''Asphalt'' is a series of

racing In sports, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific g ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

s mainly developed and published by

Gameloft Gameloft SE is a French video game company based in Paris, founded in December 1999 by Ubisoft co-founder Michel Guillemot. The company operates 18 development studios worldwide, and publishes games for mobile devices, video game consoles, and ...

. The series typically focuses on fast-paced arcade racing set in various locales throughout the world, tasking players to complete races while evading the local law enforcement. Gameplay includes teaming up with allied racers and gang groups to assist in police pursuits and shootout races against rival groups such as crime families and terrorists. Originally ''Asphalt'' had been made and released for mobile and handheld systems but recent titles have expanded to home consoles and computers as well as arcades. Incarnations of the original game from 2004 for various other platforms soon followed, the latest in the main series being ''

Asphalt Legends Unite ''Asphalt Legends Unite'' (formerly ''Asphalt 9: Legends'') is a 2018 racing game of the ''Asphalt'' series, developed by Gameloft Barcelona and published by Gameloft. An expansion update was announced on March 25, 2024 and released on July 17, ...

'' (formerly ''Asphalt 9: Legends'') released in 2018; a number of spinoffs were also released, such as the endless runner ''

Asphalt Overdrive Asphalt Overdrive was a 2014 endless running racing video game published by Gameloft and developed by their Madrid studio. The eleventh major game of ''Asphalt'' series. After a showcase in June 2014 at the E3 event, it was released in Septembe ...

'', ''Asphalt Nitro'', a minimal version of ''Asphalt'' for low-end devices with

procedural generation In computing, procedural generation is a method of creating data algorithmically as opposed to manually, typically through a combination of human-generated content and algorithms coupled with computer-generated randomness and processing power. I ...

as a selling point, '' Asphalt Xtreme'', an off-road-centric entry into the series, and the

drag racing Drag racing is a type of motor racing in which automobiles or motorcycles compete, usually two at a time, to be first to cross a set finish line. The race follows a short, straight course from a standing start over a measured distance, mos ...

game '' Asphalt Street Storm''. The series has remained one of the most globally popular mobile games since the late 2000s.

Common elements

The series puts emphasis on fast-paced, arcade-style

street racing Street racing is an illegal form of motor racing that occurs on a public road. Racing in the streets is considered an ancient hazard, as horse racing occurred on streets for centuries, and street racing in automobiles is likely as old as the a ...

in the vein of ''

Need for Speed ''Need for Speed'' (''NFS'') is a racing game franchise published by Electronic Arts and currently developed by Criterion Games (the developers of the ''Burnout'' series). Most entries in the series are generally arcade racing games centered ...

'', along with elements from other racing games such as ''

Ridge Racer is a series of racing video games created by Namco and owned by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The first game, ''Ridge Racer (1993 video game), Ridge Racer'' (1993), was originally released in arcades for the Namco System 22 hardware, later ported ...

'' and ''

Burnout Burnout or burn-out may refer to: Entertainment * ''Burnout'' (film), a 2017 Moroccan film * ''Burn Out'' (film), a 2017 French film * Burnout (ride), a Funfields amusement ride in Australia * ''Burnout'' (series), a racing game series created by ...

''; the spin-off game ''Asphalt Xtreme'' takes place in an

off-road racing Off-road racing is a form of motorsports consisting of specially-modified vehicles including cars, SUVs, trucks, motorbikes, quadbikes and buggies racing in off-road environments (e.g. snow, dirt, mud, etc.). North America Desert racing D ...

setting, with open-wheel buggies, sport-utility vehicles and rally cars in lieu of supercars as in previous games. Each game in the series puts players behind the wheel of licensed sports cars from various manufacturers, from entry-level models such as the Dodge Dart GT, to

supercar A supercar, also known as an exotic car, is a street-legal sports car with race track-like power, speed, and handling, plus a certain subjective ''cachet'' linked to pedigree and/or exclusivity. The term 'supercar' is frequently used for th ...

s like the

Bugatti Veyron The Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4 is a mid-engine sports car designed and developed in Germany by the Volkswagen Group and Bugatti, and manufactured in Molsheim, France by French automobile manufacturer Bugatti. It was named after the racing driver Pi ...

