iPhone Reviews 2.0

Early in the App Store's career we had one game that was a standout at the time, Asphalt 4: Elite Racing. But with the release of the latest Asphalt game we find that game blown out of the water with a faster, shinier and meaner Asphalt 5.

I absolutely loved Asphalt 4 to bits, thinking it was about as good as iPhone games could go (hell was I wrong). Asphalt 5 is Gameloft's latest version, a game that has been announced for some time. They have basically stripped Asphalt 4 and improved the game on almost every level possible, putting a racing game out that is finally in the same league at NFS: Undercover and Real Racing.

After Asphalt 4 I was expecting at least an improvement when Ferrari GT came out, getting a game that I found worse than Asphalt 4. The frame rate of the game has improved immensely, even though it still isn't up to NFS standards, but it heaps better than the previous version. Everything from the controls to the track layouts have been improved to be more fun and thrill for the user.

I found Asphalt 4 to have some sweet graphics, which I soon found out aren't sweet at all for this type of device. Asphalt 5 however has made great improvements to this area of the game, making more realistic graphics and just an all round better looking game. While the game has made improvements I still can't put this game at the same level as NFS and Real Racing, but it certainly matches it with the other good racing games like Fast & Furious and Fastlane Street Racing.

The one thing that lacks in this game is a decent frame rate for the game. This in the end is the difference between this being an A grade and an A+ game. The game runs fine at the current frame rate on my iPod Touch 1st Gen, and even if it was bumped up on the 3GS and 3rd Gen Touch then it would at least make the game better for some of our community. Really though, overall this is a great looking game which can be seen just from looking at some of the screenshots from the game.

The controls in Asphalt 5 are basically the same to this and every other racing game on the App Store. The game is set to auto acceleration but can be changed to an accelerate button, but the rest of the game is controlled by you. The game wrecker in Asphalt 4 was the dodgy and VERY VERY VERY annoying drifting that came on if you tilted the device at all, basically drifting around any corner. The drifting is turned on by pressing the brake while going around the corner and can be turned off be re-braking or using nitro, making the drifting process easier and more fun.

To use nitro you just touch the nitro button, with it going up in 3 modes of speed. The car can be moved around the course by tilting your iDevice and braking can be done by pressing the brake button on the left of the screen. Even though the controls are basically the same they are certainly improved from Asphalt 4, with the drifting making all the difference.

Asphalt 5 is all about two game modes, career and online. There is also a quick play mode but you may as well play the career mode and earn new cars. There are 12 locations to race in with 4 different game types per location. The races can be completed in 33 super cars that are from big names like Ferrari, Audi and more.

The career mode is very fun and will take you multiple hours to complete. The locations are slowly unlocked as you complete tracks, but as has been widely broadcasted the Cop Chase mode wrecks the game. This mode is extremely hard and I have not been able to continue any further because I can't beat this mode.

The other modes range from a 3 lap race to a time trial or even a cash race to try and earn enough cash in the 3 laps. There are 8 modes in total with some new additions and add-ons to the modes in Asphalt 4. The entire list includes race, cash attack, last man standing, cop chase, time trial, drift race, duel mode and escape. These are provide a nice challenge but nothing compared to Cop Chase.

The other new mode is online mode which pits you against up to 7 other real players around the world. This mode works quite well but has a few glitches like extremely jumpy cars, and you can tell why they didn't implement it earlier this year with Ferrari GT. As a basic online mode for a racing game it works well though and can be an enjoyable experience, if you have a fast car.

This game has taken huge leaps from the dawn of Gameloft in the App Store, and the progression has paid off greatly. This is a sweet racing game that you can find yourself happy playing time after time. Gameloft have stated that they are working on fixing the cop chase mode so the average gamer can complete it and they are still making a decision whether to incorporate the previous idea of DLC maps and cars.

At $6.99 this game is dearer than both Need for Speed and Real Racing and I would recommend them everytime. If you have both of them then this is definitely option #3 for racing games and has enough content for the price, seeing as we got less with Asphalt 4 for $9.99. I was extremely impressed with this title and hope to finish it when/if Gameloft put a fix out for the cop chase mode.

Gameplay- 8/10
Graphics- 9.5/10
Sound- 8.5/10
Overall- 8.5/10

I would recommend this game if you enjoyed- Need for Speed: Undercover

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