Asphalt Legends

Genre: Arcade Racing

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

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

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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+

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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

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The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

Asphalt Legends

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 to Asphalt Legends Unite and then simply Asphalt Legends.)

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

After Disney Speedstorm received a free patch to upgrade the visuals and performance on Nintendo Switch 2, I thought it might be interesting to look at Gameloft’s other free-to-play Racing game on Nintendo Switch and see how it fares on the Nintendo Switch 2. With Asphalt Legends having not received a patch, I expected something of a gap between the performance changes the two games got, but I didn’t expect it to be this drastic.

Checking the loading times, this is a rare example of a game that fares worse in some ways on Nintendo Switch 2. Where the game took 37 seconds to load into the main menu on Nintendo Switch, it oddly takes 41 seconds on Nintendo Switch 2. Loading into an actual match is better, cutting down Nintendo Switch’s 11 seconds into 7 on Nintendo Switch 2 (depending on the internet connection), however, this is fairly minimal.

Don’t expect a graphics or performance boost here either. In fact, if anything this game looks worse on Nintendo Switch 2, due to more prominent aliasing that really hurts the game’s otherwise slick look.

Long story short, I don’t know why, but I would actually say that playing Asphalt Legends on Nintendo Switch 2 is actually not as good an experience as playing the game on the original Nintendo Switch. It is still playable, and has all the benefits and flaws I mentioned in the original review of the game, but with the changes to loading times being negligible or even worse in some cases, and the visuals looking a bit uglier, it definitely seems like Gameloft needs to work on patching this game on Nintendo Switch 2 like they did with Disney Speedstorm. When that happens, I’ll give this another look, but until then this is a game best left to the original Nintendo Switch.

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

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