Video Game / Asphalt

Series logo as first used in Asphalt 9: Legends.

A long-running series of mobile arcade racing games by Gameloft, Asphalt can be best described as a Spiritual Successor to OutRun but with elements of Need for Speed, Burnout and Cruis'n mixed in, which in the early years of mobile gaming filled the void back when major AAA racing franchises such as Need for Speed were yet to have a mobile installment.

First released in 2004 with Asphalt Urban GT for the Nintendo DS and N-Gage, with simplified versions developed for Java ME-capable cellphones, the series puts emphasis on fast-paced arcade racing set in various exotic locales across the world all while evading the authorities or performing stunts.

Each game puts players behind the wheel of licensed sports cars, from entry-level models such as the Dodge Dart GT, to supercars like the Bugatti Veyron, and even concept cars such as Mercedes-Benz's Biome design study. And as with its main inspirations, most games feature police chases where you either evade law enforcement units, which increase in presence and strength as the pursuit escalates even further (gauged through a wanted level meter not unlike the heat gauge in NFS and wanted levels in Grand Theft Auto), or play as a law enforcement unit going after street racers. This mechanic was however dropped in later games in favour of stunt jumps and aerobatic manoeuvres, though police pursuits did make a return in Asphalt Overdrive, Asphalt Nitro and Legends.

Besides the main entries in the series, a number of spin-offs were also released. These include games exclusive to portable consoles such as Asphalt 3D for the Nintendo 3DS^note In actuality a direct conversion of Asphalt 6: Adrenaline and Asphalt: Injection for the Play Station Vita, and games such as Asphalt Overdrive, an Endless Running Game in the vein of Temple Run and Subway Surfers set in an "80s-style"^note As in 1980s-inspired but still taking place in the present day rendition of Southern California, Asphalt Xtreme, an off-road racing game, Asphalt Nitro, a low-end version of Asphalt 8 for entry-level mobile devices, and the drag racing game Asphalt Street Storm.

The Asphalt series is also one of the first mobile games to be played competitively, with Asphalt 3: Street Rules being one of the featured titles in the World Cyber Games.

---

This series provides examples of:

• The Alleged Car: The Elite system in 8, engine oil in Xtreme, and engine damage in Streetstorm. All three limit how much each model can be driven before requiring maintenance and imposing a performance penalty.
• Allegedly Free Game: The more recent entries in the series lean towards this business model, where you're compelled into buying a car pack or currency to progress, which is no small expense. Made even more egregious with the ludicrously shorter sprint races in 9, along with the fact that you need "fuel" points, blueprints and card packs, all of them being Gameloft's efforts to coax the player into coughing up real-world cash and advance through the game. Another thing is that even the paid Nintendo Switch release is filled to the brim with this and is thus identical to the free-to-play version, at most only offering a cache of coins and blueprints to those who paid upfront, with the rest being locked away unless you either pay for it or grind your way through. All versions of the game, except for the Nintendo Switch and Steam version of 9 along with the subscription version (see below) also features full-screen third party advertisements, either to increase in-game rewards or being put randomly in game while navigating menus.
  • Especially egregious in 8 with the original Pro Kit upgrades. It was common for newly released cars to either require an engine card that was of a lower rarity but require a much larger quantity of it (the regular V8 card instead of Forced-Induction V8), use one that was of a higher rarity while still somewhat matching the car's actual engine (the i6 card instead of a Hybrid for the BMW 3.0 CSL Hommage), or add a new engine card that is only used in the new car (the Lamborghini Centenario which used V12 MPI cards instead of the regular V12 card).
  • Both the BMW 3.0 CSL and Lamborghini Centenario were also launched with upgrades that could only be bought with the game's premium currency that had a total cost in the five figures. Saving up the premium currency without paying any money required weeks or months of watching ads and participating in events. Having to drop that much just on one car was criticized by the community.
  • The current system in 8 still requires exorbitant upgrade costs even with the number of upgrade cards being cut down. A single car now requires two currencies with a sum that is in the millions and seven different cards in the hundreds.
  • Averted with Asphalt 8+ and the Netflix republished Asphalt Extreme. Both however requires active Apple Arcade (exclusive to Apple devices) and Netflix (also supports Android) subscription, respectively.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Time-limited events in 8 have featured avatar outfits as the final reward for leaderboard rankings.
• Artistic License – Cars: While an arcade racing series that is by no means beholden to realism, the placement of some cars can't be justified by anything other than the game's business model.
  • In 8, the Lamborghini Reventón Roadster is a Class S car. It's mechanically based on the Lamborghini Murcielago LP 640 which is also in the game but as a Class B car. ^note Class S is the fastest while Class B is the third fastest
• Artistic License – Physics: Being an arcade racer, Asphalt is bound to loosely adhere to the laws of physics. There's no way one could drive a Veyron through a curved ramp at over 200 miles an hour, perform a barrel roll, and land on the street in a road-worthy state, let alone unscathed.^note It is possible to land a barrel roll in a car, assuming this is done in a controlled environment and by a trained professional; needless to say, attempting to do a similar stunt in Real Life would reward you a trashed car and some serious physical injuries to boot.
• Anti Poop-Socking: A message telling you to take breaks in on the loading screen of 9 and before the loading screen in 8/8+
• Big Applesauce: Particularly on the first two games, Urban GT and Urban GT 2, as well as in Elite Racing.
• The Bus Came Back: Motorcycles in 8. The last entry to have motorcycles was 6 and 8 didn't get it until 2017, 6 years after 6 was released in 2010.
• Car Fu: In many entries you can throw around other cars and even smash them to pieces, which is called a "Knockdown".
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: The shortcut barriers in Xtreme. They are colored green if the player is driving a truck or monster truck as they can smash through it, but is red and can't be broken for all other vehicle types.
• Color-Coded Item Tiers: 9 has sky blue for Uncommon, magenta for Rare, and gold for Epic.
• Cool Bike: Motorcycles have been included in the games since Urban GT.
• Cool Car: Loads and loads of exotic and prototype cars abound, though some are sadly locked away through a paywall.
• Death from Above: Landing on a car from above is a guaranteed wreck in several titles, such as Airborne onward.
• Defunct Online Video Games: Many mobile-only entries have fallen prey to this trope, being permanently delisted from app stores and having all online functionality removed. A few more recent examples include:
  • Streetstorm, which was taken off sale on December 31st, 2020, with its online functionality later removed at some point before August 5th of the following year.
  • Xtreme, which was shut down on Octber 8th, 2021. It was re-released in 2022 exclusively for Netflix subscribers and rebalanced so it doesn't rely on ads and in-app purchases, both of which were removed.
  • Overdrive, which was retired in February 2015 (just five months after its launch in September 2014) and its servers were shut down at some point between March and May 2020.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Urban GT feels very different from the later titles. There are no money or nitro pickups (the nitrous meter refills passively when not in use), no police, and no knockdowns. The general gameplay is on the arcade-ish side but isn't quite as over-the-top as subsequent entries in the series, feeling more like a straightforward Need for Speed clone than anything.
• Eiffel Tower Effect: It wouldn't be Paris, New York or San Francisco without the Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty or the Golden Gate Bridge especially on the 2D/J2ME versions of the game where there's not much in the way of scenery apart from flat-shaded polygonal models and a backdrop of the city in question.
• Endless Running Game: Asphalt Overdrive, in a noted departure from the traditional racing modes of the main series. Though unlike Temple Run and many others it was more akin to Pepsiman in that there is an end goal as well as a plot (about revenge against the main character's ex-girlfriend for betraying the main character) rather than an infinitely-long course to drive on.
• Explosive Overclocking: Nitro usage is this in-universe for 8. In test 20 of the BMW 3.0 CSL Hommage's Research & Development event, this is mentioned:
  Game: ... Whoa there, tiger. No nitrous this time: Can't take wind resistance measurements with you setting your engine on fire every thirty seconds. Go again!
  • The Overclock booster in Xtreme leans into this but the explosive part doesn't occur at all.
• Fanservice: Starting with Urban GT 2 up until Elite Racing, where ladies in scantly-clad or suggestive outfits and poses greet and seduce the player into selecting them. While it is somewhat justified in Elite Racing as the girls do provide ingame benefits such as lower police presence, the second game was however criticised for its use of the Pussycat Dolls^note Who were themselves no stranger to controversy for their sexualised image as a useless sex-driven marketing tool with no actual bearing on gameplay—they were simply there to strike a pose in loading screens, and ironically enough, none of their music was featured in the game at all, making their appearance even more pointless.
• Fauxrrari: Averted despite the large amount of Burnout-esque destruction inflicted on the cars.
  • Played straight in Urban GT with the Concept Cars manufacturer (or whenever a fictitious manufacturer is in play), which are clearly based on real-life models.
  • The Lenovo K860-exclusive Android port of Injection replaces the Audi R8 GT and Enzo Ferrari with generic versions of said cars complete with livery promoting both Lenovo and the Exynos 4412 Quad system-on-chip used by the K860.
  • Subverted with the inclusion of cars from the German manufacturer RUF Automobile, whose cars were based off Porsche models but are otherwise manufactured using their own parts. Video game developers obtained licenses from RUF to work around the exclusive license EA got with Porsche since the year 2000. RUFs and other Porsche-like cars were eventually removed in Asphalt 8 when they finally obtained the license to use Porsche models.
  • Played straight in 8 with the Gangstar Vegas Ramona. As Gang$tar is Gameloft's copy of Grand Theft Auto, the cars in that series are also based on real-life models.
  • Played straight in Xtreme with the Lynx and Gharial branded vehicles which were made specifically for the game but still take inspiration from real-life models.
• Gameplay Automation: 9 introduces "Touchdrive" mode, where all the player has to do is to use nitrous and swipe left and right to determine the path.
• Giant Mook: Some levels of 9's Hunted mode, where you outrun police cruisers on your way through the course, sees you joined by large police SUVs, and on occasion, gargantuan riot-control APCs.
  • Monster truck and truck class opponents in Xtreme. Their size makes it impossible to get a knockdown on them if the player isn't driving one.
• Guest Fighter:
  • From Gran Turismo series, GT by Citröen, and two Vision Gran Turismo cars from Infiniti and Bugatti, in 8. The GT by Citröen also appears in 9.
  • Hot Wheels in an update of 8.
  • Gameloft's own Gang$tar in 8 with the Ramona car and Jason avatar.
  • hololive in an update of 9, featuring Sakura Miko and Himemori Luna.
• Improbably Cool Car: Rule of Cool dictates that several models in Xtreme which have little to no off-road capabilities in real-life, are lightly modified to fit in the game.
  • The MAN TGX D38 and Mercedes-AMG C63 in Xtreme. Both are built / modified for road racing yet appear in a game centered on off-road racing.
• Long-Runners: First started in 2004 with the release of Asphalt Urban GT, and has seen annual releases until 9 in 2018.
• Loophole Abuse: Multiplayer matchmaking in 8. The opponents the player is paired with is only based on the performance rating of their car, not its actual performance. Combined with the release of various cars ^note Shelby Cobra 427 S/C, ED Design Torq, Renault DeZir, Ford F-150, Mercedes-Benz SLK 55 AMG Special Edition, Audi R8 e-tron Special Edition and the Chevrolet 2016 Camaro SS that had massive gains in top speed or nitro boost and Tuning Kit boost but retained a low rank if no other upgrades were applied, this let to a Curb-Stomp Battle against other cars that weren't tunable in the same way. This was eventually fixed with revised rank gains on upgrades and standardized performance potential for all new and current cars.
• Loot Boxes: Card packs in 8 and 9. And you need to collect a certain number of them to unlock the cars for use. For the cards of cars you already own, you collect them to upgrade the car past certain thresholds.
• Mighty Glacier: The monster trucks and trucks in Xtreme. Their size allows them to get a knockdown more easily than the other vehicle types, can smash through otherwise impervious barriers for a shortcut, and do not lose speed when driving over rough terrain.
  • The speed-tuned cars in 8 that exploit the game's matchmaking. They lack acceleration or handling but have immense top speed to make up for the slow start and longer route choices.
