Asphalt Legends

Genre: Arcade Racing

Players: 1-4 Competitive (Local Split-Screen), 2-8 Competitive (Online)

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

.

Review:

(Note: After the original review under the title Asphalt 9: Legends, this game has had its title changed to Asphalt Legends Unite and then simply to Asphalt Legends.)

WARNING: THIS GAME HEAVILY PUSHES MICROTRANSACTIONS AND LOOTBOXES, AND USES WAIT MECHANICS

Asphalt 9: Legends is a Free-To-Play Arcade Racing game that presents a mix of the sublime and the detestable. On the one hand, I’m just going to cut right to it – this game uses all of the worst tactics to try to push players into paying for microtransactions. On the other hand, this is an absolute top-notch racing game. And where your opinion is on the former is going to affect how much you can enjoy the latter.

So, let’s get the ugly stuff out of the way first: Asphalt 9: Legends uses damn near every trick in the sleazy microtransaction book. There are multiple forms of currency here (all for sale for real dollars on their store front), new cars are not only unlocked using lootboxes, but you don’t unlock them directly – instead, you get “blueprints” that need to be collected like McDonalds Monopoly stickers you need enough of to win the prize. And on top of that, each of the game’s cars uses “fuel” that is expended in each race and requires players to wait to use that car again after a certain number of races… unless you want to pony up the dough to refuel the car sooner.

Okay, now if your head is spinning, let me dial things back just a bit. For starters, the game is free and they have to get their money somewhere, and I tend to go easier on free-to-play games that use these mechanics than I do on full-price games that use them. On top of that, while the game definitely wants you to spend cash, it’s actually not all that bad to play through it without spending a cent. Having multiple cars means that when one runs out of fuel you can swap to another, and it’s fairly easy to earn cars through the game’s campaign (no lootboxes required). Plus, progress in the campaign can also refuel your cars, and there’s an argument to be made that the refueling mechanic works to encourage players to play all their cars, not just one or two favorites.

Also, it bears mention that once you unlock the game’s splitscreen multiplayer mode and a few cars to play with, you don’t have to deal with any microtransactions to enjoy it, and it’s an absolute blast.

All told, this game does have a nasty microtransaction situation going on, I won’t lie… but it’s one players can work around if they want to enjoy the game itself. And if you can, wow, there’s a pretty amazing game here.

Visually, this game is sublime, with incredibly detailed environments, a great presentation, and wonderfully smooth framerates (except in four-player splitscreen, where the framerates aren’t quite as good, but still decent). Honestly, it’s shocking that a small developer best known for smartphone games created something with graphics that look nearly on-par with the best offerings of AAA publishers.

As for the gameplay, Asphalt 9 plays something like the Burnout games, with bits of SSX and F-Zero thrown in for good measure. The game has a very fast-paced, arcadey feel to it, and the challenge of racing in this game is to alternate between doing tricks and boosting. Tricks include drifting, getting air time, smashing other cars, or putting your car into a 360 spin attack a la the F-Zero games. Players need to alternate between tricks and boosts to remain competitive in races, and also keep an eye out for shortcuts on the branching tracks (some of which are inventive enough that it reminds me of the San Francisco Rush series that was built around the concept).

In short, Asphalt 9: Legends combines some of the best elements of some of the best arcade-style racers of years past, and the result is something truly fun.

I kinda’ wish Asphalt 9: Legends was released as just a normal “pay up front” game, because it’s unfortunate that the gross microtransactions will undoubtedly drive some players away. However, unless you have addiction problems, or kids who can’t be trusted not to make purchases on your Switch, I’d argue that all of the microtransaction BS can be worked around, and if you can, you really should give this game a try, because under all that BS is one of the best racing games on the platform. After all, it’s free to download, so what have you got to lose?

tl;dr – Asphalt 9: Legends is a Free-To-Play Arcade Racer that’s bogged down by all sorts of nasty microtransactions, which is a shame because the game underneath all of that is one of the best racing games on the Switch. I’d argue that the microtransactions can be worked around, and since the game is free to play, you should definitely at least give it a try – on balance, I’d argue that the game is definitely worth the hassle.

