If there's a guilty pleasure in video games, it's racers. You may have never lined up for the Fast and the Furious movies, you may think that NASCAR isn't for you, but there's the undeniable truth that a racing game can be amazing if done well.

Get ready to roar by and/or crush your opponents…

While not currently perfect, Sideways Racing by Bjango comes close. A beautifully designed, top-down racing game for iPad, Sideways Racing pulls you into a competitive racing circuit where you'll have to win first place to gain access to additional levels as well as unlock achievements. The game features three game modes (League, Knockout and Time Trial), power-ups, and power-downs. It does a great job of incorporating the iPad's touch controls, pushing you to master accelerating, braking, and drifting around sharp turns for the fastest possible lap times.

Remember, the shield not only defends you, but it immediately vaporizes any opponents you run into.

In spite of its beautiful graphics and sound, Sideways Racing will take a few minutes to get used to. But run through the handy tutorial twice and it's a whole new world, the game allowing you to accelerate, decelerate, and focus on sharp turns and weaving between your opponents to gain the best defensible position. Power-ups such as shields, nitro boosts, and other bonuses make trashing your opponents' cars both fun and satisfying, while power-downs will gladly wreck your car, setting you back a few seconds while you respawn.

There are still a few rough edges to sort out: The steering controls, while complete with settings for both left- and right-handed players, could be more customizable. Integration with Apple's Game Center could be improved; the leaderboards don't come up as readily as we'd like. And a Wi-Fi multiplayer mode via Game Center would take the game to the next level.

Use the deflector power-up to power through turns and keep opponents from edging you out.

The bottom line. Sideways Racing is off to a great start; it's a fun, visceral game that appeals to fans of both racing titles and casual games alike. Factor in the low $0.99 price at press time, and this is one of the cooler casual racing games for the iPad.