Game Reviews

Asphalt Xtreme review - Can Gameloft take its racing series to the extreme?

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| Asphalt Xtreme
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Asphalt Xtreme review - Can Gameloft take its racing series to the extreme?
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| Asphalt Xtreme

It feels like as long as there have been mobile phones, there has been the Asphalt series of racing games.

The series is now in its 12th year, and with the latest entry, Asphalt Xtreme, everything feels just like it always has done.

And that's both a good thing and a bad thing, because while it is still an enjoyable racer with fast cars and interesting environments, some of its design decisions are stuck in the past.

Gimme a boost

Asphalt Xtreme is about as straight-forward a racing game you can get. You pick a car, it goes forward very quickly, and you need to steer it.

Steering is handled by physically moving your phone or tablet left or right, with rough tilts causing you to drift around particularly bothersome corners.

You can slam the brakes on by tapping the left side of the screen, and activate nitrous with a swift tap of the right side.

Nitrous requires some strategy to use too – you can choose to use a small boost, or use three boosts all at once, or chain together your boosts for a particularly long nitrous release.

It's all fairly simple stuff, and it is genuinely a lot of fun. Blasting through bright environments in a grungy, battered SUV is as enjoyable as ever.

Handles like a truck

But it has to be said that the tilt controllers are really finicky, and no matter how hard you may throw around your device, it still feels weightless and kind of silly.

While using motion controls back in the early days of mobile may have seemed really cool, in 2016 it just feels outplayed and slightly annoying.

This won't stop you from winning races, however. Your opponents are, for the most part, slow and completely idiotic, and will do everything in their power to help you win.

And even if you're staring down the finish line in 3rd, the racer in 2nd will just slow down and let you overtake him, which is as true as it is ridiculous.

Winning races gives you cash to buy new vehicles and upgrade the ones you have. There's not a lot of variety on offer, and Asphalt Xtreme tends to hold your hand when it comes to buying new cars anyway.

But when you get out there in your brand new banged-up motor, you'll forget all about it – the gorgeous, multi-levelled tracks and generally quite tense racing is enough to distract you from all of the game's wrongdoings.

And across the line

If nothing else, Asphalt Xtreme feels like a nostalgia trip than a new racing game. That's not entirely bad – the racing is fun, the tracks are well designed, and the graphics are beefed up for the modern era.

But it also means you'll be flailing your arms around trying to drive a big truck with motion controls that haven't been cool in a very long time.

If you're a fan of the series, Asphalt Xtreme is another great entry in the series. If not, give it a try, but don't expect much.

Asphalt Xtreme review - Can Gameloft take its racing series to the extreme?

It still has the fun factor of the series, but Asphalt Xtreme feels more like a game stuck in the past than a step forward
Score
Ric Cowley
Ric Cowley
Ric was somehow the Editor of Pocket Gamer, having started out as an intern in 2015. He hopes to take over the world the same way.