Asphalt 5 hands-on

By Nigel Wood, UK
for www.touchgen.com

Published: September 3, 2009

We get behind the wheel of the highly anticipated follow up to the hit 2008 racer.

Gameloft showed us a preview build of Asphalt 5 at their London offices today. The game is still in the early stages, with only the Mini Cooper available to try out on the tracks (There will be 33 licensed cars in total, including the likes of Audio, Lamborghini, Ferrari and Lotus). The Gameloft rep was eager to challenge me to a head to head race, to which I happily agreed, always the competitive type.

Unfortunatley I got off to bad start, with the controls not set up to my liking. Of course, I was mocked by the rep for making excuses! However, with the controls set to tilt and with auto acceleration turned off, I was ready to go… alas, again I started poorly and the rep took an early lead. A few nitrous induced boosts later and I was on his tail. The game looks significantly better than it’s forebearer, with more detail in the tracks, and an overall polish. I was playing it on a 2G iPhone, and although it had same framey moments at the start of the race (not an excuse, honest!), further in the race the game ran pretty smoothly. It’s not quite Real Racing smooth, but this is more of an arcade style racer with take-downs and more exuberant environments to race in. Speaking of the tracks, there are a few alternative routes, or short-cuts, that you can take, which can shave precious seconds and can give you a good lead. This I did on my second lap and was out in front…. for a while. I was eventually beaten after I took a wrong turn and launched myself onto a mountain lodge. Glory was not to be mine, but I think the rep has been practising day and night… well that’s my excuse!

Online multi-player will not be available at launch, with only bluetooth and Wi-fi match-ups supported at the start. However, in an update the game will be Gameloft live enabled allowing you to post your scores to leaderboards, upload youtube replays and most importantly match-up online and race in tournaments as well as engage in chat with your fellow racers.

Custom playlists are available mid game, should you tire of the supplied soundtrack. A simple tap of the music icon during a race and you can skip your iPod tunes, or pause the game and pick new ones.

We came away impressed with the game, it gives you more thrills than Real racing, at the cost of a realistic experience. If, when the final game ships, it can better or even equal Asphalt 4 then Gameloft will be onto another winner.

The game still has some ways to go, with a release slot of sometime in Q4. Stay tuned!

Review disclosure: Any games reviewed on this page may have been provided to us by the developer for the purposes of this review. Note: the resulting review score is never impeded by this fact, all opinions are that of the TouchGen reviewer and not the developer. This is in keeping with our O.A.T.S oath. Read more about O.A.T.S here

4 Comments on "Asphalt 5 hands-on"

Dan on Fri, 4th Sep 2009 2:13 am

Sounds decent. I’m not sure i’ll upgrade from 4 though. Nothing really revolutionary.

leiste on Fri, 4th Sep 2009 9:55 am

I doesn´t seem to have a free world and no police. Maybe Asphalt 6 will be better.

sa66o6 on Fri, 4th Sep 2009 10:45 am

leiste,you want to say that you are scared of the cops?Of course asphalt need police,it’s what the game is for!

Dan on Fri, 4th Sep 2009 6:21 pm

I rarely even notice the cops to be honest.

Asphalt 5 hands-on

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