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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.

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.

Difficult to control

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The graphics in this game are fine... pretty advanced for a handheld. The cars look great, the tracks are interesting. I don't love the controls though, I find it difficult to really get the car moving around corners... the placement of the controls makes it difficult to move back and forth between the brakes & gas, and some of the camera movement is disorienting, confusing, and makes it difficult to tell when obsticles are coming up. I'm constantly nailing other cars, and have difficulty moving up through the ranks. I normally LOVE racing games, and I'm normally pretty good at them. This game is difficult, though... Not fun difficult. Irritating difficult.

I would not buy this game again, I'm sure there will be much better racing games available in the near future.

graphic?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: December 20, 2004
Author: Amazon User

it is very good but the graphics need a little work. it needs a couple more cars.

Great Game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is the first game that I got for my NDS. Overall, the game is a little difficult, but after an hour or so, the game becomes much easier. Unlike the other people, I found the controls very easy to get used to. Also, some of the things that you have to do in this game are pretty tough, but not unbeatable. I also loved the variety and tunability for the cars. If you are not a super hard core racing game fan, I think you would love this game also.

Great game, difficult at first

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Asphalt is a great game with a ton of championships in different types of cars. You can repeat championships and sell the cars you win just like in all the GT games. The controls are horrible, so here is my suggestion - change them to XBOX style, R is gas, L is brake. this is way easier. Then you can customize the other buttons (turbo, horn, chng view, look back) to your liking. After changing this, the game is way easier, at least for me. Just remember that when you are constantly squeezing the R and L triggers, it may ache if you play for more than a few hour. Overall the game is really fun. The variety of cars and the customization is good. Graphics are great. After a long time of playing it is possible to get stuck (like when you reach the series where none of the 3 available cars can be customized) but that's not until after you are no longer 'hooked' on the concept of beating it.

P.S. Remember-this is a Nintendo, if you change the controls, you will have to change the controls every time you turn on the DS to play Asphalt.

Hope this helps those people complaining about controls.

Amazion FUN FUN FUN

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: December 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

WOW I LOVE THIS GAME it is pretty hard at the beginning but after an hour or so its so easy and you find yourselfs slowly increasing the difficulty. Loads of tracks cool cars mint graphics and surround sound wow WOW

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 THING IS AWESOME

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: December 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

everyone should have this game. The graffics are so good its like your playing ps2 or gamecube. This is the coolest DS game to come out yet!

pretty good

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

this game for me was extremely easy at the beginning but got harder as the cars got faster. The graphics rule and the cars are cool. Cop chase is extremely fun. It is cool how u can upgrade your cars and make then turn sharper, go faster, change color, and change the body style of it. These features kick booty. One thing i hate is when u hit cars from the back u slow down alot and they shoot forward, and when u hit a car that is sitting still the car doesnt flip away it just sits there like a wall and stop and u have to reverse and drive away. This causes the other racers to fly past u as u just sit there. But luckily sometimes they wreck also and u can go past them. the game is 5/5 for fun but 4/5 overall because of hard difficulty and bad wrecks.

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