''Asphalt: Urban GT'' is a 2004 arcade-style

racing video game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic raci ...

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 ...

, known as the first title of ''the

Asphalt Asphalt most often refers to: * Bitumen, also known as "liquid asphalt cement" or simply "asphalt", a viscous form of petroleum mainly used as a binder in asphalt concrete * Asphalt concrete, a mixture of bitumen with coarse and fine aggregates, u ...

'' series. It was released in October 2004 for the Nokia N-Gage and in November of the same year 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 ...

, making it one of the Nintendo DS

launch title Since the origin of video games in the early 1970s, the video game industry, the players, and surrounding culture have spawned a wide range of technical and slang terms. 0–9 A ...

s. Mobile phone versions on

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 ...

and BREW were also released. The game features manufacturer licensed cars and takes place in locations modeled after real-world counterparts. Gameplay features a nitro mechanic and allows drifting, and alongside standard races against opponents there are also modes such as cop chases. The DS version has support for wireless multiplayer with up to four opponents. ''Asphalt: Urban GT'' received mixed to favorable reviews; it was succeeded by '' Asphalt: Urban GT 2'' in 2005.

Gameplay

''Asphalt: Urban GT'' sports nine tracks modelled after real-world locations such as

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

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and

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. The game's 23 cars are licensed from 14 real manufacturers such as

Lamborghini Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. ( , ), usually referred to as Lamborghini or colloquially Lambo, is an Italian manufacturer of luxury sports cars and SUVs based in Sant'Agata Bolognese. The company is owned by the Volkswagen Group through its su ...

Hummer Hummer (stylized in all caps) is an American brand of Pickup truck, pickups launched in 1992 when AM General began selling a civilian version of the M998 Humvee. Although discontinued in 2010, Hummer returned as a model under GMC (automob ...

Volkswagen Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...

Nissan is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...

, Ford (Shelby),

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Aston Martin Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC () is a British manufacturer of Luxury car, luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Headed from 1947 by David Brown (entrepreneur ...

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, Lotus, Morgan, TVR,

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...

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, and others including some of the fictional in-game manufacturers, and can be enhanced with over 30 add-ons. Game modes include instant play, road challenge, free race, time attack, and cop chase. In cop chase, the player takes the role of the police attempting to arrest the other racers. The game takes advantage of the DS's support for

3D graphics 3D computer graphics, sometimes called CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional computer graphics, are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian) that is stored in the computer for the purposes of perfor ...

, while showing unaccelerated N-Gage's power to match DS's graphics, showing the action from three camera angles. The bottom screen of the DS is utilized to provide strategic tips and player info.

Reception

The N-Gage version received "favorable" reviews, while the DS version received "mixed" reviews, according to video game

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Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

. In Japan, ''

Famitsu , formerly , is a line of Japanese Video game journalism, video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly f ...

'' gave the latter version a score of one six and three sevens for a total of 27 out of 40. It received a runner-up position in ''GameSpot''s 2004 "Best N-Gage Game" award category, losing to '' Colin McRae Rally 2005''.

References

External links