I'm not a big sports fan, in real life or on the consoles. But there is one exception: snowboarding titles. I can't get enough of them. 1080 Snowboarding on the N64, SSX on the PS2, SSX Blur on the Wii — I just love them. Sadly, none of the snowboarding games available in the App Store have really been able to do it for me. Compared to SSX on Tour for the PSP, they generally just look fairly weak.

Well, I'm happy to report that, at long last, a quality snowboarding title has landed on the iPhone. X2 Snowboarding [App Store] from Exient is a highly enjoyable romp on the slopes that sets itself apart from the crowd in a number of ways.

The first thing you'll notice about X2 Snowboarding is its stylized graphical presentation. The game features particularly detailed cel-shaded graphics reminiscent of the exceptional Jet Grind Radio for the Dreamcast. They give the game something of a cartoony rather than realistic look, but compared to its App Store contemporaries, it looks just great.

You've got a crowd of six boarders to choose from, each of a different nationality and with highly varied skill sets. Six different venues there are, as well, set in as many countries: USA, Switzerland, Japan, New Zealand, Canada, and Chile. Upon each set of slopes there are three different types of competitions: Freestyle, Race, and Trick-Race. The slopes are impressively long and more varied than one might expect, providing a satisfying chunk of gameplay across the available types of competitions.

Another thing that sets X2 Snowboarding apart is the feel of its controls. Oh, there's nothing unexpected about the configuration, with a combination of tilt and touch controls (that can be customized) — it's more the general feel I'm referring to. Everything just feels a little "looser" than one might expect. But it's not a bad thing, in fact, somehow it feels quite right combined with the game's stylized visuals. And speaking of visuals, a nice instant-replay system lets you see your best moves over and over from various camera angles.

Gameplay is solid and heavy on the tricks. On-screen buttons control jump, speed boost, and "wheelies" which can be used to tie together tricks — and the trick system works great. Once in the air, you can swipe (or tilt, depending on your settings) in any direction to rotate thus, and tap on the left and right board icons that just appeared to perform various grabs. The more tricks you can tie together, the higher your score, the more speed boosts you can trigger, and the better gear you can grab in the shop to tweak your game.

Adding to the experience is a great soundtrack with songs that can be purchased through iTunes. Another feature we're glad to see is local, Bluetooth and WiFi multiplayer — for now — with online multiplayer to come in the game's first update, which will be in the App Store soon.

All of the aspects of X2 Snowboarding come together to deliver a highly enjoyable game with a surprising sense of speed and immersion. I've spent much time with this one so far, and I don't see that trend changing anytime soon. If you're a gamer that likes to tear up the slopes on occasion, do not let this one pass you by.

App Store Link: X2 Snowboarding, $6.99

Like Wolfenstein RPG before it, id Software’s latest venture into the world of Doom has more in common with turn-based dungeon hacks of the 80’s than with the shooter genre from whence it sprang. Don’t get me wrong – there are guns aplenty here – but instead of relying on twitch-fingered accuracy and eagle-eyed precision, Doom II RPG [App Store] shifts the series focus to strategy and exploration. It’s a strange direction for the franchise to explore, but it works.

In each of the 9 levels presented here your goal will be the same; explore your surroundings until you’ve managed to uncover the exit. How you’ll go about that, however, can really differ from level to level. In some instances you’ll need to find hidden keycards. In others you’ll need to power up doorways or use a robot to explore gas-filled rooms. Level design offers up enough variety that things never really begin to feel stale.

The bulk of the gameplay offers up what you’ve come to expect from the Doom franchise – killing demons with big ass guns. Unlike the rest of the series though, you’ll really need to think about which guns to use in which situations and how best to approach your opponents. Sure you could go in guns blazing, but in a turn-based situation with no ability to gain cover you’re just asking to get yourself killed. Little tricks like hiding around a corner after you’ve been spotted to coax an enemy in front of you, or sending in a robot helper to get a good look at a situation before you walk into it, can make all the difference in the world.

