{"id":101434,"date":"2019-10-07T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/asphalt_9_legends"},"modified":"2019-10-07T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-07T17:00:00","slug":"review-asphalt-9-legends-likeable-burnout-style-racing-action-if-you-play-the-right-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/10\/07\/review-asphalt-9-legends-likeable-burnout-style-racing-action-if-you-play-the-right-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Asphalt 9: Legends &#8211; Likeable Burnout-Style Racing Action, If You Play The Right Way"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/asphalt_9_legends\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/asphalt_9_legends\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div id>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Asphalt 9: Legends Review - Screenshot 1 of 6\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/99915\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/99915\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Asphalt 9: Legends Review - Screenshot 1 of 6\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>The <strong>Asphalt<\/strong> series actually started off on Nintendo, many moons ago. It launched on the DS in 2004 as <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/ds\/asphalt_urban_gt\">Asphalt: Urban GT<\/a><\/strong>, got a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/ds\/asphalt_2_urban_gt\">sequel<\/a> and then headed off to (what was then) the new and exciting world of mobile gaming, leaving Nintendo behind. Other than a brief return for the launch of the 3DS with <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/3ds\/asphalt_3d\">Asphalt 3D<\/a><\/strong>, the series has mainly been associated with mobile gaming for well more than a decade now. And now it\u2019s back.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/asphalt_9_legends\">Asphalt 9: Legends<\/a><\/strong> is a Switch port of the latest game in the series, which was released on mobile platforms back in July. Given that there\u2019s still no sign of a new <strong>Ridge Racer<\/strong> game from Bandai Namco, Asphalt 9 could be the best alternative available for fans of arcade-style racing, but given that its entire structure is still based around mobile gaming \u2013 and all the nonsense that comes with that \u2013 it sometimes feels like it\u2019s trying its best to annoy you.<\/p>\n<p>Asphalt 9: Legends is free-to-start, gifting you a single car and starting you off on the extremely lengthy Career mode. As you progress through this mode, taking on the 71 separate themed events \u2013 each of which can sometimes have up to 10 individual races \u2013 the aim is to slowly build a collection of cars by collecting the blueprints that are awarded to you after each race. Or, of course, you could just pay real money to speed the process up.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Asphalt 9: Legends Review - Screenshot 2 of 6\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/99912\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/99912\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Asphalt 9: Legends Review - Screenshot 2 of 6\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>As you progress there\u2019s a constant urge to upgrade: your car will only be powerful enough for the first couple of events, but can be upgraded to increase its \u2018rank\u2019 (which is a score defining how powerful it is). Before each race you\u2019ll be given a recommended rank, which essentially tells you how powerful the rest of the cars in the race are going to be, so it\u2019s generally in your best interests to make sure you have at least one car in your garage that can meet that recommendation. Otherwise, it\u2019s upgrade time.<\/p>\n<p>Naturally, this costs in-game currency. Upgrades are bought through credits, which are earned through normal racing, but of course, if you run out of credits you can always top them up with tokens, which can be bought with real money. Much like other mobile games with a premium currency, it\u2019s the usual routine here: \u00a31.99 for a negligible 40 tokens (which you can\u2019t really do much with) to a buttock-clenching \u00a399.99 for 3000 of the sods: these are the \u201cbest value\u201d, as the game takes pleasure in informing you.<\/p>\n<p>Each car in your garage has a set amount of \u2018fuel\u2019. Each time you start a race, the fuel count goes down by one, and once it runs out, you can\u2019t use that car for a while until a timer runs down. It\u2019s basically an energy system like the sort of thing you\u2019d get in <strong>Candy Crush<\/strong> (or <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/mobile\/dr_mario_world\">Dr. Mario<\/a><\/strong>, if you want a more Nintendo-themed reference). The better your car, the longer the timer, so you can\u2019t just pick your strongest car every time and plough through every low-ranking event.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Asphalt 9: Legends Review - Screenshot 3 of 6\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/99916\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/99916\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Asphalt 9: Legends Review - Screenshot 3 of 6\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>If you want new cars outside of the ones you get in Career, the \u2018best\u2019 way to do this is buy card packs (again, using tokens). They\u2019re loot boxes, essentially, and you don\u2019t get full cars from them: you only get a few \u2018blueprints\u2019 for a specific car. You need a certain number of blueprints before the car is unlocked, which means you\u2019ll need to get numerous packs containing the same car. If you want the Lamborghini Centenario, for example, you need 40 blueprints to unlock it at a 1-star class. It can go up to five stars but you\u2019ll need to get more blueprints each time. In other words, it\u2019ll take you an <em>obscene<\/em> amount of time (and probably money) to end up with a fully-upgraded one.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a reason we\u2019ve started this review by covering off all the free-to-play nonsense right off the bat: it\u2019s a filter to make sure you\u2019re still on board. The reality is that there\u2019s actually a very entertaining racing game here, but you have to be the sort of player who\u2019s willing to accept that this is still a mobile game at its core and so brings with it all the guff you\u2019d expect from a typical free-to-play game on iOS or Android.