Thanks for recognizing the story, Arn - so glad I could help out both of your pages. You do great work, and you are more than deserving of some sleep - get off! Go!

This App does look great, and it'll probably end up getting my $10 soon enough. Time will tell.

Well, I have downloaded the game and played it for a bit. The graphics go WAY beyond anything I have seen on the iphone so far. I didn't know the iphone was capable of such good graphics. I found the control setting options a little confusing, but it turns out you can set it to use the accelerometer for steering, acceleration, etc., like other racing games. I haven't played it enough to really rate the gameplay, except to say that there are some neat crashes, the car can "catch air", and the detail is just great. I'm really amazed they are only charging $10 for this game. This is one of the very few games I have seen on the iphone that appear to have been written by more than one or two people. This blows nitro kart away, which, until now, had been the best looking game I had seen on the iphone.

The problem I have is that I already purchased GTS World Racing and have enjoyed it for about an hour or so. Now, I couldn't care less about the game and I don't know if I should spend another $10 on racing game for the iPhone. I feel like I should like this game but $10 is a little too much just to find out if I'd like it at all (I'd like to see a one track, one car, demo version of the game for free just to see if I'd like it.

The way I see it, I could easily spend more than £5.99($9.99) on a pizza any night of the week, a few beers etc, so I have no issues paying for stuff it it's decent, I'll wait for a Touch Arcade video(those have been invaluable in my decision making) first though, which will tell me all I need to know prior to any purchase.

@Michael: I don't know if it makes any difference, but having played both games now, I can say beyond the shadow of a doubt that A4 is LIGHT YEARS ahead of GTSWR.

Nice graphics, indeed. We will spend some time with this one and post a review.

@MilesO'Toole: The iPhone is quite a capable platform.

Spent my $10. This game is in the quality level of say Grand Turismo and its on my phone. How nsane is that? Well worth EVERY penny.

Is anyone else impressed (well maybe that's not the right word) that this game allows the phone to be used in either landscape orientation (home=right or home=left) ... ? I find it annoying that most apps which require landscape orientation force home=right, because when I hold the phone that way, my hand blocks the speaker! Just a little pet peeve, I guess - but I really like that I can flip the iPhone over with A4, so I can actually hear the sound for once.

got it played for like 3 hours I have to say graphics are amazing but after 3 hours of solid nonstop gameplay still can't match nitro kart. And I had to star charging my iPhone after like 30 ~40 mins.
A good game, can see why but again not an innovative game.
Graphics : 10
Sound: 8/9
Gameplay: 6 (could be 7/8 but haven't played multiplayer with wifi so can't rate)
Controls: 7 (was confusing at first, have to get used to it)

I was waiting for the day I was going to get addicted an iPod Touch/iPhone game (other than MotionX Poker)...

This is it.

No forced BS tilt controls, I largely prefer tapping slight to the left and right to steer, the graphics are nothing short of amazing and the gameplay is so vast - car upgrades, good progression with regular unlocks.

This is the first "traditional game" to really get it right and not seem like a forced implementation for the (unusual) platform.

Love it, recommend it wholeheartedly.

For those who think this costs too much: The prequels of this game were available on the Nintendo DS and the N-Gage. They cost full price on both consoles (I guess around 30-40 bucks in the US). 10 bucks for this game is like free + a rounding error.

@mavis - thanks for the link.

@michael - This is a console-quality game with a real budget, NOT a quickie amateur product like much of the stuff in the app store. I would put the graphics on par with a PS2, but not quite the first xbox. There are 20+ cars, all officially licensed (BMW, nissan, etc.), with tons of unlockable customizations, like the kinds of tires, the kinds of cylinders, the kinds of air filters, brakes, and tons of other things that I just can't guess how they impact the game. But, the real selling point for me is just the amount of detail in the level design, something that is completely missing in GTS. If you're worried about price, think of it as spending $18 on this game, with that other game tossed in for free. You're still getting a bargain, I think.

92.8 MB??!!! Damn. It looks sweet but that's a helluvalotta space for one app. I don't mind the price at all - what I'm not sure I can afford is the space!

After buying and actually playing the game, I must say that it has some serious framerate/stuttering issues. For a car racing game, that is bad news. I would say to avoid this one until they fix the stuttering framerate and speed...

I echo all the above. I'll also agree that they need to optimize it's performance more. I hope they can, otherwise a few things will become clear:
1: The iPhone is maxed out, and a lessening of the detail is all that can be done to improve the frame rate.

2: The iPhone is not as powerful as we thought. I have OutRun 2006 running on the PSP next to me here, and it's at least twice as detailed and runs at a much smoother clip then Asphalt 4.

I think that iPhone games will continue to look better contantly like every popular game system. Carmack (Id) said it's better than psp. We'll see.