Asphalt 8: Airborne review

Asphalt 8: Airborne is the successor to Gameloft's
incredibly popular racing game, Asphalt 7: Heat.
It carries on the tradition of providing an exciting
racing experience on your mobile device with an
added twist.
The title of the game is a pointer to the biggest
change compared to its predecessor. Asphalt 8:
Airborne rewards for tricks you perform while you
are in the air, like doing Barrel Rolls or Flat Spin
jumps. You can do Barrel Rolls by driving onto
one of the many angled ramps present on the
track, letting a mix of gravity and momentum do
the rest. In most cases you can trust that you'll
land safely, unless you really messed up the
approach. Flat Spin jumps are a bit tricker to
perfect, as they require you go off a ramp while
drifting (braking the car at high speed while
steering it), and the success or failure depends on
the angle of your approach.
You can play Asphalt 8: Airborne in various
modes including World Series (Multiplayer over
the Internet), a local Wi-Fi race, a quick Solo
race, or the Career mode. The main screen of the
game can be a little intimidating, and it takes a
while to figure out the various options.
In Career mode, you start with a car and a pretty
minimal budget, and try to earn more money by
winning races and performing tricks. As you go
along, you also have the opportunity to pick up
stars that unlock the next racing events within
the season. You can pick up to five stars at each
event, with 3 based on where you finish (1 star for
finishing third, 3 stars for winning the race) and
two additional stars for achieving event-specific
objectives like doing the specified number of
Barrel Rolls, Knockdowns, Perfect Nitro Triggers
etc.
Asphalt 8: Airborne features excellent graphics
though you may need the latest devices to enjoy
them to the maximum. The game stuttered at
times on our iPhone 4S, though our third-
generation iPad handled everything without any
hiccups. However, we liked the fact that we could
seamlessly switch from one device to the other
and the game was able to sync our progress via
the cloud using the Game Center ID for
authentication.
Coming to the actual gameplay, the default
controls for Asphalt 8: Airborne feature tilt to
steer, auto-acceleration, with taps on the left and
right edge of the screen to brake (drift) and nitro-
boost respectively. You can of course change the
controls to get tap-to-steer and manual
acceleration, if that's what you prefer. The in-
game music is pretty good, with an option to
choose between Bass, Rock, and Electronic
music.
It's quite easy to start playing Asphalt 8:
Airborne, but surprisingly difficult to actually win
a race, especially with the crummy car you start
with. You can upgrade your car by making an in-
app purchase, or by working your way up by
winning races - did we mention how difficult that
is? You can drive a near perfect race, and still
find yourself unable to overtake the five AI-
controlled cars. Maybe that's just us, and the
petrolheads out there would do a better job.
Each event in a season is associated with a city.
So you can be driving across the desert in Nevada
in one event, and find yourself speeding through
the streets of Tokyo in another. You'll go through
tunnels, avoid oncoming traffic, and even discover
a shortcut or two along the way. We personally
liked the ability to take a different route compared
to the other racers, though it does come with
mixed results - sometimes you gain an edge, and
at other times you end up going around in circles
without getting anywhere.
Asphalt 8: Airborne is just $0.99 for iOS (universal
app for iPhone and iPad) as well as Android . At
the price, the game is a must download,
especially if you have the latest hardware and
don't mind slowly working your way to the top.