Asphalt 3D

Genre: Arcade Racing

Players: 1-6 Competitive (Local Wireless), StreetPass Supported

.

Review:

Asphalt 3D, released alongside Nintendo 3DS when it launched in 2011, is an Arcade-style Racing game that is a port of the mobile game Asphalt 6: Adrenaline, first released a few months prior in 2010 on mobile devices and later ported to PC in 2011. This game has players racing real-world cars in real-world locations, with physics that… well, don’t even attempt to resemble anything from the real world.

I’ve had a soft spot for the Asphalt series since it first started on the Nintendo DS, as you can probably tell from My Review of Asphalt 9: Legends for Nintendo Switch. I’ve compared these games to the Burnout franchise, in that this is an over-the-top Arcade-style racer where players earn boost by driving dangerously and doing tricks, and can slam into other racers to win races. And without much else like it on the Nintendo 3DS, this could have been a must-have for those who purchased the platform. Unfortunately, two major issues pretty much trounced that possibility right from the start.

Firstly, graphics and performance. Asphalt is a good-looking game, and even touts some nice-looking lighting and textures, and this modern presentation is backed by some good sound design and a nice techno-inspired sound track. However, while the game does occasionally impress visually, it is just as frequently jarringly ugly, with some blocky-looking vehicles and scenery. However, the real problem with the game’s visuals is the abysmally low framerates, giving the game a choppy look that’s absolutely what you don’t want in a racing game.

The gameplay is at least enjoyable, with multiple different race types, and the aforementioned fun trick-boost system. Unfortunately, there those nasty framerates I mentioned before come back to bite the game, because the game is so fast-paced that it’s far too easy to miss something vital with the choppy visuals, and this is compounded by a HUD that can get in the way at times too.

However, I did mention another major issue this game faced, and that is that it is virtually impossible to ignore that right alongside this game at the launch of the Nintendo 3DS was the excellent Ridge Racer 3D, which features a similar style of gameplay to Asphalt 3D, but suffers from none of the problems of this game. Ridge Racer 3D is a much better-looking game, it has better performance, and as a result it plays better too.

I do enjoy Asphalt 3D, and think that other reviewers have been overly harsh on the game… but it’s not hard to see why they would be. Not only does Asphalt 3D suffer from some nasty graphical and performance issues that directly affect the gameplay, but it was released right alongside a much, much better game that doesn’t suffer from these issues. If you want a great Arcade-style Racing game on Nintendo 3DS, you have one in the form of Ridge Racer 3D… and unfortunately, the issues Asphalt 3D has means that there’s very little reason to get this game when that game exists.

tl;dr – Asphalt 3D is an Arcade-style Racing game featuring real cars and locations with unrealistic arcade-style physics, where players drive dangerously and do tricks to fuel their boost meter. It’s a fun Racing game, but unfortunately it suffers from nasty graphics and performance issues that affect the gameplay, and it’s hard to ignore the fact that Ridge Racer 3D released on the exact same day, providing a very similar gameplay style, but without all of the issues this game suffers from. As a result, despite that I do still think this is an enjoyable game, I also can’t recommend it when you’re much better off just getting Ridge Racer 3D.

Grade: C

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Andy Miller, Exlene, Homer Simpin, Johannes, Talissa, Eli Goodman, Francis Obst, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Ilya Zverev, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}