Reviews
Reviews
Seller: Gameloft
Platform: iOS 5.0+
Size: 885 MB
Price: $1 + lots of in-apps
Asphalt 8 is a racing game. It's got fairly standard features:
*realistic city locations
*lots of different real-world cars
*upgrades for each car
The game comes with eight seasons and each season has 21 races. Each race is one of several types:
*Classic: standard race
*Elimination: every 30 seconds the last racer is disqualified
*Versus: one on one race
*Knockdown: knock out more cars in a 1-on-1 race
*Infected: standard race but infected cars can (1) always use nitro and (2) explode after a certain time which can be extended by infecting other cars, knocking out other cars or picking up nitro
*Gate Drift: drift through as many gates as you can before time runs out
When you race you tilt left and right to steer (iOS devices are great with racing games). Tap with left thumb to brake (with optional turning to start drifting). Tap with right thumb to activate nitro (second tap at right time for Perfect Nitro burn). The car auto accelerates.
You can hit a flat ramp to jump; drift through a flat ramp to do a flat spin jump. There are curved ramps which allow you to do barrel rolls. Also two types of nitro recharge (plus you also gain nitro for a Perfect Run, which seems to be about 15 seconds of driving without mishap).
It's a forgiving game. One problem I had with Real Racing is that it's easy to crash. Here you tend to bounce off or wreck the other car. Also if you do crash you can often still win if the rest of your run is near perfect.
Each of the nine tracks has a racecourse that branches and twists so half the battle is finding the best track to drive through.
There is a multiplayer simultaneous mode. I played it once with 7 other drivers and it seemed performant enough.
Each race has 5 stars you can gain. Three for getting first place. One each for two bonus achievements like "3 barrel rolls" or "no wrecks".
You gain money for each race and use it to buy more cars. Eventually cars become expensive enough that it's a slog to gain money by racing. You can also buy game money which is where Gameloft gets revenue.
A few minor complaints
*You can't change camera angle. [Edit: actually you can in Options, which is inconvenient.]
*It takes a while to start a race as it first shows you views of the race track and then goes through a 3-2-1 countdown. That can get annoying.
*The game is quite aggressive about trying to get you to play against someone else via Game Center. Seems to pair you up automatically if you ever tap on any multiplayer option.
Overall a very fun racing game.
Monday, December 16, 2013