Chrome Racer was one of the new games shown of at I/O. Like a few of the other programs demoed at the conference it is completely browser based. The game works with any iOS or Android device that has the chrome browser. However, It cannot work with a desktop version of Chrome.
The game is a touchscreen take on the slot car racers of old. You press down on the screen to go faster. Look out for the turns though because if you go to fast you would wipe out.
So what makes this game so cool? Well a quick look at the photo above should answer that question. You actually combine your mobile devices to make one gigantic screen! This is simply one of the coolest ideas I’ve ever seen, and while the idea of using multiple monitors has existed in PC gaming for years it has never been implemented well on smartphones and tablets.
Google did an amazing job ensuring that the game synced smoothly using packet optimization. I played the game with a nexus 4, a nexus 7, an HTC EVO 3d and an Ipad Mini (not mine by the way.) The nexus 4 was on my mobile network, while the other three were on my home WiFi. Looking at the cars zooming around the track, you would never have been able to tell that one device’s ping was significantly different than the rest.
The game is part of Google’s big push to show that Chrome on mobile is just as capable of desktop Chrome. Games like this, and the Hobbit game that was shown off before Chrome Racer, go a long way towards proving that point. Of course there is still a ways to go before this is achieved. However, Mobile Chrome has had amazingly fast progress since it was first introduced. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Chrome Mobile Beta and desktop Chrome to be fully synced within a year or two.
This game was just one of the new services at I/O that impressed me. Have any of you loaded up the link and given the game a shot yet? How many devices have you been able to get going at once? Click the link below to get started!