Controls are fairly simple and will be instantly familiar to anyone who has played Wolfenstein RPG. You’ll be able to rotate your character 90 degrees in any direction with the aid of an on screen D-pad and sidestep by swiping your finger in the direction you want to move. Weapons can be cycled through by tapping your weapon icon, and shooting is done by tapping the screen. If you want to activate your inventory to restore some health or apply some armor, just tap on the health indicator. Everything is kept incredibly approachable, with every action requiring only a single touch.

Like all Doom games before it, the story here is essentially Aliens meets The Gate. Hell has once again opened up in space – this time on the moon – and you’re part of the team sent to investigate. There’s a good deal of sophomoric humor in the writing, yet I was surprised at the effort that was actually put into making the story interesting and providing the world with some depth. You’ll encounter different survivors that provide key information on what you’ll need to do to advance through a level. Computer terminals are found around the complex with emails open that give insight into the events that unfolded before you arrived. They’ve really done a bang up job of framing the story in a way that will keep you more engaged than you might suspect.

I was also taken aback by how well they managed to keep me on the edge of my seat with anxiety and occasionally jumpy with fear. When you remove the real-time components of a game like this and opt to keep the visuals campy and old school, your expectations in terms of nail-biting excitement are set relatively low. Yet time and time again, the level design would lead me into a situation where I was surrounded by demons with seemingly no way to get out.

The game also managed to have a few cheap carnival-ride thrills. In one instance I walked into an empty bathroom to refill my holy water gun in the toilet. Let me stress again — the room was totally empty. But when I looked in a large mirror on my way to the exit there was a zombie standing right behind me! Sure these are cheap carnie thrills here, but it made me jump nonetheless.

Silliness also manages to sneak its way into the game more often than I’d expect. Shooting a demon with holy water, for example, will make his eyes bug out like a Looney Tunes animation. Searching the corpses of demons will occasionally turn up useless items like human fingers and pocket lint. It’s the sort of stuff that would have made me laugh when I was 12, and for some reason it still manages to illicit a chuckle out of me. This is a game where you can throw toilets at hellspawn — who wouldn’t crack a smile at that?

As you can probably gather from the bulk of this review, Doom II RPG is a game that left me tickled pink from beginning to end. Still, we’d be remiss to not mention the few questionable design decisions that popped up from time to time.

I loved that enemy sprites were cut and paste from 1994, but they looked a little too fuzzy when you got up close. Couldn’t they have been cleaned up just a little for their 2010 re-introduction? Doom II RPG is also in desperate need of an auto-save feature. Each level would take a minimum of 30 minutes to complete, and on more than a few occasions I forgot to save and ended up having to replay huge chunks of the adventure. Also, for a Doom title, the game world is seriously lacking in the satanic scenery found in previous games of the franchise.

Still – with so few complaints, Doom II RPG is a game I enjoyed from beginning to end.

App Store Link: Doom II RPG, $3.99

Lazy 8 Studios (through Chillingo) has just released an iPhone version of their 3D mechanical puzzle game Cogs [App Store]. The iPhone release is an adaptation of their PC original, which is currently a finalist in the IGF 2010 Excellence in Design category.

Cogs is a mechanical puzzler that challenges you to bring to life a series of increasingly complex machines by way of arranging sets of tiles, gears, pipes, and the like in such a way as to connect varying energy sources to their ultimate outlets across 50 different 2.5D and 3D environments. And the whole thing is done up in a lovely steampunk motif (the best cogs are, of course, brass). There are carts to set rolling, balloons to inflate, helicopters to build, and rockets to launch. The sliding tile mechanic makes it feel something like Puzzle on (brass and mahogany) steroids.

Cogs presents you with three different modes of play. Inventor Mode, which is really the core gameplay mode, takes the player through all of the game's 50 puzzles, starting with the easy and moving towards the maniacal. The other two modes are Challenge modes that provide access to any puzzles unlocked in the Inventor Mode and are great for getting off a quick round or two on the go. Time Challenge presents any unlocked puzzle in an easier-to-solve configuration than Inventor mode…but each puzzle must be completed within 30 seconds. Move Challenge mode, in contrast, is all about taking time to decide the most efficient route to a puzzle's solution — each puzzle must be solved in 10 moves in this mode.

Score rankings and achievements are tracked through Chillingo's own Crystal game network.

The game features a well-done touch system that takes the iPhone's screen out of your way and puts you in simple control of these seemingly real objects. It's a simple tap (or swipe) to move a tile — and you can move more than one at a time by tapping on the first tile in a row to move. Two fingers on the screen allows for drag-based rotation of the various puzzle objects. Although the original is a PC title, Cogs was definitely meant for a touchscreen.

Cogs is addicting, brilliant, and frustrating. A casual puzzler, it is not. Oh, the game takes it easy on you for the first few puzzles in order to instill within you a false sense of mechanical mastery. Shortly thereafter, however, the puzzles get downright cruel. You'll discover that the next level, a mere flat board of pipe tiles, has pipe pieces on not one but both sides. Or try your hand at ringing an array of bells in perfect synchronicity with a wildly varying array of hammer cogs to deal with. It's a case of "must…defeat…this…game…" where one might not always call achieving victory "fun," but rather "necessary — for sanity's sake." It can be maddening, but in the loveliest sort of way.

I've spent significant time with various pre-release builds of Cogs over the last few weeks and I can say that it's, at the moment, my favorite iPhone puzzler and one of my very favorite iPhone games in general. I really can't imagine much in the way of a negative that a puzzle fan could posit against this game. But if my praise doesn't convince, grab the free PC demo version and give it a try to get at least a feel for the game.

Cogs is being sold in an interesting way in that you pay as you go, buying incremental packs of ten levels for 99¢ a pop. For the initial 99¢ you get the first ten levels, which basically amounts to the puzzles that make up the Cogs tutorial. Beat that, and the next ten levels are 99¢, beat those and ten more are 99¢, and so on. If you buy the game and all four DLC packs, Cogs will run you $4.95 and should take around 10 hours to complete if you try to beat every challenge in the game.

App Store Link: Cogs, 99¢ (Plus 4 DLC Packs @ 99¢ each)

With the release of Shadow Complex on Xbox Live Arcade last August the genre created (and in the opinion of some, perfected) by Nintendo's Metroid series was revived. In the wake of that game's success, 3G Studios brings us The Deep [App Store], a Metroid-inspired game with a twist; players are thrust into the wet suit of a scuba diver exploring the depths of the oceans.

The Deep opens with the tale of a vacationing scuba diver on a tropical island. Some guy who is permanently stuck in the Captain Morgan pose briefs players with a text-based tutorial, and the scuba diver (who you'll come to find is quite sarcastic) is driven towards a local store where an eccentric store owner awaits with the first quest. Thus begins a pattern that will become quite familiar to players as they progress; there are three different islands in The Deep, and each one contains a single villager and a very unique shop owner, each of whom tout some very strange demands in quest form.

After accepting a quest, players can leave an island and drop out to a large map, where all of the levels that have been unlocked are selectable. Upon selecting a level, the actual gameplay starts and the exploration, light puzzle solving, and Metroid references can begin. Like Metroid, The Deep is all about exploring environments and finding important items that allow access to other parts of the map or give unique abilities to the main character. A large red boulder, for instance, can't be destroyed until a player has collected the level three bomb upgrades, so plenty of secrets are saved for second or even third runs through the many levels and areas in the game.

The scuba diver is controlled via a virtual thumbstick when using the default control scheme, and this works perfectly, unlike the alternative touch-based option. While there are numerous threats to the diver in the form of sharks, deadly swordfish, and giant alien brains (the game gets pretty crazy towards the end), there is no health meter to be monitored during play. Instead, the diver's air tank steadily runs out of air, which can be easily refilled by returning to the surface. Taking damage from the underwater creatures will take off precious seconds from the total timer, so avoiding them is a must if any progress is to be made, as dying will reset all of the progress in a level to the moment the diver entered it last.

In a particularly wise design decision by the developers, each level works as a sort of hub for about three separate areas, each of which is its own contained puzzle. In this way players can generally make it through one area, collect an important item, return to the surface, and then immediately head for the next in-level area. This gives the game a nice pace and makes for a great sense of urgency at all times, as a few mistakes in an area means that the diver will need to be especially quick in order to finish collecting all of the goodies in an area and make it out alive.

The various shops on the three islands offer tons of upgrades which can be purchased with the treasure that can be found so abundantly throughout The Deep's levels. Substantial oxygen tank upgrades, increases in swimming speed, better flashlights for those deeper, dark areas, and better suits to keep the diver from taking much damage from enemy encounters all add up to make a nice reward for finishing a level, as well as provide big incentive to explore areas and collect more gold.

There's something inherently fun about upgrading a character to make them faster or stronger for second runs through levels; I'm sure fans of Hook Champ will attest to this. The Deep successfully delivers that feeling of fun, all the while providing tons of enticing reasons to play more, like the allure of extra hidden gold or sidequests that span multiple levels.

Worthy of special note is the humorous, self-referential dialogue between the characters from the islands and the scuba diver. I laughed out loud on more than one occasion at the well-written quips from the island natives, and I feel that they give the game an extra layer of personality. While no text in the game is voiced, the music is pretty good (although it can be hit or miss at times), but it can't match up with the quality of the art, which is made all the more appealing by the high quality of the animation, especially in regards to the diver.

The Deep is not without fault, although its issues are not major. A little variation in some of the puzzles (which almost exclusively deal with flipping different colored switches to open doors) would have been nice, and I really wish that there was a way to check an individual level's stats to see if any of the hidden collectibles haven't been collected, but these are very small issues when one considers the fact that the game is an absolute blast to play. I do have one strong suggestion for the developers, and that's to change the design of some of the shops (the ones that require you to scroll right a really long ways for no real reason to get to the shop owner). That's just annoying.

All of my complaints against The Deep are absolutely trivial when I look back and consider the amount of fun that I derived from playing through the game. Unique level designs, the pleasant art, and that addictive, upgrade-focused exploratory gameplay kept me captive for hours. The comparison might be a slight stretch due to the fact that the levels are in no way interconnected, but I feel that fans of great games like Super Metroid or Shadow Complex will absolutely fall in love with this game. This is a hidden gem that should not be kept a secret.

App Store Link: The Deep, $3.99

When Driver [App Store] was originally released for the Playstation and PC way back in 1999, it was heralded by critics as a genuinely fun, challenging racing game. With the intense cop-chases, gang-centric story, and open-world exploration, Driver could be most easily described as "Grand Theft Auto without the on-foot parts." Flash forward to 2009, and Gameloft has just released their updated version of the game for the iPhone and iPod Touch via the App Store. Are slightly improved graphics, the addition of a much more tolerable difficulty level, and well-thought-out controls enough to make Driver a viable purchase for gamers, even 10 years later?

In Driver, you play as Tanner, a detective from New York who has been assigned a dangerous task: going undercover with the gangs that make up the criminal underbelly of New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco. The "Undercover" mode serves as the single player campaign in the game and consists of about 40 missions. Missions do a good job of providing some decent variety in their structure; one minute you'll be attempting to keep up with a speedboat as it makes for an island hideout, the next you'll find yourself ramming into restaurants with the goal of busting up their glass fronts.

Driver isn't all about the story mode. There are numerous minigames, referred to as "Driving Games," on the game's main menu. In "Pursuit" you'll be tasked with chasing down another vehicle and dealing enough damage to take them out as quickly as possible. In "Getaway" you'll switch roles, attempting to evade and lose the trail of the police. Other minigames failed to catch my interest, like "Cross Town Checkpoint" or "Trailblazer", the latter of which involves randomly driving around knocking down 100 traffic cones.

Despite the weak first half of the "Driving Games" list, the second half of the minigame collection is much better and includes several fun games, my favorite of which being "Survival" mode. In Survival, players are brutally attacked by an unending legion of cop cars. The utmost skill in evasion techniques will be required in order to even stand a chance at lasting over a minute in this mode, and it makes for an extremely compacted session of what I consider to be the best parts of Driver. I also loved "Dirt Track" (a rally-style time trial game) and "Carnage" (an extremely fun mode that's very similar to the "crash" mode in the Burnout series).

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It's been a long four months since we first got word that Namco would be bringing Pac-Man Championship Edition to the iPhone, but at long last, it has arrived.

Pac-Man Championship Edition was developed by the original Pac-Man designer Tōru Iwatani and released for the Xbox 360 through the Xbox Live Arcade in mid-2007, to rave reviews. Joystiq called it "the first true sequel to Pac-Man since Mrs. Pac-Man." The Xbox Live version features high-definition graphics, surround sound, and a wonderful future-retro feel that brings to mind Geometry Wars.

Unlike the original Pac-Man, all mazes and playmodes in Pac-Man C.E. are set against a timer. The goal is to score as many points as possible within the allotted time. But there's a balance to be struck in order to unlock consecutive levels and move through the game as the game speeds up the better you are doing. For example, I had a hard time moving past the Challenge level of the game because I was gobbling power-pellets and going too aggressively after ghosts early on. My score jumped so high so fast that the action became too fast to handle and I couldn't actually make it to zero on the clock — and the only way to unlock the next maze is to successfully ride out the timer.

Each maze is basically divided into two halves, left and right. When you eat all the dots on one half, a bonus item (fruit) appears on the opposite side of the maze. Once eaten, the opposite (empty) side of the maze gets re-filled with dots, and so on. To drive the pace of the action, the arrangement of dots laid down upon eating a fruit, as the timer approaches zero, may change. In fact, the actual layout of the maze on a given side may change, as well.

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From the very beginnings of games on the iPhone, back even before the App Store even existed, it has seemed like labyrinth games were a natural fit for the tilt controls of the device. There are too many games to list that share the core gameplay element of rolling a ball around a maze, and before playing Labyrinth 2 [App Store] I thought there was little room to innovate on such a crowded genre with seemingly endless variations on the same basic game. Illusion Labs has proven me wrong, as Labyrinth 2 is absolutely fantastic

From our detailed preview of the game:

Like the original game, the goal of Labyrinth 2 is to get the silver ball from the starting point to the goal while navigating walls and avoiding the holes. In the first version, that was pretty much all there was to it. Labyrinth 2, however, adds a number of new elements that graduate the game from simple wooden toy simulator to arcade game.

These elements include cannons, bumpers, doors/switches, magnets, fans, resizers, merry-go-round, duplicators, lasers and more. Navigating the levels still require careful tilt control to avoid falling to your death, but are also more puzzle/goal driven as you must also figure out how to make it to the exit. Levels are timed as before so beating your individual high scores remains the motivator to play a level again. This time, however, they've added a ghost ball representation of your best time for you to directly compete against.

My favorite part of Labyrinth 2 is the online level editor, available at levelpack.com where players can create their own levels which are then downloaded in game. The few included levels themselves are good, but pale in comparison to what the community has already created. In my time with the game I've really enjoyed myself going online each day and downloading the new level packs that other players have created. (Forum member MidianGTX has even started a thread for discussing level creation on our forum, as well as creating the Touch Arcade level seen above.)

The creativity so far has been astounding, and now that the game is out in the wild I can't wait to see what the player base comes up with. If you've enjoyed labyrinth games in the past, Labyrinth 2 is a must-own. If you want to sample some of the great things in Labyrinth 2, as we posted previously, you can play 5 levels from the sequel in the recently updated original Labyrinth [$2.99] and Labyrinth Lite [Free].

App Store Link: Labyrinth 2, $4.99

Update: App is back.

When I Dig It was released this summer, I downloaded the game and enjoyed it, but had a feeling the game might be just a little too niche to have much widespread appeal. I turned out to be amazingly incorrect, as the game was both somewhat of a sensation on our forums, and spent a surprising amount of time at the top of the App Store sales charts. If you were one of the many people who enjoyed I Dig It, you will be happy to know that I Dig It Expeditions [App Store] takes the same popular formula of the original and improves upon it in nearly every way imaginable.

In the first game, you played as a farmer who was down on his luck and was just mere hours away from getting his farm taken by the bank when he decided to outfit his tractor as a digger and go hunting for subterranean treasures beneath his homestead. The sequel assumes that you successfully paid the bank back, and have decided to travel the world with your digger seeking even more exotic underground treasures.

I Dig It Expeditions shares the same virtual joystick controls as the original to control your digger's movement along with a series of new buttons that allow you to access all the new goodies. My favorite addition is an in-game map and waypoint system, which has made the game much more fun to play as getting lost in your series of tunnels and running out of gas is a thing of the past.

