Can’t Ride? Play These Games On Your Smartphone Instead

We know how mind-numbing this lockdown period can be for motorcyclists. You start missing out those small joys of canyon-carving and reminisce about the days of getting stuck in traffic. Though there is no actual substitute to riding your motorcycle, there are some things you could do to pass your time effectively. For instance, you could wash your riding gear (to know how to clean your helmet and jacket the proper way, click on the items). You could prep your motorcycle for when the lockdown ends. And if you’ve done everything, you could also play some video games.

Our previous list of motorcycling video games was devoted to PC and console players. However, not everyone is self isolating with an XBox or a PlayStation, but you do have your smartphone. Here are five games to play on your smartphone to kill boredom.

SBK16

Perhaps the best motorsport racing game that you will find on a smartphone, SBK16 has authentic tracks and genuine riders. This licensed game of the World Superbike Championship is not of the 2020 or even the 2019 season. However, it is the closest that you can get to proper racing on a smartphone. The MotoGP 19 game doesn’t do justice to the sport as you only have to time your acceleration and braking to precision. It does all the steering and passing for you, robbing you the joy of overtaking other riders.

Coming back to SBK16, neither is the game too large on storage space nor does it quickly drain out your battery with heavy frame rates and complex graphics. There is seldom any lag here, with decently-specced smartphones able to run the game flawlessly.

Asphalt 8: Airborne
Although the Asphalt series started out as a car racing game, motorcycles have appeared in them on two occasions: first in Asphalt 6: Adrenaline and more recently in Asphalt 8: Airborne. The latest edition, Asphalt 9: Legends, has given bikes a miss. Focusing on the eighth edition, there are eight motorcycles to choose from. An entire season has also been dedicated to motorcycles, which unlocks only after you race cars for a bit (okay, for a good couple of seasons). You could also race a bike against a car. Some of the bikes in the series are the KTM 1290 Super Duke R, the Ducati SuperSport S, the Kawasaki Z800 and the Suzuki Hayabusa.

The Asphalt series is one of the best arcade racing games out there and perhaps the best one to feature motorcycles in them. It is quite a large game, occupying nearly 2.5GB of space. The graphics are decent and it does not drain out the battery quickly.

Trials Frontier

Trials motorcycling games are aplenty on smartphones. Afterall, it isn’t that hard to create the game in the first place. Amongst them, Trials Frontier provides a different take to the gaming experience. It is set in a fiery Mad Max-ish sort of an environment where you not only have to clear obstacles in your path but also watch out for the ones that fall from the sky. It is quite a simple game and doesn’t take up much space on your phone.

Real Moto

Remember EA Cricket, that hilarious game that used players' names that sounded similar to the actual one? S Tendehar, V Seway, D Dhenier and S Gungly. Well, Real Moto does the same with the names of the bikes, racing suits and helmets that you can buy from the shop as well as its ridiculously botched up circuit names. Yamaha, Kawasaki, Honda, Ducati and Aprilia become Yokoma, Grusaki, Redhon, Feyado and Verilia. You wear Airerestars (Alpinestars) or Konane (Komine) leather suits and BERRAI (Arai) or CJH (HJC) helmets. The designers seemed to have lost interest while naming tracks like Raguna Raceway Park, Re Mans City or even Favourites Mountain. The gameplay, though, is nice and pretty straightforward.

Dark Rally

Want a small taste of participating in the Dakar rally from the comfort of your home? Dark Rally, the official game for the rally’s 2017 edition, is the game for you. You get to ride factory-spec KTMs, Hondas and Yamahas, but sadly no Sherco-TVS or Hero bikes to be found in this game. To make the gameplay a bit involving, you compete with three riders on each stage which have funnily been given the names of the cities on the route of the 2017 rally. You could also jump on to an ATV, drive the Peugeot buggy or the Toyota Hilux and even a rally-prepped Kamaz truck.