Overview- Critic & User
Reviews - Videos &
Screenshots
News- Codes
& FAQs - Gameplay
Controls - Similar
Games
Answers
Bundles
Critic & User Reviews
IGN Review of Asphalt 3D
First impressions count, so it's never promising when a game can't even be bothered to stream its own pre-rendered intro smoothly. Asphalt 3D's stuttering start, as it happens, sets the scene perfectly – this is a half-hearted port of a game that wasn't even that good in the first place, a rush effort designed to ensnare those dazzled by shine of new hardware.
Asphalt's tainted nearly every handheld platform over the past five years, but if you're not familiar with the format here's the rundown; take a selection of licensed cars and pound them round some dull ribbons of tarmac that wind through a selection of global scenery in a mix that's part Burnout, part Need for Speed and 100% insipid.
The cars' handling is built upon a drift mechanic that's disappointingly binary, and elsewhere the driving falls flat. Shifting sideways is just one way of filling Asphalt 3D's boost meter; checking traffic's another, and in a brilliant twist oncoming cars are near-impossible to pick out at speed with twinkling headlights often only appearing once they're well on their way to being embedded in the back of your skull.
Pedestrian cars aren't the only thing that like to turn up late, and often the scenery lazily lurches into view well after its due. Asphalt 3D is a shocking looking game, and not only does its world look poorly realized it also chugs even in its more sedate moments. Trade paintwork with a fellow driver or initiate a drift at full boost and the game will shed more of its precious few frames.
The real shocker is how Asphalt's formula is available elsewhere cheaper and in much better shape – any one of its iPhone offshoots, for example, come in at around a tenth of the price of this shoddy port – and the few concessions it makes to its new host hardware only aggravate the issue.
Asphalt 3D's content may be plentiful, but it's drawn out across overlong races and events and its car modification doesn't ever lend any real sense of progression. More doesn't always equate to merrier, and in this instance it merely means the mediocrity is shoveled up in heaped-up spades.
©2011-03-28, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Asphalt's tainted nearly every handheld platform over the past five years, but if you're not familiar with the format here's the rundown; take a selection of licensed cars and pound them round some dull ribbons of tarmac that wind through a selection of global scenery in a mix that's part Burnout, part Need for Speed and 100% insipid.
The cars' handling is built upon a drift mechanic that's disappointingly binary, and elsewhere the driving falls flat. Shifting sideways is just one way of filling Asphalt 3D's boost meter; checking traffic's another, and in a brilliant twist oncoming cars are near-impossible to pick out at speed with twinkling headlights often only appearing once they're well on their way to being embedded in the back of your skull.
Pedestrian cars aren't the only thing that like to turn up late, and often the scenery lazily lurches into view well after its due. Asphalt 3D is a shocking looking game, and not only does its world look poorly realized it also chugs even in its more sedate moments. Trade paintwork with a fellow driver or initiate a drift at full boost and the game will shed more of its precious few frames.
The real shocker is how Asphalt's formula is available elsewhere cheaper and in much better shape – any one of its iPhone offshoots, for example, come in at around a tenth of the price of this shoddy port – and the few concessions it makes to its new host hardware only aggravate the issue.
Asphalt 3D's content may be plentiful, but it's drawn out across overlong races and events and its car modification doesn't ever lend any real sense of progression. More doesn't always equate to merrier, and in this instance it merely means the mediocrity is shoveled up in heaped-up spades.
The 3D Effect
Asphalt's 3D effect may be one of the reasons for the game's staccato frame-rate, though it doesn't get any smoother when the slider's dimmed. The car models do deserve some credit, however, and in 3D it's possible to glimpse into the interiors from an exterior view, giving a sense of depth that's missing elsewhere in the game.
Asphalt's 3D effect may be one of the reasons for the game's staccato frame-rate, though it doesn't get any smoother when the slider's dimmed. The car models do deserve some credit, however, and in 3D it's possible to glimpse into the interiors from an exterior view, giving a sense of depth that's missing elsewhere in the game.
©2011-03-28, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved