Yet another driving game? Yessiree, Burning Tires is just that, one more mobile game that calls for driving fast cars around a variety of treacherous tracks while trying to beat other supercharged vehicles to the finish line. But as familiar as that scenario may sound, this game is definitely worth a look, and especially now, with Ovi Store making it available for a mere $0.99 (USD).

In  any case, though, Burning Tires is worth a look because its developer, Fishlabs, based in Germany, has managed to cram into 620K of Java code some quite impressive gameplay. The game’s graphics may not be as richly detailed as those of some other mobile games we’ve seen, but it compensates for that with a 3-dimensional landscape that the Nokia touchscreen renders with great speed. And that fast refresh rate makes for gripping action.

What’s more, Burning Tires provides an especially realistic simulation of real-world physics – how vehicles moving at high speed, as Sir Isaac Newton might have put it, smash into and bounce off each other and off the obstacles and walls around them. Together, these two attributes mean that the car you’re driving will behave in ways that we don’t often see in hand-held games. Certain of Burning Tires’ race courses contain serious bumps, for instance, that when driven over at high speed will launch a car up into the air only to come crashing down to earth. Likewise, hitting rock walls at too high of a speed will make a car spin out of control.

Controlling the game’s race cars is simple. They accelerate automatically, so there’s no gas control to bother with. Nor is there a brake, for that matter. Steering is accomplished by touching the left or right edge of the touch-screen – or, by pressing on the left and right buttons on the phone’s scroll pad. Either way, the steering is responsive, which proves most useful on the game’s twisting and unpaved tracks, where traction is not always what you’d like. (A note of caution: On our Nokia N97, the game plays only when holding the device in landscape orientation, which means our right thumb, when used for steering, ends up precariously close to the phone’s red button – one touch of which shuts down the game mid-stream.)

As with any modern racing game, the object in Burning Tires is to work your way through a series of stages, or tournaments, of increasing difficulty. Each of this game’s four stages comprises three races that take place across different landscapes, such as desert, volcanic lava, and ice, each with its own scenery and driving challenges. Winning a tournament awards you a gold prize and two new cars as well as unlocking the next series of races. Second place yields a silver prize and two new cars and third place unlocks a single car. To finish and win the overall game, you must win gold in all four tournaments. The bottom line: There’s lots of nerve-wracking racing to do, here, and lots of incentives to stay focused and win.

The game’s vehicles vary by color and sport names like Green Lizard, Bad Buggy, Rude Boy, Aggressor, and Commando. All are designed for off-road driving. And as you unlock these cars and new courses, the game permits you to train on them before having to compete for points – a welcome option, we found.

One of the cleverest features in this game is its ability to replay entire races. As soon as you’ve crossed the finish line, you can click to see a replay of the most recent race. Because the replay is shown from all-new,  high-in-the-sky camera angles, you’ll find it more interesting to watch than a simple recording of the race as it looked while you were driving. On the other hand, you may find it painful to watch yourself struggling around corners and getting run off the road by surprisingly agile and crafty opponents.

As usual, gameplay is accompanied by music and, for added tactile feedback, the phone’s internal vibrations. Both can be toggled on or off.

All in all, Burning Tires packs a good deal of racing fun into a simple but convincing package. Try it out and let us know what you think using the Comments section below.