GAME
OF THE
DAY

Conquer the streets in this amazing racer.

Asphalt 9: Legends

Car Simulator: Drive & Drift

View

Nine games and several spin-offs in, you’d fully expect Gameloft to be pretty good at creating slick, spectacular arcade racers by now. With Asphalt 9: Legends, it has mastered the art.

Everything in this game has been polished up to a dazzling shine. The cars look beautiful, the scenery is sumptuous and even the little details – the camerawork, lighting and particle effects – are hugely impressive. If you ever wanted to show a pal the graphical power of your iPhone or iPad, this is the game to shove under their nose.

You can count on a new Asphalt game to push the graphical boundaries.

The races themselves are broken up into quick, easily digestible dashes to the finish line. Your supercar accelerates and steers all by itself, leaving you in charge of drifting, triggering nitros and switching paths to drive down each track’s optimum route. There’s even a “spin attack”-type move you can use to smash up nearby rivals.

So even without steering there’s more than enough to worry about. But players still keen to steer themselves can do so by toggling off the Touchdrive option before a race. We wouldn’t advise it, to be honest; when we did, we found out very quickly what a smashed up BMW Z4 looks like.

Legends is a world tour in your pocket, from Scotland to San Francisco.

Drifting, driving over collectibles and pulling off daring moves earns you more nitro, so Legends is constantly daring you to drive in an ever-more-spectacular fashion. It’s thrilling stuff; you’ll dash through the streets of San Francisco, plough across the Himalayas’ snowy vistas and rocket around Scotland’s rainy ruins at frankly ludicrous speeds, pulling stunts every few seconds.

And of course, the more you play, the more new toys you unlock. Clubs allow you to join a gang of other drivers, opening up chat, leaderboards and additional rewards for reaching certain group milestones. And then there are multiplayer races and limited-time events to tackle.

With its multitude of tracks, cars, playstyles and customisation options, Legends is as comprehensive an arcade racer as you can imagine; Gameloft’s mastery of this genre is surely beyond doubt.