Asphalt: Urban GT [DS]

Asphalt: Urban GT feels rather familiar from the outset, as it incorporates racing elements from established big-console games -- no bad thing when your evident influences are in the ranks of Need for Speed Underground and its ilk. Better-looking (and certainly presented in better aspect ratio) than its Nokia N-Gage precursor, the DS incarnation has good looks and an admirable sense of speed. But the overall racing-game paint-job is still somewhat marred by numerous little dings and scratches.

The game offers 25 high-end vehicles of all sorts (with makes/models including Jaguar, Audi, the Lamborghini Diablo GTR, Volkswagen, Shelby GT500, Nissan, Lotus, Aston Martin, and even Hummers), along with some 30 tuning, bodywork, and engine options. As its pedigree might suggest, this is mobile racing for the Fast and the Furious set. The racetracks are urban circuits based in -- or at least based on -- Miami, New York, Paris, Hong Kong, and everybody's favorite locale to flee at high speed, Cuba.

Urban GT is impressive on the visual front, with a dependable, convincing framerate (complete with shake-cam effect when boosting) and evocative courses that nicely represent their respective locales. Meanwhile, the lower screen of the DS is devoted to a live map that shows the track and the positions of opponents -- not a terribly "inventive" use of the DS's oddball hardware, perhaps, but a feature that any racing game could benefit from. Also, it's a good way to anticipate and maximize turbo usage. In all other respects, the lower screen is devoted to uninspired menu-acreage.

Mechanically, you've navigated this urban jungle before -- gas, break, boost, and d-pad steering -- also no bad thing in this arcade-slanted racer. Pulling off drifts or showy near-collisions racks up additional nitrous for your tanks. Collision is a dicey business here, however; some track objects have no substance or reaction to interaction, some are destroyed but yield no resistance, and those that happen to be other cars are often unfairly skewed to the player's detriment.

Arcade modes include instant-race, free race, road challenges, time attack, and cop chase. Instant mode is the industry-standard, random-car-and-track; free race offers a single competition on any given track; time attack is a self-explanatory race against time; and the cop chase lets you pursue a group of fleeing vehicles against a timer. Say what you like about the frustrations of keeping targets lined up long enough to "properly" pull them over -- it's challenging. Evolution mode is the career mode analog, with a home garage, available new cars, and lots of upgrades.

Wireless multiplayer lets up to four other players join in individual races, or series of races in championship mode. Also playable wirelessly -- although strictly for two players, for obvious reasons -- is the cop chase mode. Alas, these games lack the ambient traffic, such as it is. Also, a goofy game balancing oversight puts no limits on pitting, say, a Lamborghini against a lumbering Hummer.

For every few strides Asphalt: Urban GT takes, it seems to stumble once. In the end, it's serviceable, very good-looking, but by no means an outstanding portable racer.