Grade: B+

.

This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2019 Game Awards:

Winner:

Most Underrated – For this award, I’m referring to the game’s Metascore on Metacritic, with a focus on games that were much better than that score would imply. Asphalt Legends 9 currently has a Metascore of 61, and it deserves way better than that. The game’s microtransactions are certainly ugly, I won’t dispute that. However, they’re also easily avoided, and the actual game itself is phenomenal. I routinely dock points from games for their aggressive microtransactions, so when I tell you that this free game is absolutely worth looking past its microtransactions to play it, you should at least give it a try.

Best Driving/Racing Game – There will undoubtedly be some people who are stunned by this choice, but I don’t care – I had more fun with this game than all of the other 2019 racing games combined. While the microtransactions here do mar the experience somewhat, it doesn’t bring down the experience enough to change that this is still a spectacular racing game that looks great, plays great, and is a high-speed thrill rush that will keep you coming back.

Runner-Up: Best Graphics, Worst Microtransactions

.

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

Asphalt Legends – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

Genre: Arcade Racing

Players: 1-4 Competitive (Local Split-Screen), 2-8 Competitive (Online)

.

Review:

(Note: After the original review, this game has had its title changed from Asphalt 9: Legends to Asphalt Legends Unite and then simply Asphalt Legends.)

WARNING: THIS GAME HEAVILY PUSHES MICROTRANSACTIONS AND LOOTBOXES, AND USES WAIT MECHANICS

After checking out the performance of this game on Nintendo Switch 2 last year, the folks at developer Gameloft have apparently decided to release a proper Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of the game. There’s a free upgrade for folks who previously downloaded the Nintendo Switch version of the game, but for new players this is free-to-play anyway, so either way you can get started for free.

Since the last update of the game, loading times have changed slightly on the original Nintendo Switch, but not much – it now takes 35 seconds to load up the game on the original Nintendo Switch (two seconds faster), and 12 seconds to load into a race (one second slower). Now, I was disappointed with loading times playing the game on Nintendo Switch 2 last time I tested the game, with those times being 41 seconds and 7 seconds, respectively. However, in this proper Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, that first long loading time has been cut back down to a mere 26 seconds, while loading into a race still only takes 7. Much better!

I also complained about the lack of visual improvement on Nintendo Switch 2, and here there’s definitely been a change as well, with the resolution bumped up to 1440p in docked mode, 1080p in handheld mode, all while keeping the game’s smooth 60FPS framerates. This change is absolutely noticeable – that aliasing I complained about in my previous look at the game is pretty much gone now, and everything looks smooth as silk.

This Nintendo Switch 2 Edition also boasts “enhanced visual effects” and… I honestly can’t really tell what that means here. I do notice that loading screens still look laughably low-resolution, and there are a few visual effects carried over from the Nintendo Switch version that look a bit low-resolution as well, but overall this game looked fantastic on Nintendo Switch, and it looks fantastic on Nintendo Switch 2.

Quite simply, this Nintendo Switch 2 Edition addresses all of my complaints about the lack of improvements to the game just playing the Nintendo Switch version on Nintendo Switch 2. It takes a slick-looking Racing game and does a great job bringing it up to Nintendo Switch 2 standards. If you’re looking for a free Racing Game to add to your Nintendo Switch 2 game library (and if you’re not put off by the heavy monetization), you should absolutely download Asphalt Legends – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition.

tl;dr – Asphalt Legends is a Free-To-Play Arcade Racer that’s bogged down by all sorts of nasty microtransactions, which is a shame because the game underneath all of that is one of the best racing games on the Switch, and now one that looks even better on Nintendo Switch 2. I’d argue that the microtransactions can be worked around, and since the game is free to play, you should definitely at least give it a try – on balance, I’d argue that the game is definitely worth the hassle.

Grade: B+

.

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}