• Nitro Boost: A frequent feature, though the specifics of its implementations have varied from game-to-game. Urban GT used a segmented system that required charging individual canisters of nitro to use in bursts, though more recent titles have opted for more flexible nitro use.
• Pimped-Out Car: Early titles had mild customization until Streetstorm and 9.
  • Streetstorm allows the player to choose what color, decals, wheels, and underglow their car has.
  • 8 has it in the form of Special Edition cars. These come pre-customized and feature a wide body kit, custom wheels, a livery, and faster performance over the original model. The livery is based on a cultural event around the time the car is released (usually Lunar New Year or the 4th of July).
  • On some models, 9 allows the player to choose custom body parts for the bumpers, side skirt, roof, hood, tire sidewall and window tint.
  • All of the models in Xtreme have brightly colored liveries and most are also modeled with additional spare tires or fuel cans, supplies that would be needed for off-road racing.
• Player Character: Player avatars in 8. They appear in the garage alongside the vehicle and in cutscenes before and after a race.
  • Prior to the February 2023 update, motorcycles and open-top cars had their own avatar in a motorcycle or racing suit with a helmet and shoes / boots. The suit's primary color was tied to the vehicle's color.
• Press X to Die: If you're using Touchdrive in 9's Hunted mode, one of the buttons that shows up at the very end of the course directs your car to the police barricade at the end of the level, at which point you'll crash into the barrier and immediately fail.
• Purple Is Powerful: In 9, double-tapping the Nitro Boost button with a full nitro tank performs a Shockwave, a very powerful boost for a shorter amount of time, and wreathes your car with glowing magenta Speed Stripes.
• Rubber-Band A.I.: If your performance level is below the requirements in 8 and 9, every other racer will be ruthlessly this.
• Scenery Porn: One of the selling points of the series is the lavishly detailed vehicles and environments for a smartphone game. 9 in particular was praised at launch for having graphics almost on par with then-contemporary home consoles.
• Shout-Out:
  • One of the layouts for racing in New York City in 9 is titled "Friendly Neighborhood", a reference to Spider-Man. Fittingly, the race begins with the cars careening off of a rooftop and onto the street.
  • In Urban GT 2, one of the customisations available to the Nissan R34 Skyline GT-R is a silver paintjob with blue decals similar to Brian's Skyline from 2 Fast 2 Furious.
• Show Within a Show: The cover-pictures for the Credits Heist and other Daily Events in 9 are formatted as made-up Summer Blockbuster posters, with the event's car featured front and center. Look closely, however, and you'll see placeholder text where proper names should be, such as "MOVIE TITLE", "NAME SURNAME", "PRODUCTION DESIGNER", and "PRODUCER".
• Super Title 64 Advance: Asphalt 3D for the Nintendo 3DS.
• Super Prototype: Prototype racing vehicles and concept cars tend to make up the majority of the fastest cars in almost every Asphalt game, capable of trouncing almost the entire roster beneath them.
• Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors:
  • The nitro system in 8, Xtreme, and 9. The player can choose from multiple levels of nitro boost that vary in strength and duration. Longer boosts mean a weaker boost while the strongest are the shortest.
    • All three games also have a "Perfect Nitro" where the player gets the strongest boost and middle-level duration in exchange for waiting to activate the nitro at a specific point.
  • The seven vehicle classes in Xtreme:
    • Buggies excel in acceleration and agility.
    • SUVs are the Jack of All Stats.
    • Pickups are Made of Iron in dealing knockdowns.
    • Muscle cars are Difficult, but Awesome with short nitro boosts but high top speed.
    • Rally cars excel in nitro recharging.
    • Monster trucks are the easiest in getting knockdowns and gain the most nitro from it.
    • Trucks have the best nitro duration and can't be stopped by other vehicle types.
• Tamer and Chaster: Since Asphalt 7: Heat, Fanservice, or even the presence of any visible human beings in-game except for drivers wearing unmarked full-body racing suits, has been omitted.
• Time Trial: A regular occurrence in Airborne+ through the online Events system, while also making appearances in Airborne through Championships every so often.
  • Also included as a standard mode across many Asphalt titles.
• Updated Re-release:
  • Airborne+ is this to Airborne, an Apple Arcade title that removes all of the Allegedly Free Game elements from Airborne.
  • The Netflix version of Xtreme also removes the Allegedly Free Game elements present in the original release of the game.
• Virtual Paper Doll: The player's avatar in 8 allows you to choose which head, torso, pants, gloves, and shoes they wear. While most belong in a set, the player is free to mix items from multiple sets.
• Visual Pun: Two of the Osaka tracks from 9 count: "Budding Start" has the start/finish line in the sakura park section, while "Refined Finish" places it instead near a refinery.
• Wacky Racing: More like an international cannonball run with power-ups and stunt jumps.
  • Airborne takes it even further with tracks on other planets and in space.
  • Xtreme has its own selection of wild offroad tracks and vehicles converted to monster trucks, with many different vehicle classes sharing the tracks at once.
• Wolverine Publicity: The Pussycat Dolls in Urban GT 2. Bizarrely enough, none of their music was featured in the game at all.
• Xtreme Kool Letterz: In the title of Xtreme.

---