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Smooth 3D graphics marred by annoying flaws

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 26 / 27
Date: December 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The first racing game available for the Nintendo DS, Asphalt: Urban GT is a fun arcade-style racing game that's unfortunately marred by some really annoying flaws.

Detailed review follows quick summary.

Pros:
+ console-like 3D graphics
+ great framerate
+ lots of high-speed racing fun
+ nice selection of cities
+ good replay value

Cons:
- graphics way too dark
- graphics too complex for DS's small screen
- does not remember customized controls
- no reverse, no stick shift
- tough CPU opponents

Asphalt: Urban GT (AUGT for short) puts you behind the wheel of one of 25 cars ranging from Lamborghini to Nissan to VW New Beetle, from coupes to muscle cars to 4x4 SUVs. You can race in one of several cities including Miami, Chenobyl, New York, Hong Kong, and more. While breaking no new grounds, AUGT puts together elements from some of the most successful racing games on the PS2 and Xbox; you'll recognize Need for Speed, Test Drive, Burnout, and maybe others in this game. Overall, the game does an admirable job implementing the best features of the other games which results in a potentially fun gaming experience.

Being an arcade racer, AUGT makes it easy to get into the action quickly. You can choose from traditional races or time attacks or cop chases (sounds familiar?). Like other racing games, you can pick the career mode (called evolution here) and earn cash to unlock cars. The audio takes advantage of the DS's stereo capabilities and you can be your own DJ, choosing from a small number of music tracks.

The graphics on the game is pretty good, reminding me of racing games on the original PS. The framerate is awesome: even when you use boost to get into high speed racing, the framerate never slows down. The smooth graphics makes the game very playable (unlike the Nokia Ngage version of the same game).

Unfortuantely, the graphics tends to be too dark. Mind you, the DS's screens, albeit backlit, are not very bright unless you are in the dark (nothing unfamiliar to GBA SP users). AUGT can be very hard to see, especially when the screen gets crowded with other vehicles. The dark graphics also means background elements like buildings, obstacles and other cars would blend together, making it difficult to, say, recognize upcoming corners. (In all fairness, the Rallisport Challenge-like direction arrow hints help a little.) I have shown the game to my gamer buddies and all had the same reaction: awesome framerate and background graphics, but lousy brightness. Plus, we all felt the DS's screens are too small for the complexity of the game's graphics. (The top screen is used for racing, the bottom shows course map and stats.)

Another major annoyance is while you can customize the controls -- the default is unconventional so you likely need to change them -- the game does NOT save your configuration! Every time you power off the DS, your controls preference is lost, and next time you'll have to set them again. This is just plain stupid.

One more thing that happens occasionally but really pisses me off is when you run into a stalled vehicle in the road, you are pretty much stuck as you can't back out of the jam (there's no reverse in this game, as there is no gear shift, either). At that point you'll have to restart the race or just quit.

Oh, another thing I don't understand why, like most racing games, it's so hard to beat your CPU opponents, even at the lowest difficulty level. I have not been able to finish first, no matter how hard I try.

In short, I'm rather disappointed that while AUGT could have been a really fun game to play, its dark graphics, inability to save customized controls and lack of new play modes put it in the so-so, can-miss category. Unless you are a hardcore racer like me, you should probably spend your $30 on another DS game.

Amazingly fun and highly addictive

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 13
Date: January 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I made myself make a choice between Asphalt Urban GT and Ridge Racer and after reading reviews for both, I went for Asphalt. I can't speak for Ridge Racer, but Asphalt was probably my best decision yet for my DS. This is simply one amazing game.

First of all, I agree with most everything that's been said before. It takes some getting used to at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's virtually impossible to put this game down. There are five different basic types of 'arcade' games in addition to the multi-card play, but where this game shines is in the career mode, which here is called Evolution. After proving yourself as a viable racer, you begin a seemingly never-ending quest to prove yourself on the road by entering different types of races, winning cars, cash and/or upgrades along the way. You can use the money to either fine tune the cars you already have through a series of upgrades in the garage (including re-painting or even changing the body altogether) or you can continue to purchase one of dozens of other well-known cars to gain access to other races. The game play alone is great and would be worth playing over and over, but Asphalt enhances that experience by always having another goal to reach, object to unlock or other incentive to entice the player.

What I also love about this game is its elegant simplicity. Instead of making desperate, goofy use of the new DS features like some games do with the touch screen or the microphone, this game wisely uses the touchscreen as an overview map of the course displaying all of your fellow drivers, but doesn't actually require you to use your stylus.

The game is not perfect, however. My first gripe with the game, as already mentioned several times, is that the only option the game apparently doesn't save is the control settings. It's not that difficult to reset them to your likings however, just a slight nuisance. Myself, I prefer making A accelerate, B brake, X turbo and Y horn, but it's easy enough to figure out what works best for you.

My only other issue with the game is the game doesn't make it entirely clear which option you have selected when there's only two options to choose from. Instead of marking the active option with some sort of token, the color simply changes. How do you know which is selected when one item is Yellow and the other is White? and in some cases, the colors are even different. I accidentally sold one of my cars because I couldn't tell which option I had selected. The work around here is to just rely on using the B button when you intend to choose No.

Of course I could also complain that I wasted away an entire Saturday trying to complete every race I could get my fingers on, but I can't honestly regret any second of it.

Great !!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: June 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is definitly better than Ridge Racer. I have both but this one comes out on top. Here are some up's and down's.

