Gameloft's Asphalt 8: Airborne arrives for Windows Phone 8 as a non-Xbox racer

Good news for those of you are who racing fans as Gameloft’s Asphalt 8: Airborne is now available for Windows Phone 8 devices. The bad news is it’s a massive 819 MB to download, meaning you’ll need even more to install. The worse news is the game is not an Xbox Live title, as Gameloft has evidently decided to eschew Microsoft’s rigorous certification.

The upside to being a non-Xbox Live title is that Gameloft can update and tweak the game as often as they want, and presumably they will. The other upside is this massive racer only costs $0.99 and yes, there is a free trial as well.

So what is Asphalt 8: Airborne? It’s a relatively new title to the Asphalt series, only launching on Android and iOS back in August. While that’s a three month delay between those platforms and Windows Phone, that is considerably less time that previous games, especially for Gameloft. Of course it did just drop in price to free on Android, but hey, we’ll take what we can get.

The game is fueled by a new graphics engine and features airborne stunt moves, bringing a new twist to the series. Indeed, as can be seen from the teaser trailer above, the graphics are nothing short of stunning. Other than that, the game packs a huge amount of gameplay, locations and cars.

Asphalt 8: Airborne

LUXURY DREAM CARS

  • 47 high-performance cars (80% of them NEW!)
  • Top licensed manufacturers like Lamborghini & Ferrari
  • Newly recorded high-fidelity car motor sounds for realistic audio immersion

GET AIRBORNE

  • Hit the ramps and take the race above
  • Perform barrel rolls and wild 360º jumps
  • Maneuver through the air, pulling stunts while racing

Asphalt 8: Airborne

NEW EXOTIC LOCATIONS

  • Race in 9 different settings like Venice, Guiana & the Nevada Desert!
  • Discover plenty of hidden shortcuts

NEW FEATURES FOR SPEED FREAKS

  • 8 seasons & 180 events in Career mode
  • A detailed damage system
  • Check out the new Infected and Drift Gate game modes

SIMULTANEOUS MULTIPLAYER & GHOST CHALLENGES

  • Simultaneous multiplayer action for up to 8 real opponents!
  • Dare friends to asynchronous races
  • New leaderboards

MUSIC TO REV YOUR SOUL

  • A heart-thumping mix of amazing licensed music for your game
  • Featuring real tracks from Bloc Party, Mutemath & The Crystal Method!

Maybe they’re just hyping their own game a bit, but to our eyes that seems like quite the game, especially for $1.

We’re still downloading the massive game, as 819 MB can take some time even or Wi-Fi, so we can’t give any first impressions—we’ll leave those until later. For now, you can head to the Store here and download Asphalt 8: Airborne. 99 cents, free trial Windows Phone 8 only.

Also available for Windows 8 devices--Read more!

Thanks, Jason D., for the tip!

Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.