Asphalt 9: Legends recently released on the Nintendo Switch, and I’ve been putting a little bit (not a lot) of time into it. The reason I say a “little bit” and emphasize it is because that’s what you’re treated to with every event. Underneath all the upgrades, the tokens, the car packs, the credits, the gas cans, and all that other junk is a little snippet of gameplay. The majority of the early events are small point-to-point races that usually only last a minute or two. On its own, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but after that it’s back to the menus and back to digging through all the extraneous bullshit they crammed into this game.
The Asphalt series is developed by Gameloft for mobile devices, using a free-to-play microtransaction based monetization method. It’s wasn’t a secret when it got ported over to Switch that all those layers of mobile crap would come along for the ride; it is a free-to-play game, after all, and it’s designed with limited battery in mind.
But the real travesty here is that it’s fun. I say that ironically, because the gameplay is tight and the graphics are actually pretty damn nice. I want to play this game more. Wait, scratch that. Let me re-phrase this. I want to want to play this more. Because the racing is fun, but it’s mired by all the menus upon menus of bullshit that these types of games are known for. It’s a shame, because quite honestly, this game is the closest to the old-school Burnout games that I’ve played in years (I haven’t played Dangerous Driving 2 yet, though I would really like to).
I would pay for this game. By that I mean that I would pay money, up front, for a racing game this enjoyable. What I won’t do is give them money, only for them to tap me on the shoulder and ask for more later.
I usually don’t bother with mobile games, but I enjoy this one just like I enjoyed Asphalt 8 on my Surface. But Asphalt 8 didn’t quite have the level of BS that Legends piles on. I showed it to my wife, because used to love the Burnout games. I let her play a couple of races and she really liked it… until she went back to the menu and got completely overwhelmed by the amount of shit to wade through. It was an instant turn-off for her. She handed the Switch back to me and was like “Okay, I’m good.” And I understood what she meant by that. I usually say that after about three or four quick events. I’m good.
It’s sad that the gameplay takes a backseat to the menus, because the racing is really fun. I doubt Gameloft will ever consider making a full-fledged retail version of an Asphalt game without all the junk, but one can hope.
Until then, I’ll continue to play Asphalt 9 for five minutes a day.