<\/p>\n<p>Once you actually get onto the road, what you get is a fun arcade-style racer with impressive levels of carnage. There are plenty of occasions where debris flies across the road, bits of scenery fall apart and the like, and when you crash your car there\u2019s a fun damage system where large chunks of the bodywork crunch, smash or fall off accordingly. Pulling off tricks will increase a boost meter, and while boosting you can bump into enemies to trigger a slow-motion takedown that forces a crash. At times it feels \u2013 dare we say it \u2013 like a more flexible but less stable version of a <strong>Burnout<\/strong> game.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Asphalt 9: Legends Review - Screenshot 4 of 6\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/99914\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/99914\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Asphalt 9: Legends Review - Screenshot 4 of 6\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>We say more flexible because pretty much every circuit in the game has a bunch of alternative routes that you can take, rather than a straightforward track. Keep an eye on the map to look out for upcoming diversions and you\u2019ll find yourself going offroad, slipping through underground car parks, leaping off ramps onto bridges overhead and the like. It\u2019s hugely entertaining and also allows Asphalt 9: Legends to feature an interesting new control scheme called \u2018touchdrive\u2019. This applies automatic acceleration and handles the steering too, and the player is simply asked which route to take (while also controlling braking and nitro). It\u2019s far too simple for regular gamers, but brilliant for young kids and non-gamers.<\/p>\n<p>As for &#8216;less stable&#8217;, well, the frame rate is all over the shop here. Asphalt 9: Legends targets 60 frames per second but it really only consistently hits that during Time Trial races when there isn\u2019t a lot going on. Add some other cars and all the crashes, particle effects and debris that come with that and the result is a frame rate that\u2019s <em>hugely<\/em> inconsistent. We fully appreciate that arcade-style racers are always best when they run at 60fps, but considering this comes nowhere near it, we wonder if locking things at 30fps would have been a better move rather than something this wildly erratic.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Asphalt 9: Legends Review - Screenshot 5 of 6\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/99910\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/99910\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Asphalt 9: Legends Review - Screenshot 5 of 6\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>It\u2019s frustrating, because the more we write this review the more we can predict the comments saying it \u201cdoesn\u2019t read like\u201d the score we\u2019ve given Asphalt 9: Legends. We could go on with the criticisms: some of the races are far too short, the limited-time daily events are too difficult for newcomers, the menu system is a complete UI nightmare if you aren\u2019t using a touchscreen (the cursor rarely goes where you expect it to when you move it with buttons or the stick). In almost every area, Asphalt 9: Legends underwhelms.<\/p>\n<p>And yet, the one area in which it very much overachieves is by far the most important one: <em>on the road.<\/em> Once you\u2019re past all the nonsense and are actually power-sliding into speed boosts, ploughing opponents into barriers, hitting angled jumps and barrel-rolling over fences into alternate paths, it\u2019s <em>ridiculously<\/em> good fun. Take into account how long the Career mode is \u2013 you\u2019re easily talking well over 100 hours, and that\u2019s if you\u2019re really good and don\u2019t have to replay any races \u2013 and there\u2019s a lot of fun to be had here.<\/p>\n<p>Our advice is this: download the base game, which is free and gives you one car. If you decide you agree with us and feel the racing makes it worth putting up with all the mobile rubbish, there\u2019s a single purchase we recommend and nothing else. The Starting Racer Pack DLC costs \u00a319.99 and gives you 200,000 credits, 300 tokens and \u2013 most importantly \u2013 five more cars right away.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Asphalt 9: Legends Review - Screenshot 6 of 6\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/99917\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/99917\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Asphalt 9: Legends Review - Screenshot 6 of 6\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>The ability to switch between a bunch of different cars from the start pretty much eliminates the chance of refuel timers stopping you from playing, and 200,000 credits will be more than enough to upgrade all six of your cars fairly heavily to ensure they\u2019re suitable for a large chunk of the Career mode. Given that \u00a319.99 is still cheaper than most full-price racing games, the fact it essentially kills off a lot of the free-to-play stuff that would otherwise hinder your enjoyment of the game makes it a worthwhile price to pay (unlike the standalone tokens, which you should <em>never<\/em> buy).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"conclusion\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>Asphalt 9: Legends is a free and surprisingly fun arcade racing game with mobile microtransaction free-to-play gubbins that could potentially ruin the experience for you, unless you\u2019ve played enough mobile games to know how to ignore it. The reasonably priced Starting Racer Pack significantly lessens their impact, making it feel more like a \u2018normal\u2019 premium product, so if you try the free version and enjoy it, this \u2013 and this alone \u2013 is the sole purchase you should consider.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Asphalt series actually started off on Nintendo, many moons ago. It launched on the DS in 2004 as Asphalt: Urban GT, got a sequel and then headed off to (what was then) the new and exciting world of mobile gaming, leaving Nintendo behind. Other than a brief return for the launch of the 3DS [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}