Asphalt Urban GT
Goods
1.great graphics
2.REAL CARS
3.real places to race such as Miami
Bads
1.controls are a little hard

Ridge Racer.
Good.
1. better fo younger kids.
2.Single card download
Bad.
1.no turbo
2.some fake cars

I would recomend Ridge raccers for younger kids but Asphalt Urban GT for people who know about most sport cars.

A great racer on the DS

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: May 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I picked this game up a few days after I got my DS and it has kept me entertained for months. For some reason, this game got pretty mediocre reviews but for a launch title its pretty good. The graphics and sound are well done as well as the controls in my opinion. The game is a combination of arcade style racing and Gran Turismo style upgrading in a sense. You can buy and install upgrades for your cars although you don't see a difference except for paint or body kits. The main problem I have with the game is that the collision detection is shoddy and if you barely bump another car it sometimes skyrockets them forward while leaving you sitting there. Other times the computer cars seemed exceptionally good on certain races and downright stupid on others. Its too bad that the multiplayer requires multiple carts so I haven't yet tried the multiplayer. Of course once you eventually unlock everything the game isn't as much fun but its still a good diversion until some of the DS's better games come out.

Asphalt is pretty good - would actually say 3.5 stars

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: December 11, 2004
Author: Amazon User

First game I bought for the ds. It doesn't use the touch screen though. The game is basically a mini-gran turismo. Very much reminded me of gt2 for the original playstation, which is a good thing.

The graphics are good, the controls were easy, and there is reverse (i don't know what that guy was talking about).

What brings this game down from 5 stars is that it could have been more. More tracks, more cars, more tunability, more unique characteristics between cars (especially sound), and the replay value isn't great.

Overall if you want a solid race title for your ds, it's pretty good for only $30.

Great Nintendo DS Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: January 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Asphalt Urban GT is the very first game that I got with my Nintendo DS this year. ( I Also Have A Review On the DS } and I think that I made a great choice to choice to get this game first with my DS. It has good graphics and there are 4 types of cars. Like 4x4 SUVS. Urban Cars witch is locked. Classics and Compacts. In the 4x4s you can choose from The Hummer H1 or Hummer H2. You can also choose to drive the Pitbull or even the Terror. And thats all in the 4x4s. To name a few. But I am not going to tell you all the cars. Theres a quite a few. You can choose from arcade which when you race you are automatally given a car if you pick from Instant play or Road Challenge You also have Evolution. Which you can only pick from one car at the time. Free Race or Time Attack you can choose your own car. Theres also Cop Chase. Cool huh. You can choose from 9 roads which are in Cuba. Paris France. ( Wee Wee ) and USA Speedway to name a few. The graphics are nice but in my opion not like PS2 graphics. You Will never see that on a handheld system. Maybe PSP but I don't think so ethier. I think the game is cool but in my opion it gets old fast. At least for me. Gameloft did a great job on the game expect that depending what car you choose you keep running into walls. Even with the brakes. If the car does not hug the road. But again I think its a cool game and I am keeping it. I am giving stars for the game. But only 3 stars for fun factor. Because like I metioned before. It gets old fast. But I recmmoned it if you love racing games like me. Thank You.

wonderful, very underated

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: July 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game may be a little easy, but the championship mode can provide hours of fun. Ive never seen this much out of a handheld racing game. It leaves all other handheld street racers in the dust. Build and upgrade cars in championship mode, and race for new ones. This game hasn't gotten the recognition it deserves.

Great Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: April 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This Game is a great racing game.You can use nitro boosts to help u speed up during races.The car designs are awsome which include the hummer h2,corvette,lambohrgini diablo,and more.But need for speed underground 2 will probably a better racing game.So if you are patient wait to get need for speed underground 2 which is coming out in a month or two.But if your impatient and cant wait a month get this game or if your a racing fanatic get both.Hope this was helpful.Blue.

Amazing after a few hours practice

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: December 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Let me start off by saying that I often times only buy a game if it gets great reviews on sites like IGN and Gamespot. That being said, both of those sites missed the boat on this game. They gave it slightly above average reviews when it should have gotten excellent reviews. The key is first to change the controls to R for gas, L for brake as a previous reviewer points out. Then also change the boost to the A button and the rear view to the X button and you have awesome controls.

The first hour I played the game I felt it was a very good racer. After another two hours I was left stunned by how great the game is. The graphics are literally Gamecube quality, and the powersliding is very much like Burnout. The use of Nitrous Oxide cannisters for extra boost is awesome and adds a great deal of strategy to the game. You must use these speed bursts at just the right moments and not waste them. Like in burnout, they give you an amazing sense of speed, and you can earn more by brushing other cars and long slides.

I have 2 complaints. One complaint is not the fault of the developers. It is the ridiculous lack of an analog stick on the DS. How a true 3D system still uses digital control is beyond me.

The other complaint is collision effects when two cars touch. Just just bump each other, but do not really move each other. This keeps you from being able to push opponents into oncoming traffic.

Desite these complaints, I have to give this game a perfect review. It is a stunning launch title that must be played for at least a few hours to fully appreciate it quality.

This game is awesome! A Must Buy. 11 year old kid from AZ.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: February 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This Game is fun and has really nice cars. Like a Saleen S7 or a Ford Shelby Cobra or even a Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT. I have beaten the game and it didn't take me very long. I'm not the type of person that plays a game from midnight to four in the morning. I love how the DS has a touch screen and more buttons. When you beat Evolution you win a Gameloft formula one race car. If you beat the Arcade Road Challenge you get bonus cars like Lamborghini police car or a Formula one race car and a Gamlati 1000 SS motorcycle. This game has good graphics but maybe could be just a little better.

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