Another substantial improvement is a complete overhaul to the inventory system in game, along with a whole bundle of new consumable items to buy. These items take space in your digger, and you must intelligently manage how many of these consumables you carry while still leaving enough room left over for the various things you will dig up in order for the trip below to be profitable.

Consumables range from all kinds of different explosives to things which have an effect on your digger itself such as boosting the power of your radar temporarily or repairing a small amount of hull damage. And of course just like the original, with enough money you can upgrade nearly every aspect of the digger.

As mentioned previously, the gimmick of I Dig It Expeditions is that you're taking your digger on a worldwide journey, and some of the locales will require further modifications of your digger. For instance, there's a level where you go digging in an underwater trench, and instead of managing your fuel and heat levels, you need to keep an eye on your oxygen and water pressure gauges.

Each level has a distinct look and feel to it, and each level can either be played in expedition, free play, and money or points challenge. In expedition mode, you follow what could be best described as a basic quest system which will have you looking for certain locations, items, or other objectives. Free play is self explanatory, and while doing money or points challenges you see how quickly you can reach the goals for each level.

The graphics and sound in the game are even more impressive than the original, and the amount of style on even the most seemingly insignificant user interface elements really exhibits how much time and effort went in to this game. For instance, the new map system could have been as simple as just a basic set of lines showing your path, but instead the map screen is animated with visual effects to make it look like you're viewing your path on an old green screened oscilloscope.

If you enjoyed the original, there is absolutely no reason to not pick up the sequel. They took everything about the original, freshened it up, and repackaged it in to something that feels like an entirely new game instead of just an expansion of the first. Of course, if you never played I Dig It, I recommend giving the free lite version a try. It's obviously lacking the upgrades and improvements found in the sequel, but it will give you a good idea of what the core gameplay is like.

If you want to know more about I Dig It Expeditions, check out the thread in our forums and be sure to listen to next week's podcast where we will discuss the past, present, and future of the world of I Dig It with the game's developers.

App Store Link: I Dig It Expeditions, $2.99

In a surprise move, Activision has released Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies for the iPhone. This first person shooter is a Zombie survival mode adapted from the console version of the massively popular Call of Duty game. This Zombie mode was an unlockable mode in the console version and pits you against endless waves of Zombie invaders breaking down barriers as you try to defend your position by rebuilding barricades and upgrading your weaponry.

The iPhone version of the game includes one map "Nacht der Untoten" but Activision promises an add-on purchase for The Zombie Asylum, Verrückt in the near future. The game comes with both single player and multi-player Co-op modes that supports bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Online play. Yep, Online play. That means you can match up with 3 other players around the world and play together to defend your building. The gameplay video below shows some of this in action.

The game comes with three sets of controls: dual-stick, tilt, and swipe look. Both touch controls are usable though people seem to be preferring the dual-stick option over swipe-look due to the sensitivity of the latter.

The game begins with you in a house with boarded up windows. Waves of zombies slowly start attacking and you need to defend against their attacks. Windows are repaired with the press of a button, though having your attention split across the different entrances is a challenge. The ramp up is rather slow, but soon you'll have trouble surviving the oncoming hoard of zombies. As you kill zombies, you earn coins which can be used to buy better weapons which are found throughout the structure.

Online multiplayer works quite well and you can get quickly matched with others looking to play. Your co-players are seen running around the structure blasting zombies and repairing the base. Unfortunately there's no way to communicate with your partners during the game itself, but still, we were impressed by the inclusion of an online option (shown in the video above).

While the game is limited to one survival map at the moment, it's hard not to be impressed with the overall adaptation to the iPhone, especially with online Co-op play.

App Store Link: Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies, $9.99

In the debate of the best racers on the iPhone platform, titles such as Real Racing and Need for Speed: Undercover are likely to come up. You may want to add one more to the debate — Gameloft’s newly released Asphalt 5 is simply an adrenaline rush in your pocket. On the fun meter, Asphalt 5 definitely delivers with strong sense of speed. But, while the game delivers a solid overall racing experience with a good amount of content and responsive controls, the graphics and animation do keep it a notch below the others.

