Pole Position was one of the earliest games to adopt the now standard behind the car racing view. While Namco has ventured on to offer 3D titles, including one of its classic Ridge Racer, Pole Position II is much more palatable to the wider range of phones out there. Simply put, you can have an older or lower end phone and still be able to get a good racing experience out of it.

Pole Position II extends the original Pole Position experience by adding a few more tracks to the game. In addition to Fuji, there is Test (inspired by the Indianapolis track), Suzuka (a real F1 track) and Seaside (inspired by Long Branch). Your goal is still to try to climb to the top of the starting grid and then repeat or improve to win in the actual race. Pole Position II offers manual and automatic transmission. Both seems to work in one handed play, although automatic requires less attention on your part. Without manual transmission, though, you can’t downshift during turns and maintain a high RPM as you come out of it. Otherwise, you can still win in both modes. The game itself used to be a hallmark to realistic graphics. Now, of course, it can’t hold a candle to that statement.

However, the visuals are blistering fast and can create a sense of speed that sometimes 3D racers cannot do. In retrospect, the bright colors also add to the game rather than detract from it. The audio is taken verbatim from the arcade version of the game, which is a good thing since audio is never really a strong point with the majority of wireless titles out there.

Pole Position II offers some interesting online scoreboards. In addition to things like best lap or track score, there is also a side ranking for number of crashes or cars passed. If the success of Xbox Live is indicative of anything, this should help motivate gamers to keep racing.