, and even concept cars such as

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to simply as Mercedes and occasionally as Benz, is a German automotive brand that was founded in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a subsidiary of the Mercedes-Benz Group, established in 2019) is based in Stuttgart, ...

's Biome design study. Police chases are a recurring gameplay element especially in the early games, but were de-emphasized in favour of stunt jumps and aerobatic maneuvers as of ''Airborne''; they made a return, however, with ''Overdrive, Asphalt 9: Legends'' and ''Nitro'', the latter of which combined elements from ''Airborne'' and previous games in the series. Over the course of the games, players are gradually given access to various race courses, most of which are modelled after real-world locations and major cities, and upgrades for vehicles which can be bought from money earned in a race, or in later games, points or through in-application purchases using real currency. Events are presented in increasing difficulty as players advance through the game, sometimes requiring them to complete bonus challenges, e.g. taking down a given number of opponent racers or finishing the race without wrecking their vehicle.

History

The first mainline game in the series is '' Asphalt: Urban GT'', which was released for the

Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...

and

N-Gage The N-Gage is a mobile device combining features of a cellular phone and a handheld game system developed by Nokia, released on 7 October 2003. Officially nicknamed the ''game deck'', the N-Gage's phone works on the GSM cellular network, and s ...

on November 21, 2004, with simplified versions for

J2ME Java Platform, Micro Edition or Java ME is a computing platform for development and deployment of porting, portable code for embedded system, embedded and mobile devices (micro-controllers, sensors, gateways, mobile phones, personal digita ...

mobile phones being released on December 2. A video on Gameloft's

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel however lists their mobile phone adaptation of '' Speed Devils'' as the first game in the series. '' Asphalt 5'' was the first game in the series to be released for

Android Android most commonly refers to: *Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google * Android TV, a operating system developed ...

. '' Asphalt 4: Elite Racing'' was the first game in the series to be released for

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

. '' Asphalt 6: Adrenaline'' marks the first game in the series to be released for

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

; later home computer releases in the series are exclusive to

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

, with '' Asphalt 7: Heat'' being the first to be released on the

Windows Store The Microsoft Store (formerly known as the Windows Store) is a digital distribution platform operated by Microsoft. It was created as an app store for Windows 8 as the primary means of distributing Universal Windows Platform apps. With ...

. '' Asphalt 8: Airborne'', the eighth main installment and tenth title overall, was released in 2013 for iOS, Android, Windows and Blackberry platforms to critical acclaim, becoming one of the bestselling games on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store. ''Asphalt Nitro'', the twelfth title in the series, was quietly released on Gameloft's own app store in May 2015 for Android, alongside a 2.5D J2ME version of the game for feature phones. A main selling point of ''Nitro'' was the game's small resource footprint, which was aided by the use of

. A free-to-play spinoff entitled ''

'' was released for iOS and Android in September 2014. Unlike prior titles in the series, the game is presented as an "

endless runner Endless runner or infinite runner is a subgenre of platform game in which the player character runs for an infinite amount of time while avoiding obstacles. The player's objective is to reach a high score by surviving for as long as possible. Th ...

" similar to the ''

Temple Run ''Temple Run'' is a 2011 endless runner video game developed and published by Imangi Studios. The player controls an explorer who has obtained an ancient relic and runs from demonic monkey-like creatures chasing them. The game was initially r ...

'' franchise and ''

Subway Surfers ''Subway Surfers'' is a 2012 endless runner mobile game which is co-developed by Kiloo and SYBO Games, private companies based in Denmark. It is available on iOS, Android, HarmonyOS NEXT, Amazon Fire Tablet, and Windows Phone platforms and ...

'', and does not offer a traditional racing mode. ''Overdrive'' was then followed by ''Asphalt Xtreme'', which focuses on arcade-style off-road racing, and in 2016 with ''Asphalt: Street Storm'', a rhythm-based drag racing game in the vein of

NaturalMotion NaturalMotion Limited is a British video game development company with development offices in London, Brighton and Birmingham. Founded in November 2001 as a spin-out company from Oxford University, NaturalMotion specialises in creating animatio ...