On that note, the first thing that hits you is the graphics. Even though they may not be the smoothest (on a 2G iPod) on the platform, they do pop off the screen, which makes a difference when you’re careening through tracks and dealing with oncoming traffic from all sides. Framerate aside, even though you may not be focused on the details, Gameloft obviously has. Whether racing through snow-covered freeways, mud soaked roads, or the darkness of night, the details are everywhere. From the signs on storefronts to damage on vehicles, Gameloft has definitely spent a good deal of development creating an arcade experience with good degree of visuals. The perky soundtrack is a keeper, although you can play your own music if you’re into something a little more gut wrenching.

The objective of Asphalt 5 is simple: win races and earn money to soup up your ride. Of course, you’ll face a variety of obstacles including oncoming traffic, innocent bystanders, and police in addition to varying weather conditions such as snow and rain. This can all be experienced through 3 different camera angles: close, far and bumper. Bumper provides a driver’s seat view which can be quite intense with every bump and crash.

The game takes you through 12 different locations including Aspen, St. Tropez, Athens and Las Vegas. The well-designed tracks offer different terrains and environmental conditions, and most importantly, shortcuts. These shortcuts, which can be seen on the mini-map, are a good addition allowing players the option of sticking to the standard track or risking it by taking a shorter yet tighter path. In some cases, these shortcuts are the only way to succeed especially in the time-sensitive races.

Asphalt 5 has three game modes: Single Race, Career and Local/Online Multiplayer. For many, Single Race will be the first taste of Asphalt 5 which provides a quick multi-lap race through the track of your choosing. While Single Race provides a good setting to practice driving skills, winning doesn’t unlock new tracks or earn money.

Online multiplayer provides a number of options which includes competing against up to six players in a single race. In our brief time with the game, the online experience was smooth with minimal performance issues, and joining or hosting a race is relatively easy.

Meanwhile, Career is the guts of Asphalt 5, and where winning matters. Whether unlocking tracks, picking up women, or earning money, Career is where you do it facing 8 different racing events. And once tracks are unlocked in Career, they become available in Single Race.

With a variety of challenging racing events (time trial, cop chase, escape, drift and more), Asphalt 5 has 33 licensed cars and motorcycles potentially at your disposal. From Lamborghinis and Ferraris to Ducatis and Kawasakis, winning races and earning cash will give you access to many of these vehicles for a price. The default vehicles are the Mini Cooper S and Nissan 370Z, and all vehicles are stored in the Garage section. If you want to cut through all that, playing online through Gameloft Live will provide full access to all the vehicles for competing against others or in individual time trials.

Cash can be used to upgrade vehicles in three areas: engine, handling and boost. And you’ll find there are numerous other ways to customize your vehicle. For example, paint jobs can be altered using the color slider and decals can be applied. Earning cash goes beyond winning races although that’s a big part of it. Cash is also earned by collecting tokens on the roadway, near misses with other vehicles, drifting, jumping, and eliminations.

Asphalt 5 provides a responsive set of controls, and in general, the handling is highly accurate. The game consists of three types of controls: wheel, screen tap, and accelerometer. Choosing the accelerometer controls allows you to turn on/off auto acceleration. Of the three, the accelerometer feels the most natural with screen tapping the most awkward. With auto acceleration turned off, a brake pad appears, although I rarely used my brakes except when wanting score style points for drifting.

Gameplay video from Japanese version recorded by AppBank:

When it comes to gameplay, Asphalt 5 does what it’s supposed to do—provide a good sense of speed. The different race types certainly offer variety, and a replay function is included at the end of each race to review the race, although replays can’t be saved. The AI in Asphalt 5 feels well balanced providing enough aggressive driving to keep it interesting but not overdoing it either to make it impossible. The controls make steering and handling relatively easy, and most won’t have issues picking them up. The game is fairly forgiving when it comes to crashing into objects, however, crashing into oncoming traffic tends to have more severe consequences by stalling your momentum and losing position in the race.

Overall, Asphalt 5 definitely delivers on the fun meter. The controls and content really makes this a racer accessible to everyone. Aside from the middling (though acceptable) framerate on earlier generation devices, Asphalt 5 is solid arcade racer with quality graphics. With a variety of different races, a relatively balanced AI, online multiplayer and a great feeling of speed, Asphalt 5 comes highly recommended.

App Store Link: Asphalt 5, $6.99