In the end, Asphalt 3D is a decent successor to this series on the DS and the 3D graphics look great on Nintendo's new 3DS console. There's plenty of fun and variety to be had in this game, however the sometimes touchy control system does become a thorn in your side because generally a crash means you've lost the race, especially in the last lap.

Asphalt 3D is a arcade-racing game with a lot of cars and locations. The gameplay and the controls are casual and some graphical effects like the crash-animations are funny at best.

Asphalt 3D signals great things to come for the racing genre on the 3DS, although frame-rate issues and silly collisions bring the action down somewhat.

A surprisingly good instalment. Well worth a look if you see it for 20 quid or so. [Apr 2011, p.90]

In the end, Asphalt 3D falls below gamers' expected standards. As far as technical aspects go, the controls are fine, while the sound and graphics have some issues. The gameplay is solid enough, but there are very questionable mechanics in play that either do nothing to the experience or ruin a few good moments. Multiplayer is limited by closing off every other mode but one for play, but at least the game makes good use of the StreetPass feature. For racing fans who have become early adopters of the 3DS handheld, stick with Ridge Racer 3D for your racing fix. If you've already grown tired of that game, then try renting this one to see if you can overcome the flaws and squeeze some enjoyment from the title.

A mixed bag: lots of good ideas mixed with bad execution. I feel that this was a missed opportunity. If the game had a few more months of polish, we could have had two great racing showpieces for the 3DS launch.

This is a decent game which will be liked by those looking for an arcade experience without much complication. Although the game is entertaining and has lots of content, it doesn't ultimately work that well.

Despite appropriating elements from the popular Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Burnout franchises, Asphalt 3D is an unexceptional arcade-racing title. [April 2011, p.86]

At the end of the day fans of this genre might want to give it a whirl to see if it satisfies their need for a handheld racer before making the plunge into purchasing this title.

Asphalt 3D could be a nice alternative to Ridge Racer 3D, but some technical limitations seriously undermined the Gameloft production.

As a mere porting from the iPhone version, it does not offer much challenge to the player with a very simplified gameplay.

An unremarkable but serviceable racer that too often doesn't put its best foot forward. It's a shame it didn't capitalize on its stronger aspects to deliver a more consistently thrilling experience, but even with its flaws, there's some speedy fun to be had on these streets.

On the one hand, Asphalt 3D delivers a rich single player career, a large number of online multiplayer modes and some decent 3D effects; on the other hand, the graphics are poor and suffer from frequent frame drops, while the physics are ugly. Not the racing game we were expecting from Gameloft, definitely.

Asphalt 3D's flaws are mostly minor but there are too many to ignore, and it doesn't have enough of its own personality to make amends. Its twitchy handling does it no favours – half the fun of powersliding is wrestling control back from your car, but here the cars all bounce back to a central position as if spring-loaded.

Asphalt 3D is an extremely poor port that does not utilize any of the capabilities of the 3DS to any good extent.

Visually, Asphalt has decent car models, but suffers from choppy performance, lots of pop-in, laughable animations, and tire marks that float above the road in 3D. It's as if it was made merely to look good in screen shots.

Asphalt 3D is nothing more than a checked box on the Nintendo 3DS launch lineup list. Apart from its genre there's nothing that makes it stand out in the launch library, and within its genre there's nothing that makes it unique. This game is entirely skippable unless you're desperate for a 3D arcade racer, but even then it's best to wait to see what else the 3DS has in store down the road.

It's almost a relief that the game struggling to break free from these severe technical shortcomings is mundane. [May 2011, p.104]

It is a product without identity. Put all the great racing games over the last decade together and this is what you get.

An ok racing game hides under too many big problems.

What's most frustrating is that I know Gameloft can do better than this. Hell, they have done better with Asphalt 6 and even Asphalt 5 -- mobile alternatives that are much cheaper (and more fun) for anyone with an iPhone, iPad, or Android device. In fact, just buy one of those games instead. Even if you just don't want to play Ridge Racer, Asphalt 3D isn't the better option by any stretch.

Quotation forthcoming.

Gameloft has missed the opportunity to capture the racing genre from Day One with Asphalt 3D, offering up a slowdown-riddled identikit experience that will struggle to hold many gamers' attention for the duration.

Launch titles are often rushed and not representative of what the console can really do, but Asphalt is poor even by these lowered standards. Of all the early 3DS games I've played, this one is a dead cert to be filling bargain bins in a few weeks.

Avoid this expensive abomination at all costs.

Occasionally playable, but just mostly horrible. [Issue#108, p.116]

This is the other one - the one that's quite crap. [Apr 2011, p.60]

The worst part is that Asphalt 6 on the iPhone costs $5 and looks and probably plays better than this $40 installment of the series. If you want a racing experience on the 3DS, I hear Ridge Racer is a lot better. Don't waste your time or money with Asphalt 3D.

Offering police pursuit races, takedown-focused bouts, and several other modes doesn't help Asphalt 3D's cause in the least. It's a buggy mess, and the controls are awful enough to make it a chore even when the game is functioning correctly.

The 3DS did not need two Ridge Racer style arcade racers for its launch, least of all one as badly made as this tiresome wannabe.

Truly horrible.

It's a £39.99 inferior remix of a £2.99 iPhone game with bad sound, bad graphics and shockingly slapdash collision logic. Not only is it the worst game of the 3DS' launch line-up, it's a contender for the title of 'worst launch game of all time'. Worse than Pen Pen. Worse than Tama. Worse even than Altered Beast. Do I really need to say it? Avoid.

It appears, at a glance, that Asphalt 3D is an incredibly strong launch title. Local multiplayer, plentiful maps, decent graphics, and fast-paced gameplay should all mix together into something worthwhile. It doesn't take long for everything to fall apart, though, and before long the scratches on the surface turn to full-blown gashes.

The only redeeming quality of the game is the unlockables.

A bad game was bound to be released among all the launch titles of the 3DS. Asphalt 3D, even though its seems comprehensive on paper, can't make us stick to the 3D screen. Its production values are so poor, that it seems like it's been a rushed port from previous versions on low spec hardware. If you want to race in 3D with your 3DS, for the time being, favor Ridge Racer.