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Asphalt Urban GT

So the Nintendo DS has arrived with a grand total launch debut of 6 games, and Asphalt Urban GT remains the only one of the racing genre. Releasing a game at launch can be potentially good and bad for a developer and even its publisher. On the up side if it's a quality game it can guarantee sales, but at the same time if it turns out leaving a bad taste in your mouth, that flavor may last for future purchases. With the announcement of the DS only about a year ago, developers have had little to no time to pump out any huge games. With rushed development being a key concern with the system's launch, gamers have once again turned their interests towards Nintendo's offerings rather than what the third-party houses have at the table.

Over the years the racing genre has taken a huge slide for the worse with boring, repetitive gameplay, as each edition that makes its way out just feels more and more like the last. For the handheld scene, outside of a few fantastic Need for Speed titles on the Game Boy Advance, nothing has quite fully utilized the genre to make it enjoyable. With the Nintendo DS's incredible power and 3D capabilities those racing games can finally go along with you, and this time around we can actually understand what we're seeing on the tiny screen. Asphalt Urban GT is a great example of this. Out of all the launch titles, heck even the titles that have been shown up to this point, it remains as one of the prettiest looking games out there. With beautiful background textures, city environments and car models the game holds up to the expectations of the portable console. The graphics definitely mark the high point of the game, with no slow down time as you race down the city streets marked by beautiful landscapes.

Asphalt Urban GT features a wide range of licensed vehicles in which you are able to customize, purchase and even upgrade; an array of options available at your fingertips (literally!). From a range of the smallest VW Beetle to that of the unwieldy Hummer and everything inbetween, it creates so much variety you will rarely find yourself with nothing to do. Each vehicle moves according to its weight and size: if you have a large car it will have overall slow acceleration and a worse top speed, and also feel extremely top heavy, while the smaller cars can reach 80 MPH within seconds and can break speeds of over 150 MPH. With an large assortment of slick vehicles to choose from, everyone has a pick at their favorite, and it fits according to their preference.

Along with that the game comes with 9 tracks located all over the world, so you'll be racing across cities like Hong Kong and Miami before you know it. One thing I really loved about the tracks was that they felt so real. An example of this is while I was going down the streets of New York City, in the background you can see the Statue of Liberty, or perhaps you prefer the warm ocean-like climate of Cuba. The people at Gameloft really outdid themselves by putting a lot of detail into each location, with plenty of unique building structures and environment changes that supplies a lot of variety.

To top it off, the single player mode has well over 30 challenges to be completed. Sadly almost all of the missions are simple races to the finish line, where you will be pitted against seven other drivers to fight for the gold. It becomes quite stale, but also requires players to use different class type vehicles, so you will have to have skill in each category of driving. By winning each challenge you are awarded with a large cash sum, and sometimes even a brand new car. You can then use the moolah to purchase new cars, or upgrade current ones. Add in a Cop Chase and Arcade mode and you'll be pleasantly surprised at the game's length and replay value.

Yet even with a handful of Pros the game carries with it, it drags along a slew of Cons as well. Since the public has acknowledged the DS's launch as being rushed to the winter of 2004, it was obvious game development time would be pushed, severely dragging down the performance and quality of the system's launch titles. Although Asphalt Urban GT excels in a large number of categories, it too reeks of premature release, which all in all really brings down the value of your purchase.

For starters the major drawback of the game is its collision detection. While you cruise down the various streets you'll make your way through real life traffic, oncoming and outgoing pedestrian vehicles that you will be guaranteed to hit at least once each race. Now in no means is that a bad thing, as it really brings to life the realism of the game, but once you do hit traffic, or any car for that matter, the problems really start to appear. For example, if you hit a car from straight on or from behind, despite the speed you're going at you will literally come to a stop – nature dictates you would only decrease your cars speed slightly, not bring it from 150 to 10 MPH.

Not only that but perhaps, say, you smack a car from its side, or even at any angle, the game will cut into a cinematic view and your ride will swirl into a spinning havoc. So in most situations your top speed would drop drastically, but for an odd reason, your speed will usually stay the same as if nothing happened. You have to ask yourself, what happened? It was obvious that these sorts of game defects were never addressed as Asphalt Urban GT needed to get pushed out the doorway.

Unfortunately the problems don't stop there. As you race down the streets you will come across a variety of semi trucks holding ramps in which you can then drive off of. These are no ordinary jumps, as they move with the speed of the truck and you have to follow the truck itself to hit them. Because of this, it actually allows you to make death-defying leaps almost anywhere in the stage. As you hit the slope your car will, like the crash sequences, cut to a cinematic view that you have no control over as you watch it fly high into the air. Placing ramps anywhere in the level does tend to pit you in some odd situations though. Say for instance, a U-Turn, if you were to hit a jump at that point your car will look as if it were going to go out of the normal guidelines, so invisible walls will redirect your course in mid air, which in the end just looks odd and extremely out of place.

With all the mixed up traffic glitches, it can really come down to a loss in a race. If you do end up getting stopped, your opponents will act as if they came from nowhere and race by you as you try to pick up your speed, and usually results in you repeating the mission all over again. With no shortcuts on the maps it can be hard to catch up to the leader, regardless of the situation, with a sole reliance on your amount of turbo boosts and precision.

With all that out of the way, let's talk about the new revolutionary touch screen. Some people consider it a new way to play, some consider it another gimmick that Nintendo is trying to pull on us. Asphalt Urban GT has been compared to its rival Ridge Racer DS often, as most complain that GT hasn't proven any form of innovation that Ridge Racer has. With the touch screen only displaying an overhead map of the stage you are in, gamers quickly jumped to conclusions, yet again seeing it as just another stale feature. Not true at all really, because with the limited view of normal maps, it isn't easy to see what is coming up on you and turns can be hard to interpret. This puts the touch screen to great use, since with it you can look at upcoming turns and current locations of opponents, a function I found to be extremely useful.

This game gets an N-Philes score of B.

To be honest, Asphalt Urban GT is really showcased as the most rushed game of all the launch titles. All it needed was another month of development, and I'm sure the issues could have been ironed out. Yet to make the most out if its product, Gameloft and Ubisoft really pushed for the launch release. With a high sense of speed, and a wide variety of gameplay, for the first time racing feels appropriate for the handheld scene. Aside from some frustrating traffic and driving issues, the graphics, controls, style and use of touch screen really brings out the best in this oft-mediocre driving series. Even with some development issues it still manages to beat out nearly everything we've seen on the Game Boy Advance and makes for once heck of a ride.

Posted in: Reviews