I cannot bring myself to play this game. I simply CANNOT. Now, you’d ask, But DeathTrap, isn’t Asphalt your favourite mobile racing series? Yes. Yes, it is. And that’s probably the biggest reason why I don’t feel like playing this game. But, since I have reviewed Airborne and Nitro, I couldn’t have left myself hanging on the tree. So, here’s my perspective on Asphalt 9: Legends.THE PRESENTATION: Asphalt 9: Legends’ biggest problem is that it has some elements that are amazing, but, on the other hand, has some of the most niggling issues a mobile game can have. Legends is graphically the most intense racing game in the Android market. It has stunning visuals, beautifully rendered cars and highly-detailed enviTestingronyents. The menus, however, look messy. It feels that the menus were designed by a 5 year old, and the Races we’re designed by a professional Console game developer. In the audio department, the game excels with top-notch sound effects and a strong soundtrack. However, it is not customizable. You cannot change songs during races, you can’t change the music genre. HELL, you can’t even restart a race from the pause menu. I’ll come back to this later, but these flaws really get in my way of having fun. This issue bleeeeeeeds into every aspect of the game.THE GAMEPLAY: Legends is, just like its predecessors, an arcade racer. You race against other racers ( AI/Human) in scenic race-tracks, drifting, boosting, spinning and barrel-rolling your way to the finish line. You do have other events, like the Escape mode, where you try winning a race while the police try to catch you. The races range from 20-second races to events that last around 2 minutes. Aside from the single-player campaign, there are also single-player events, which are time-limited, and multiplayer races. The racing is smooth, fun and highly addictive.The problem, however, is that some races are WAAAAAY too short to even feel like a race. Even drag races a last longer, or feel like they did last longer, and remember, this game does NOT have any Drag race. WTF Gameloft? Also, let’s talk about the AutoDrive system. Basically, the concept is that AutoDrive. Well, automatically drives your vehicle. You can choose your path by tapping on icons t showing alternate paths. You can brake, drift, spin and boost, but the steering is completely taken care of by the game. I kinda understand this, especially since this opens the game up to a uber-casual audience, but that has no place in a high-octane arcade-racer. The good thing is, of course, that it can be turned off the minute you get into the tutorial. It can be turned on/off at will, so that’s fine.THE F@₹#UP: What ISN’T fine is the need for a constant internet connection. This is especially niggling in a country like India, where the internet isn’t that well-optmised. The game is a data hog, and requires online connectivity even while playing solo, during an ongoing race! I SERIOUSLY don’t understand the purpose of this. I mean, WHYYYYYY? This isn’t an MMO Racing game, neither is it dependent on DRM, since the game is absolutely free. However, one thing that does depend on this is the micro-transactions, cards and the events. The game revolves around collecting cards, or blueprints . You gain cards by winning races, and by unlocking/buying card packs. Once you get a certain amount of cards of a certain car, you can freely unlock them.This is NOT a good concept, and is executed in the WORST way. I mean, you might get lucky and unlock a shiny Ford GT that’s of a higher class, or you may get a card for one of the weakest cars in the game. It’s bad. And, since the premium packs keep changing, they require internet. ASPHALT Cred824ITS also make a return, and are used to purchase card packs. You can get Cred824its by completing challenges, competing n events and multiplayer matches OR by buying them for real-world currency. Gold, the basic in-game currency, is used for upgrading you car, and works just like it did in Airborne. That’s fine.But, what I’m saying is that Gameloft took the wrong step with this card-based system. The events also could have been given offline in batches. Each challenge would display for a day. Once the timing of the events went up, you could’ve just requested the user to connect to the servers to refresh challenges, AT THEIR LEISURE. This is exactly the case in Asphalt 8 and Asphalt Nitro. Was it that hard for you to stick to this? SERIOUSLY? THE VERDICT: And, this is why I hated talking about Asphalt 9: Legends. It has really addictive gameplay, and is a seriously great game, but there are a few MAJOR wrong decisions taken by the developer that keep me from enjoying it. It is the best AND the worst sequel to Asphalt 8: Airborne, all wrapped into one weird package.