While Sonic Racing and Gear Club Stradale are both Apple Arcade racing games, this review will focus entirely on the latter. For our review of Sonic Racing, click here.

Despite both games being of the same genre and lineup on Apple Arcade, Gear Club Stradale handles like a completely different beast to its fellow racing game. While Sonic Racing feels more akin to Mario Kart in its presentation, Gear Club Stradale is the Gran Turismo of mobile games.

Gear Club Stradale doesn’t just focus on the racing—it’s the collection of the cars that receive equal, if not more love from the developer Eden Games. Right off after the tutorial, we’re introduced to our club in what appears to be a picturesque Italian villa. To explain what the home base in Gear Club Stradale feels like, have a look at this video below:

In a way, the game really makes you feel like you’re living the car collector’s dream. It’s a difficult feeling to describe, but the way the game shows your prized automobile, whether it’s in front of the building or in the garage feels just right. The fantasy of being a car aficionado is captured perfectly here, thanks to the superb console-level graphics and the way it’s presented in the game.

Relax, Race and Rewind

When you’re not busy fawning over the cars and customising the inside and outside of them, you’ll be outside racing. Controls are rather simplistic—you can only steer or brake. The game automatically accelerates your vehicle for you, like it or not.

The one thing that elevates the game’s generic racing gameplay is the rewind feature. At any moment during the race, you go back in time a few seconds back. This feature is genius—it lets you nail a tough corner or fix whatever mistake you made. The rewind function makes the racing of this game far more accessible than many others I’ve played.

Whether you’re a newbie who’s using it to win the race or a pro who’s aiming for an even better time, Gear Club Stradale makes the single-player experience of racing a wholly enjoyable one. It rarely ever feels like the game is working against you, all thanks to the rewind button.

Growing Your Car Collection

If there’s one thing I feel that could be better in Gear Club Stradale, it’s the purchasing of cars. The car shop doesn’t have a huge roster of cars to purchase. Instead, you only have a few options of cars to purchase which can only be bought within the duration of a day.

With the availability of the vehicles being semi-limited due to time constraints, there’s the constant dilemma of fearing that you’ll miss out on one of your favourite rides. I wished the game would communicate more about how the availability of these cars works. Will they come back in the future? When exactly? Personally, I don’t see why the game went with this way of selling cars instead of a standard, fixed list which you can buy from at any time and unlock more vehicles as you progress with the game.

The Finishing Line

If you can’t already tell in this review by now, Gear Club Stradale certainly stands out from the many other mobile racing games on the market. It feels pretty close to Gran Turismo in its presentation and features an amazing rewind mechanic that takes a lot of the stress out of racing. Best of all—no microtransactions!

However, as a racing game, I do wish that we’ll have a better way of getting cars instead of being time-limited by each one. Regardless, Gear Club Stradale is a solid racing game that will scratch your Gran Turismo-sized itch.

For more updates on the game, follow its official Twitter account.

Game reviewed on an iPhone 13 ProMax