Our mobile devices are capable of some amazing gaming experiences, many that can rival console and handheld games. But the touchscreen has been a divisive input for more traditional gaming experiences, and I’d argue that the most ideal controls on mobile are single-tap affairs that utilize the entire touchscreen as one big button. Then it would also stand to reason that games you control in real life with just a single input should translate really well to that single-tap touchscreen control. Enter slot cars. While the history of slot cars goes back more than a hundred years, it wasn’t until the 1960s that it became a huge craze in America, and that continued on through the 70s and 80s with slot car race tracks becoming a common toy for children (I certainly loved mine) and continues to be a popular hobby today for folks of all ages.
Slot cars are literally little race cars with notches that stick into a slot carved out in the track, so the actual steering is handled for you and your job as a racer is simply to control the acceleration and deceleration to take all the track’s corners without flinging yourself off the track, but not so slow that your opponent is able to cross the finish line first. This single-input style of game is just perfect for a mobile touchscreen game, and way back in the day Freeverse (and later Strange Flavour) thought so too with their SlotZ Racer series which originally launched in January of 2009. Yeah, I just checked a calen...