Gameloft's Asphalt 8: Airborne has set a new standard for mobile arcade racers.
The game seems to be profoundly inspired by the Burnout series, which emphasizes aggressive
driving, excessive drifting, defying the laws of gravity and of course, smashing your opponents
in to oblivion.
Despite the $0.99 price tag and the inclusion of in-app purchases, Gameloft has been able
to give players a surprisingly complete package.
Players can enjoy the the entire game without having to spend any real-world money.
Sure, it might be a bit of a grind, but it is definitely possible.
Unlike Real Racing 3, which focuses on realistic simulation and car maintenance, Asphalt's
arcade-style gameplay avoids downtime as you tear through your surroundings at 200 mph.
Of course, crashes are a big part of the game.
Colliding with oncoming traffic and solid walls or being taken out by your opponents
is par for the course here.
These instances are usually only a minor inconvenience as your car will simply respawn giving you
a chance to get back in to the action quickly.
Occasionally, however, the game doesn't calculate impacts correctly stopping you dead in your
tracks.
Here, you'll have to wait a few seconds until the option to manually reset appears.
As you can see, for a mobile game, the graphics are incredible.
With locations inspired by real-world destinations such as London, Tokyo, Nevada and Barcelona,
there's certainly a lot to take in as your surroundings whiz by.
During the first season of the career mode, only three tracks are playable.
These will start to feel a little stale, especially if you replay races in hopes of achieving
a perfect rating.
Fortunately, as soon as you hit the second season, different tracks are introduced.
As you progress, you'll discover various paths and shortcuts littered throughout each map,
some of which can give you the upper hand.
All of the 47 standard, luxury and sports car models are available from the get go,
with the only requisite to unlock being saving up in-game currency.
The models themselves are based on top manufacturer brands such as Audi, Tesla, Bugatti, Lamborghini
and Ferrari and are crafted with incredible detail.
A few of the starting cars perform quite badly, especially the electric models (which sound
like high-tech household appliances), but you'll quickly move on from there.
In the career mode, you'll compete in various types of races to earn in-game cash and stars.
The in-game cash will allow you to unlock the aforementioned cars, while the stars allow
you to progress through each of the subsequent racing seasons.
Whether it be classic, knockdown, infected, elimination, gate drift or manufacturer specific
head-to-head races, there's plenty of content to keep you interested.
The real-time multiplayer mode works very well.
Requiring a wifi connection, you can pit your skills against other racers from around the
world.
Cash earned in this mode can be spent on your career-mode car upgrades and visa versa.
There are a few negatives worth pointing out.
A few of the control methods seem to feel a little floaty, particularly the on-screen
virtual steering wheel, which doesn't give the same level of responsiveness as some of
the other input schemes.
Occasionally, some of the visual effects when traveling at speed get in the way of the gameplay.
While it looks impressive to see lens flares and dust reflections while boosting, it's
next to impossible to see what's going on ahead of you.
As mentioned earlier, in-app purchases are not required to complete the game, but the
difficulty curve, low late-game earning potential and price of higher-tier cars all point the
user towards spending real-world cash.
If you do happen to go down this path, it seems as though the purchaseable car packs
are better value than the packs of in-game currency.
Nevertheless, Asphalt 8 is one of the highest quality mobile games I've seen in a long time.
With console quality graphics, excellent multiplayer support and that 99 cent price tag, I highly
recommend picking this one up.
It sets the bar high and provides a very positive outlook for the ever-growing number of mobile
gamers out there.
The game is available right now for iOS and Android and will also be available later this
year for Windows Phone users.
As always, thanks for joining us for today's review.
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This has been Alex for Game Mob.
That's www.gamemob.com.