Dubai Police release Camel Racing game

Are you “bored of playing animal racing that isn’t exciting enough”? Do you want to “learn about nutrition while eating healthy and unhealthy food as you race”? Fancy showing your friends “who is the boss”?

Well the UAE Camel Racing mobile app is for you. It’s free to download and brought to you by none other than the Dubai Police.

The supercars of the Dubai police force

On Bing: see pictures of Camel Racing

Yes, really. The same police authority that uses the likes of the Bugatti Veyron, Chevrolet Camaro, Ferrari FF and Lamborghini Aventador to patrol the streets, has now unleashed an unlikely racing game.

Naturally, we had to download it. Well it’s free and it involves racing camels, so why wouldn’t you? The Dubai Police promises no ads within the game, but you will find a series of virtual billboards around the track, promoting the United Arab Emirates and encouraging youngsters to “be responsible”.

In other words, keep your camel racing off the streets and on the track, kids. Camels in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are. That kind of thing.

As you’d suspect, the object of the game is to get your hump-backed friend around the track in the quickest time possible, beating your opponents to the finish line and giving them the hump in the process.

It’s worryingly addictive stuff. The dramatic music, the simple tilt and shift controls and the basic but smooth graphics. Soon you’ll be challenging your online friends to some heel and toe camel-based frivolity.

The trick is to eat healthily. Around the track you’ll find a number of food-based power-ups – or power-downs, depending on what you consume. Munch on some carrots and your camel will lurch forward with the power of a Veyron. Take a sneaky bite of chocolate and your camel will feel as lethargic as a Nissan Serena. In reverse.

It starts off simply enough. On the first go, we bolted out of the starting gate, opening up a healthy lead. But by the second lap, not only had we been passed by the entire field, we were faced with the prospect of being lapped by the third and final lap. Humiliation followed.

We retired to the ‘farm’, hump between our legs, ready to peruse the series of upgrades, designed to make your camel go faster. Think of the ‘farm’ as the ‘garage’ mode in Gran Turismo. You can change flags, jockey and even – weirdly enough – your hump.

And don’t go thinking that your fellow camels will go easy on you out on track. We’ve already been forced into the barrier and pushed aside in a bid to grab a strawberry-flavoured power-up. There are no team orders or ‘gentlecamel’ racers out there. It’s camel warfare carnage on track.

We have to say thanks to the Dubai Police for this unlikely story. Blue hedgehogs and Italian plumbers are nothing to us now. It’s go, go, go, go camel-style for us.

Maybe we can look forward to a Metropolitan Police equivalent? Greyhound racing, anyone?

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By motoringresearch.com