's ''

CSR Racing ''Custom Street Racing'' is a free-to-play drag-racing game by Boss Alien and NaturalMotion Games. In the game, the player takes the role of a new racer looking to gain fame in a deserted city ruled by five racing "crews". A sequel was releas ...

''. ''Street Storm'' was quietly released in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

in December 2016 for

devices. The ninth and latest mainline game in the series, ''

'', previously titled ''Asphalt 9: Legends'', was released worldwide on July 25, 2018, for

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

on October 8, 2019, for macOS on January 17, 2020, for

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

and

Xbox Series X/S The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are the fourth generation of consoles in the Xbox series, succeeding the previous generation's Xbox One. Released on November 10, 2020, the higher-end Xbox Series X and lower-end Xbox Series S are part o ...

on August 31, 2021, and for

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

and

PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North ...

on July 17, 2024.

Games

Main series in chronological order: *'' Asphalt: Urban GT'' (

BREW Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW, also known as Brew MP or Qualcomm BREW) is an obsolete application development platform created by Qualcomm, originally for code division multiple access (CDMA) mobile phones, featuring third-party a ...

DoJa Doja may refer to: Music * Doja Cat, American rapper and singer * "Doja" (Snot and ASAP Rocky song), 2022 * "Doja" (Central Cee song), 2022 Other * DoJa, a Java application environment specification See also * Dojo A is a hall ...

) *'' Asphalt: Urban GT 2'' (

Symbian Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. It was originally developed as a proprietary software OS for personal digital assistants in 1998 by the Symbian Ltd. consortium. Symbian OS ...

, PSP,

) *'' Asphalt 3: Street Rules'' (

N-Gage 2.0 N-Gage, also referred to as N-Gage 2.0, was a mobile game, mobile gaming digital distribution platform from Nokia that was available for several Nokia smartphones running on S60 platform, S60 (Symbian). The successor to the original N-Gage (devi ...

Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDA). Designed to be the portable equivalent of the Windows desktop OS in the emerging Mobile device, mobile/port ...

) *'' Asphalt 4: Elite Racing'' (

DSiWare This is a list of games and applications, collectively known as DSiWare, for the Nintendo DSi handheld game console, available for download via the DSi Shop and unplayable on earlier DS models. An update released for the Nintendo 3DS in June 20 ...

Symbian OS Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. It was originally developed as a proprietary software OS for personal digital assistants in 1998 by the Symbian Ltd. consortium. Symbian OS ...

BlackBerry OS BlackBerry OS is a discontinued proprietary mobile operating system developed by Canadian company Research In Motion (now BlackBerry Limited) for its BlackBerry line of smartphone handheld devices. The operating system provides multitasking ...

) *'' Asphalt 5'' (

Windows Phone 7 Windows Phone 7 (WP7) is the first release of the Windows Phone mobile client operating system, released worldwide on October 21, 2010, and in the United States on November 8, 2010. It runs on the Windows CE 6.0 kernel. It serves as the successo ...

Bada Bada may refer to: Education * Bay Area Digital Arts or BADA, a school of digital arts in California, US * British American Drama Academy or BADA, a theatre school in Britain People *Bada (singer) (born 1980), South Korean singer * Jeffrey ...

webOS webOS, also known as LG webOS, is a Linux kernel-based multitasking operating system for smart devices, such as smart TVs, that has also been used as a mobile operating system. Initially developed by Palm, Inc. (which was acquired by Hewlett ...

Freebox The Freebox is an Asymmetric digital subscriber line, ADSL-VDSL-FTTH modem and a set-top box that the French Internet service provider named Free (ISP), Free (part of the Iliad group) provides to its DSL-FTTH subscribers. Its main use is as a hi ...

) *'' Asphalt 6: Adrenaline'' (

OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

BlackBerry Tablet OS BlackBerry Tablet OS is an operating system from BlackBerry Ltd based on the QNX Neutrino real-time operating system designed to run Adobe AIR and BlackBerry WebWorks applications, currently available for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet compute ...

