Asphalt: Urban GT 2
The fast and furious street racing game for the N-Gage goes into second gear!

Aaron Gray

It was in 2004 when the Nokia N-Gage received its first racing game, Gameloft’s Asphalt: Urban GT. The game was marked as one of the handheld device’s major racing title for the whole of 2005, until the sequel was announced later that year itself.

Asphalt: Urban GT 2 is that follow-up to the popular and original N-Gage racing game title. It features the same fast-paced gameplay with great sound effects and exceptional 3D graphics on a mobile phone. Game players who’ve played the first game would feel right at home with Asphalt 2 – plus this time around, there are motorbikes to choose from!As I noted in my review of the first Asphalt game, there were some minor issues which could’ve made the game better. The sound of car engines as well as the collision detection is somewhat off in the first incarnation of the game. Thankfully this has been improved in the sequel.

You can earn money in Asphalt 2, which in turn allow you to buy more powerful cars and motorbikes. The car list includes Mercedes-Benz, Lamborghini and Mini Cooper, while the motorbike list has Kawasaki, Triumph and Ducati – and this is just the tip of the iceberg as there are more to unlock as you progress.Graphics-wise, it looks the same. This isn’t a bad thing, as I do believe one should not fix things that are not broken to begin with. And that goes for the racetracks as well. The favourites all return in Asphalt 2, with a handful of new ones being thrown in to give players a lot more variety when racing against the AI or another friend. Harrowing pin-turns, obstacles and police chases are included.

Yes, police chases ala Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit. A new “Wanted” meter can be found on the top left-hand corner of the screen during any race. As it gradually fills up, the police vehicles will also become increasingly bigger and badder to the point where a police chopper would to try and stop your car/motorbike. You will be impounded with a hefty monetary fine should your vehicle crash or stop during one of these chases.

This is where the all-new crash system comes in handy. Unlike the previous game, Asphalt 2 allows players to force other vehicles to crash. This can be achieved by slamming cars and motorbikes from the side or back. You can also hit other vehicles in the traffic (also known as ‘traffic check’) to rack up your money and Wanted meter too. Be careful not to hit oncoming vehicles as you would also crash your own vehicle as well.The only thing you might find absurd with the traffic check is the way cars tend to fly as if they’re made of syrofoam. After a few rounds of playing, I don’t really mind this, but what I do find out of place is the way motorbikes can actually slam against another car and cause them to fly to kingdom come as well! (And the governments wonder why there are so many crazy drivers these days. Well you know – ED)The nitro boost is back, but this time around you can append your first boost with another one to increase speed. To do this, make sure you have enough nitro stocks, which you can store up to nine bars. The maximum amount of boosting you can append is three times.

The highlight of Asphalt 2 comes in the form of playing head-to-head against friends. Up to four players can race against each other through the N-Gage’s Bluetooth connection. You won’t find anything as much fun as playing with another human player, but if you don’t have a racing partner to play with, the single player campaign is still good.I’ve experienced a slight lag whenever the screen was filled with too many details and vehicles. This is probably due to the N-Gage’s limited ability to handle too many processes all at one go. But this shouldn’t deter you from getting Asphalt 2 for your N-Gage as it’s one of the best racing games for the game deck.

If you’ve played the first Asphalt game and loved it to death, you wouldn’t want to miss the sequel!

A little crash and burn did not do Aaron any harm. Issue him a challenge at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it