By far, my favorite control scheme was tilt. There are three different control options in Asphalt 4: Tap, tilt, and a virtual steering wheel you drag your finger over. An on-screen stat system shows you how each new part affects you car. The garage lets you customize your cars as you wish, from paint jobs to exhaust systems. After completing a race, you earn cash and new car parts. I know $10 feels a little steep, especially after being ripped off by bare bones ports of Pac-Man for the same price, but Asphalt 4 is absolutely worth it. Once you complete the single-player game, Wi-Fi gives the game another few hours of play by pitting you against your other friends with iPhones or iPod Touches. In addition to these events, Gameloft offers a full-featured Wi-Fi multiplayer mode than works very, very well. There's a certain pleasure to punching the nitro just as you clip the back bumper of a rival car and send him into the guard rail. But even just straightforward racing is good. I really liked the Cash Attack event, where you bank green by performing jumps and smashing into other cars. Only occasionally did Asphalt 4 stutter on my iPhone, and when it did chug, the game was quick to recover.Īsphalt 4 offers several different events, such as basic racing, playing crash-and-bash with rival cars (not entirely unlike Burnout), head-to-head races, and jumping behind the wheel of a police cruiser and taking down unlawful street racers. The cities are expertly crafted with tons of landmarks, lighting effects, and wonderful splashes of color. The car models are ridiculously well detailed and look remarkably like the real vehicles. This is not only the best-looking racing game on the iPhone, but it is the best-looking iPhone game as of yet. Gameloft has always - always - placed enormous emphasis on production values and Asphalt 4 only serves to further bolster that reputation. You can also race motorcycles, including Ducati and Kawasaki. You start out with only a Mini Cooper, but within just a few races, you have a growing stockpile of real-world wheels, such as Corvettes and Ferraris.
In this installment, you race the world's biggest cities such as Los Angeles, Shanghai, and Paris with an entire garage full of licensed cars. The Asphalt games have been a monster success for the France-based publisher, selling second only to I-play's Fast and the Furious racing games.
It's approaching the Dreamcast when under the thumbs of a crackerjack development team, and Gameloft's code squad is apparently just that kind of team.Įlite Racing is the fourth chapter in Gameloft's long-running mobile racing series. This system is far more capable than a regular PlayStation. Yes, the App Store is full of cheapie homebrew games not without their charm (some of those $2 one-man-shows are pretty cool), but Asphalt 4 proves that the iPhone has some serious horsepower under the hood.
Any doubt about the iPhone's status as a true gaming platform - one capable of entertaining both hardcore gamers and casual players - is finally silenced by the release of Gameloft's Asphalt 4: Elite Racing.