) *'' Asphalt 7: Heat'' (

Windows Phone 8 Windows Phone 8 is the second generation of the Windows Phone mobile operating system from Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft, released on October 29, 2012. It runs on the Windows NT kernel and is the successor to Windows Phone 7. It was the first ...

Windows 8 Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012, made available for download via Microsoft ...

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was Software release cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 2 ...

BlackBerry 10 BlackBerry 10 (BB10) is a proprietary mobile operating system for the BlackBerry line of smartphones, both developed by BlackBerry Limited (formerly known as Research In Motion). Released in January 2013, BlackBerry 10 is a complete rework from t ...

Fire OS Fire OS is an Android (operating system), Android-based operating system developed by Amazon (company), Amazon for their hardware #Devices, devices. Fire OS includes a customized Graphical user interface, user interface primarily centered on con ...

) *'' Asphalt 8: Airborne'' (

Windows RT Windows RT is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft and released alongside Windows 8 on October 26, 2012. It is a version of Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 built for the 32-bit ARM architecture (ARMv7), designed to take advantage of th ...

Windows 10 Mobile Windows 10 Mobile is the fourth and final generation of Microsoft's Windows Phone mobile operating system, succeeding Windows Phone 8.1. First released in 2015, it was marketed by Microsoft as being an Windows 10 editions, edition of its Per ...

tvOS tvOS (formerly Apple TV Software) is an operating system developed by Apple for the Apple TV, a digital media player. In the first-generation Apple TV, Apple TV Software was based on Mac OS X. The software for the second-generation and later ...

Tizen Tizen () is a Linux-based operating system primarily developed by Samsung Electronics and supported by the Linux Foundation. The project was originally conceived as an HTML5-based platform for mobile devices to succeed MeeGo. It was backed by o ...

) **'' Asphalt 8: Airborne+ (

Apple Arcade Apple Arcade is a video game subscription service offered by Apple Inc. It is available through a dedicated tab of the App Store on devices running iOS 13, visionOS, tvOS 13, iPadOS 13, and macOS Catalina or later. The service launched o ...

) *'' Asphalt 9: Legends'' (

Arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated video, pinball, electro-mechanical, redemption, etc., game ** Arcade video game, a coin-operated video game ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade video game's hardware ** Arcad ...

PS4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

PS5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North ...

) **''

'' xpansion packSpin-offs and other titles in chronological order: * ''Asphalt: Import Tuner Edition'' (

) * ''Asphalt Online'' (

) * ''Asphalt Audi RS 3'' (

) *'' Asphalt 3D'' (

Nintendo 3DS The is a foldable dual-screen handheld game console produced by Nintendo. Announced in March 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS, the console was released originally on February 26, 2011 and went through various revisions in its lifetime, ...

) *'' Asphalt: Injection'' (

PS Vita The PlayStation Vita (PS Vita) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, then in other international territories on February 22, 2012, and was produced ...

) * ''

'' (

) *''Asphalt Nitro'' (

Java ME Java Platform, Micro Edition or Java ME is a computing platform for development and deployment of porting, portable code for embedded system, embedded and mobile devices (micro-controllers, sensors, gateways, mobile phones, personal digita ...

) *'' Asphalt Xtreme'' (

) *''Asphalt Street Storm'' (

) *''Asphalt Retro'' ( Browser) *''Asphalt Nitro 2'' (

) *''Asphalt Moto Blitz DX '' (

)

Reception

In April 2008, Gameloft reported that the series has had 10 million downloads, making it the most popular

mobile game A mobile game is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any Mobile device, portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet computer, table ...

franchise in the world at the time. In 2020,

Pocket Gamer ''Pocket Gamer'' is a video game website and former print magazine that focuses on mobile, portable and handheld games. It was launched in 2005 by Steel Media Limited. The publication covers portable and mobile gaming formats, including iPhone, ...

wrote that "The ''Asphalt'' series has been one of the biggest names in mobile gaming for, oh, 15 years now."

Notes

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Asphalt series Gameloft Vivendi franchises Racing video games Video game franchises introduced in 2004