THE STORY

Asphalt has gone airborne for the eighth game in the series, as the focus is switched from congested city streets to turbo-charged aerial stunts that even the Fast and Furious team would consider unrealistic.

THE EXPERIENCE

For all the careful attention that's been paid to the graphics of Asphalt 8 this is a game that gets pretty silly, pretty quickly. That's not necessarily a fault, but if you're looking for a realistic driving simulator then this isn't it. While the developer has made the effort to reproduce fully-licensed models from luxury manufacturers, the game is just as much about smashing them up as it is admiring the paintwork. You start with a very respectable if modest Audi R8, before winning races to afford the more expensive models from Bugatti and Lamborghini. The driving itself is as simple as tilting your smartphone or tablet from side to side, while tapping one side of the screen will break and drift, and the other side will give you a boost of nitrous gas. This is where you can pick-up your speed and fly off ramps at precarious angles – ultimately landing on two wheels or in the path of an oncoming bus depending on how skilful lucky you are behind the wheel. To it's credit, this makes Asphalt a fairly difficult game to master. Perhaps we're just not very good drivers, but we found ourselves wrecking more cars than we managed to get across the finish line in first place. The main game is complete with beautiful level design from real cities and landscapes, with over 180 different races to unlock in career mode and a multiplayer option to really put those skills to the test. [Not a valid template]

THE BOTTOM LINE

In Gameloft's great-looking racer you'll spend just as much time in the air as you do on the asphalt – but you'll have a lot of fun doing it.

Additional information

Current version: varies with device Requires Android: varies with device