Asphalt: Urban GT 2

The Good
Urban GT 2 is the nearest you will get to Need 4 Speed on a mobile platform. Good controls and very nice presentation are what made the NFS games go good and this seems to have rubbed off onto this game. Also no other phone has graphics as impressive as this, considering this phone is almost 5 years old. It's a shame the N-Gage never really took off and gets a lot of bad press. At the time of release no other handheld device came close, not even the gameboy advance.

The Bad
There are not many things i don't like about this game. It does exactly what its is advertised for, a fun racing game. The only gripe i do have about this game is that there is a nasty saving bug. AUGT2 allows you to build up a garage of cars. There may be a time when you want to sell some of your cars. This is where the bug is and basically after quitting the game, your save game gets corrupted. The fix round this though, is not to sell the cars that you win, or unlock from certain races.

The Bottom Line
First up, this is a very nice game to show off to others who don't have an N-Gage, and have a very nice mobile, but pathetic little 80k java games running on it.

The game itself has a nice interface, also another thing about this game is, this is a full game, with progression, not just a couple of levels and thats it. You can play the full championship mode which gives you access to a ludicrus amount of race types, cars, bikes and suv's. Various bonus cars can be unlocked by completing various races or duels. There are enough tracks in there to keep even the most hardcore racing fans happy. They range from palm tree stretches of beaches to rainy london all the way to baghdad in iraq! The music in the game is good too, using commercial artists like moby. The sound is ok, using real car samples, though sometime the engine can sound a little bit monotonous in longer races. Other nice little touches, which remind me of the NFS series, is the police in the game, where if you crash or the police knock you off the road you will be arrested. There is also a nice little pursuit mode thrown in there for good measure too. A great feature in the game is being able to fully customize you ride. Everything from neon glows from underneath, to paintwork, body kits and wheel trims. The races in the game are your standard lap races, but you don't need to come first in the races, depending on your position, will determine the amount of cash you win. Also there are cash and nitros bonus's on the track too. Races are organised into leagues and types. There is races which have certain conditions, whether it be engine type or motobikes to monster cars.

All in all a great game game. There are other versions of this game on mobile platforms which feature simular 3d graphics, but don't quite cut it compared to this version as this is a proper full game with nothing left out, compared to the other java mobile versions.