Game Reviews

Asphalt 5

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Asphalt 5
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| Asphalt 5

[This review is taken from a two-part feature published in July, which rounded up nine of Gameloft’s iPhone to Android game conversions. You can read part 1 here, and part 2 here.]

The Asphalt games always provide solidly entertaining arcade racing kicks, with Asphalt 5 on the iPhone marking the pinnacle of the series. It’s a heady mix of real-life road cars and fantastical, drift-happy racing.

Ultimately, you’ll spend more time picking up Nitro power-ups and ramming your opponents into oncoming traffic than you will worrying about racing lines. Just how we like it.

Happily, this Android conversion is one of the strongest to come out of Gameloft so far. The graphics aren’t noticeably better or worse than the iPhone version – in fact the deeper colours on our Nexus One simply made it look different.

The real test, as we’ve seen elsewhere, comes with the sharpness of the controls and the smoothness of the performance. While the accelerometer steering isn’t quite as sharp as the iPhone original, it’s certainly good enough to let you enjoy the game’s fast-paced action.

What's more, this shift to tilt-controls takes the strain from our Nexus One test unit’s pretty but seemingly flawed touch display (and it’s not the only Android device to suffer from this), making for a far more pleasant experience. The game moves at a decent rate, too, with only the occasion stutter rearing its head.

Fast, colourful and fun, Asphalt 5 on Android is a definite success.

Asphalt 5

An excellent arcade racer that mixes speed with automotive carnage to brilliant effect. Asphalt 5 is as good on Android as it’s ever been
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Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.