by
Ted Kritsonis
Faze
Video Game Editor
Racing
games nowadays offer a whole load of cars and tracks, and
with the way you can soup them up now, you would think a garage
was built into the game. Nokia’s Asphalt Urban GT is
a handheld racing game that tries to race with the best of
them but sometimes finds itself driving on the wrong side
of the road.
The
bread and butter of any racing game is the racing itself and
the central problems of the game lie in that area. The frustrating
learning curve involved will see you run the same race over
and over again just to make the turns without hitting something.
The controls are basic but also unresponsive.
While
this gives the impression that GT is a racing sim, it actually
comes across more as an arcade racer given that your car can
sustain an incredible amount of damage. Then again, with the
way you crash into things on turns, it’s probably better
that it doesn’t show at all.
The
locales you race in are a nice mixture of places that range
from Cuba to New York to even Chernobyl in the Ukraine. The
environments aren’t too detailed but some of them are
colourful and vibrant, while the ones that aren’t supposed
to be are quite dark and daunting. At least you’re moving
at a fast pace, or else you’d notice just how blocky
everything is on-screen.
But
aesthetics aren’t enough here. The fact that an SUV
handles the same as a Porsche is inexcusable. Both slip and
slide the same way, and even if you were to make adjustments
in the garage, you won’t be making those corners easier
anyway.
This
isn’t to say that there isn’t a lot for you to
do in GT. The Cop Chase mode is a fun game once you get used
to it and the Evolution mode, where you earn cash to soup
up your ride, has its moments.
When
it’s all said and done, Asphalt Urban GT falls flat
way too often. Had the racing controls been tighter and the
learning curve a little more manageable, Nokia would’ve
offered a much better game than what stands here. A racing
game that keeps going back and forth from sim to arcade loses
any semblance of stability, and that’s not the way a
racing game should be.
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