twist, British banking giant Barclays, has created an iPad and iPhone app based on their successful roller-coaster TV ad called Rollercoaster Extreme HD.

In Rollercoaster Extreme HD, you’re a rider on a wild rollercoaster that stretches across a 3D rendering of New York City.  The goal of the game is simple, collect as many energizers as you can by leaning your character left or right while at the same time avoiding the numerous obstacles that threaten to slow you down.  Don’t hit too many obstacles, you’ll need all the speed you can get to keep the game going while you’re racing the clock to the next check point.  If you complete a coaster, you can unlock eight new tracks in the Upper West Side, Downtown, Chinatown and Central Park to keep you challenged.

The game supports single player and multi-player modes and you can even race against an online opponent in “Ghost Mode” where you try to beat a player’s time from the global scoreboard. Players can also collect Rollercoaster Extreme rider badges to prove their a coaster ace.

This is not the first time Barclays has created an iOS game based on one of their hit TV commercials.  They also released Waterslide Extreme based on their waterslide commercial from 2009.  Barclays worked with digital marketing agency Dare and iOS developer FISHLABS to create both games and so far the response has been very positive.

Waterslide Extreme for the iPhone has already racked up more then 10 million downloads and the new Rollercoaster Extreme HD is off to a great start shooting up more than 48 spots to land in the top 100 free iPad apps in the Apple Apps store.

Rollercoaster Extreme HD is sponsored by Barclays and is available for free in the App Store.

The Original Barclays TV Commercial

Rollercoaster Extreme

What I liked: The app is well designed, easy to learn, fun to play and best of all it’s free!  The Barclay sponsorship is not very obtrusive.

What I didn’t like: Would like to see more obstacles and maps added to the game to keep things challenging. The game crashed once while playing.

To get or not to get: What are you waiting for? Go grab a copy!

• App Name: Rollercoaster Extreme HD
• Version Reviewed: 1.1.0
• Category: Game
• Developer: Dare Digital / FISHLABS
• Price: Free
• Score: