NaturalMotion and Zynga teamed together for the mobile racing game CSR Racing 2. I have no love for Zynga, but I absolutely adore NaturalMotion’s middleware technology. It’s such a dying shame it’s not used in more games and properties, because as evident with GTA IV, Backbreaker and their newly released CSR Racing 2, they are a talented development studio with some awesome technology.

Zynga announced that the new title has launched for iOS and Android devices. The game features licensed sports cars from some of the biggest and baddest manufacturers on the planet, including but not limited to Ferrari, McLaren, Lamborghini and Pagani just to name but a few. They offer an HD trailer to showcase the graphical fidelity of the newest CSR Racing entry to grace mobile devices. Feel free to check it out below.

Mm, mm, mm. If those graphics were pastries they would be the strawberry shortcakes. Sweet and tasty.

I’m just amazed that they were able to squeeze that kind of fidelity out of mobile devices. They mention that it has high-end shader effects but they don’t say what shader model they’re using. Most newer games are running the HLSL Shader Model 5, but I’m not sure if NaturalMotion was able to squeeze that out of the game on iPads and iPhones.

Of course, there are a few caveats, such as the internal resolution being rather low – the jaggies are pretty evident. If I had to guess it’s likely running the standard 1136 × 640, which is common for most phones. If this were on PC or home console the game would look clean and pristine… well, on PC for sure… I don’t know if the Xbox One could handle CSR Racing 2 at 1080p since it seems to struggle running a lot of games above 900p.

Anyway, the Zynga blog details the game’s multiplayer options and head-to-head drag racing, noting that there are crews, challenges and various races setup to earn credits and customize the catalog of racing beasts that are at the disposal of racing enthusiasts.

There’s a day and night cycle and a weather system present, along with road conditions and tuning. You can grab a copy of CSR Racing 2 from over on the iTunes App Store or the Google Play store. I’m no fan of Zynga given their past shenanigans, so keep a wary eye out for anything suspicious regarding the cash shop.